How WSP’s Digital Flood Management Tool is Safeguarding Communities

With climate change posing the potential for more frequent and costly weather events, adaptation measures are critical for reducing future economic losses. Cutting-edge digital tools are enabling communities to see substantial impacts flood mitigation solutions can provide.

WSP developed FloodVue^TM, an augmented reality tool, to help communities and landowners visualize flood scenarios and create an immersive picture of severe weather impacts before they occur. FloodVue is changing flood risk communication and highlighting the benefits of adaptation.

“With many factors and trade-offs at play, we are empowering clients with the data they need to make smarter, more resilient decisions,” said Andy Clevenger, global water sector lead for WSP. “This advanced digital model is successfully bridging the gap between the need for critical flood mitigation and the justification to procure essential funding for sustainable infrastructure investment.”

One of the most visible aspects of a changing climate is the increase in extreme weather events, including heavier downpours, higher storm surges and more intense tropical storms. As record-breaking flooding events become more frequent, adapting the built environment to withstand a more volatile climate is fundamental to building greater levels of sustainability and resilience in the cities and communities where we live and work.

According to the World Resources Institute, the number of people impacted by flooding will more than double within the next decade, and it is anticipated that the current economic loss due to riverine flooding will triple by 2030 to roughly $500 billion annually.

Prediction models show that every dollar spent to make infrastructure disaster-resilient preemptively saves $4 in reconstruction costs later.

Bringing Flood Risk to Life

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the ability to visualize multiple data sources and flood flow details using a four-dimensional (4D) model — which incorporates velocity and intensity, multiple storm event elevations, historical storm elevations, flood mitigation scenarios and high-water mark locations — is proving to be worth a thousand pictures.

“Communicating flood risk through traditional two-dimensional (2D) maps fails to resonate with stakeholders as deeply as photos depicting severe flood damage in the aftermath of a storm event,” Clevenger said. “This can make community buy-in to procure necessary funding and select the most impactful flood mitigation projects challenging.”

In the flood-prone Midwestern U.S., FloodVue is being used to create conceptual mitigation alternatives for multiple communities. The 4D visualizations make impacts personal to stakeholders.

“At WSP, our application development team is ecstatic to be working on such a cutting-edge tool that will bring a new way of communicating flood risk to our communities,” said Dan Gwartney, GIS manager and lead geospatial scientist at WSP. “Engaging with people and showing them how FloodVue works continuously builds on our excitement. It’s amazing to see how engaged they become with this type of flood representation.”

Not only has the use of FloodVue increased engagement, it has also resulted in stronger support for community investment to construct critical flood control, including natural and nature-based systems like wetlands restoration, as well as infrastructure that includes dams, levees, coastal flood works, pump stations and other floodplain conveyance improvements.

Through the immersive visuals of FloodVue, stakeholders are put directly in the flooding scenario with and without proposed mitigation.

Typical flood mapping provides only a 2D view of predicted flooding and flood mitigation options. In a predictive modelling map, a blue line indicates where flooding will occur and a green line indicates how designing a new detention pond will preserve critical infrastructure upstream.

However, this view is not as impactful as the augmented reality visualizations developed in FloodVue that put the viewer directly within the path of the flood waters.

WSP is helping safeguard communities against flood-related impacts and become FutureReady® now. Digital solutions, like FloodVue, advance a community’s ability to withstand a changing climate by interpreting large sums of data to generate a comprehensive visual representation and address potential flood impacts before the damage occurs.

“We’re using FloodVue and the rest of WSP’s digital sustainability toolkit for improving local engagement, empowering communities and inspiring action,” Clevenger said.

©WSP USA

The floodplain without mitigation is on top, and with mitigation is below. The map on the left shows in blue where flooding will occur and in green the impact of a detention pond.