Flood Simulation Using a Well-Balanced Shallow Flow Model

Qiuhua Liang1

Abstract: This work extends and improves a one-dimensional shallow flow model to two-dimensional 共2D兲 for real-world flood
simulations. The model solves a prebalanced formulation of the fully 2D shallow water equations, including friction source terms using
a finite volume Godunov-type numerical scheme. A reconstruction method ensuring nonnegative depth is used along with a Harten, Lax,
and van Leer approximate Riemann solver with the contact wave restored for calculation of interface fluxes. A local bed modification
method is proposed to maintain the well-balanced property of the algorithm for simulations involving wetting and drying. Second-order
accurate scheme is achieved by using the slope limited linear reconstruction together with a Runge-Kutta time integration method. The
model is applicable to calculate different types of flood wave ranging from slow-varying inundations to extreme and violent floods,
propagating over complex domains including natural terrains and dense urban areas. After validating against an analytical case of flow
sloshing in a domain with a parabolic bed profile, the model is applied to simulate an inundation event in a 36 km2 floodplain in
Thamesmead near London. The numerical predictions are compared with analytical solutions and alternative numerical results.
DOI: 10.1061/共ASCE兲HY.1943-7900.0000219
CE Database subject headings: Floods; Simulation; Shallow water; Friction; Topography; Hydraulic models.
Author keywords: Flood simulation; Shallow water equations; Well-balanced scheme; Riemann solver; Friction terms; Complex
topography.

Introduction dimensional shallow flow solver developed by Liang and Marche

Recently, with the development of high-performance computers
and availability of high-resolution geographic information system
data for describing floodplain topographies, a number of two-
dimensional 共2D兲 modeling tools have been developed and ap-
plied to realistic flood predictions 共e.g., Bates and de Roo 2000,
Mignot et al. 2006, Liang et al. 2007, and Liang et al. 2008兲.
Among these models, those solving the fully 2D shallow water
equations 共SWEs兲 represent the state of the arts 共e.g., Mignot et
al. 2006, Liang et al. 2007, and Liang et al. 2008兲 and their
further development remains an active area for research. Recent
efforts have been focused on developing numerical schemes that
are suitable for simulating complex flood flows propagating over
real-world floodplains with highly irregular topographies. Over-
all, a robust flood model should be able to
• Simulate highly unsteady flow 共sometimes, rapidly varying兲;
• Provide accurate solutions for different flow regimes, includ-
ing subcritical, supercritical, transcritical flow as well as
shock-like flow discontinuities that may occur at the same
time;
• Represent numerically complex domain topography;
• Reproduce effectively the wetting and drying processes; and
• Handle high roughness value along the flood routes.
This work aims to present a numerical model to address all of
the above issues. The model is an extension of the one-
共2009兲 and is directly applicable for different types of realistic
flood simulations.
Governing Equations
Based on the hydrostatic assumption, the 2D SWEs may be de-
rived by integrating, over depth, the three-dimensional 共3D兲
Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations. Although they are
incapable of reproducing the fully 3D flow effects, the SWEs are
applicable to many engineering hydrodynamic problems taking
place in physical domains with horizontal dimensions that are
much larger than the water depth, e.g., floodplains, large river
reaches, shallow lakes, coastal areas, etc. In a matrix form, the
hyperbolic conservation laws consisting of the 2D SWEs are writ-
ten as 共e.g., Toro 2001兲
⳵q ⳵f ⳵g
+ + =s 共1兲
⳵t ⳵x ⳵y
where t represents time; x and y = Cartesian coordinates; q
= vector containing the flow variables; f and g = flux vectors in the
x and y-direction, respectively; and s = vector of source terms. In a
prebalanced formulation derived by Liang and Borthwick 共2009兲,
the vectors are given by

冤冥
␩
1
Lecturer in Hydraulic Engineering, School of Civil Engineering and q = qx
Geosciences, Newcastle Univ., Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, England, qy
U.K. E-mail: qiuhua.liang@ncl.ac.uk
Note. This manuscript was submitted on February 9, 2009; approved

冤 冥
on March 10, 2010; published online on March 12, 2010. Discussion qx
period open until February 1, 2011; separate discussions must be submit- 1
ted for individual papers. This technical note is part of the Journal of f = uqx + g共␩2 − 2␩zb兲
Hydraulic Engineering, Vol. 136, No. 9, September 1, 2010. ©ASCE, 2
ISSN 0733-9429/2010/9-669–675/$25.00. uqy

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 冤 冥
qy fi+1/2,j − fi−1/2,j gi,j+1/2 − gi,j−1/2
Ki,j = − − + si,j 共6兲
vqx ⌬x ⌬y
g=
1
vqy + g共␩2 − 2␩zb兲
Ki,j共qn兲 and Ki,j共qⴱ兲 must be computed in two separate steps in
2 order to update the flow variables to a new time step, which in
turn requires correct calculations of the interface fluxes and the
and
source terms. The intermediate flow variables 共qⴱ兲 are computed

冤 冥
by
0
␶bx ⳵ zb ⴱ
qi,j n
= qi,j + ⌬tKi,j共qn兲 共7兲
− − g␩
s= ␳ ⳵x 共2兲
Eq. 共5兲 defines an explicit second-order finite volume scheme
␶by ⳵ zb with its numerical stability controlled by the Courant-Friedrichs-
− − g␩
␳ ⳵y Lewy 共CFL兲 criterion 共e.g., Toro 2001兲. On a 2D Cartesian uni-
Herein ␩ and zb = water surface level and bed elevation above form grid, the CFL criterion for predicting an appropriate time
datum with h = ␩ − zb being the total water depth; u and step ⌬t may be expressed as

v = depth-averaged velocity components; qx共=uh兲 and qy共=vh兲
= unit-width discharge in the x- and y-directions, respectively; g
= acceleration due to gravity; ␳ = water density; −⳵zb / ⳵x and
−⳵zb / ⳵y represent the bed slopes in the two Cartesian directions;
and ␶bx and ␶by = bed friction stresses that may be calculated from
␶bx = ␳C f u冑u2 + v2
␶by = ␳C f v冑u2 + v2
C f = gn2 / h1/3 = bed roughness coefficient with n being the Man-
ning coefficient. It is set to 0 when h is smaller than 1.0
⫻ 10−10 m, which is the threshold for defining wet-dry bed 共a cell
with h ⬍ 1.0⫻ 10−10 m is assumed to be dry兲.
The above formulation of the SWEs balances the flux and
source term gradients by considering pressure force balancing
共Liang and Borthwick 2009兲. In the context of a Godunov-type
scheme, the above SWEs directly satisfy the C-property 共Bermú-
dez and Vázquez 1994兲 or are well balanced 共Greenberg and Le-
Roux 1996兲 when modeling shallow flows in an entirely wet
domain. Therefore they are referred to as prebalanced SWEs.
Numerical Model
Finite Volume Godunov-Type Scheme
冉 冊
⌬x ⌬y
⌬t = C min min , min 共8兲
i,j 兩ui,j兩 + 冑ghi,j i,j 兩vi,j兩 + 冑ghi,j
where C共0 ⬍ C ⱕ 1兲 = Courant number and is set to 0.75 in this
work.
In this work, simple transmissive and/or reflective 共closed兲
boundary conditions are imposed for all the simulations. Trans-
missive boundary conditions imply that, at a ghost point, flow
共3兲 variables are assumed to ensure zero gradients at the boundary or
directly prescribed according to the inflows or outflows. Reflec-
tive boundary conditions require that the normal velocity 共or dis-
charge兲 and the gradient of water surface elevation 共or water
depth兲 are both calculated to zero at the boundary.
Nonnegative Reconstruction of Riemann States
In the current Godunov-type scheme, the interface fluxes are cal-
culated using the Harten, Lax, and van Leer approximate Rie-
mann solver with the Contact wave restored 共HLLC兲 共see, e.g.,
Toro 2001, Liang et al. 2004, and Liang and Borthwick 2009 for
detailed implementation兲, which needs correct reconstruction of
the Riemann states. The Riemann states are defined from the face
values of flow variables obtained from the cell-centered flow in-
formation by applying a linear slope limited reconstruction. At the
left hand side of the cell interface 共i + 1 / 2 , j兲, the face values are
given by

Using a finite volume scheme, the flow variables are updated to a ␺ ␺

new time step using the following time-marching formula: ¯␩i+1/2,j
L
= ␩i,j + 共␩i,j − ␩i−1,j兲, L
h̄i+1/2,j = hi,j + 共hi,j − hi−1,j兲
2 2
⌬t ⌬t
n+1
qi,j n
= qi,j − 共fi+1/2,j − fi−1/2,j兲 − 共gi,j+1/2 − gi,j−1/2兲 + ⌬tsi,j
⌬x ⌬y L
z̄bi+1/2,j = ¯␩i+1/2,j
L L
− h̄i+1/2,j
共4兲
where superscript n denotes time level; subscripts i and j = cell ␺ ␺
indices; ⌬t, ⌬x, and ⌬y = time step, cell size in the x- and
L
q̄xi+1/2,j = qxi,j + 共qxi,j − qxi−1,j兲, q̄Lyi+1/2,j = qyi,j + 共qyi,j − qyi−1,j兲
2 2
y-directions, respectively. In order to achieve an overall second-
order numerical scheme, the MUSCL scheme 共van Leer 1979兲 is 共9兲
employed, which reconstructs the face values of flow variables where ␺ = slope limited function 共Harten et al. 1987兲 evaluated at
using a linear slope limiting process. A second-order Runge-Kutta cell 共i , j兲 based on the flow data at the considering cell and its
method is used to perform time integration and Eq. 共4兲 may be upwind and downwind neighbors. The minmod slope limiter is
rewritten as used herein for better numerical stability 共Hirsch 1990兲

1 ␺共r兲 = max关0,min共r,1兲兴 共10兲

n+1
qi,j n
= qi,j + ⌬t关Ki,j共qn兲 + Ki,j共qⴱ兲兴 共5兲
2
where r = ratio of successive gradient of the flow variable under
where Ki,j = Runge-Kutta coefficient defined as consideration, e.g., for ␩

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 ␩i+1,j − ␩i,j
r= 共11兲
␩i,j − ␩i−1,j
Similar expressions can be defined for qx, qy, and h.
Similarly the face values at the right hand side of 共i + 1 / 2 , j兲
are calculated by
␺ ␺
¯␩i+1/2,j
R
= ␩i+1,j − 共␩i+1,j − ␩i,j兲, R
h̄i+1/2,j = hi+1,j − 共hi+1,j − hi,j兲
2 2

R
z̄bi+1/2,j = ¯␩i+1/2,j
R R
− h̄i+1/2,j

␺
R
qxi+1/2,j = qxi+1,j − 共qxi+1,j − qxi,j兲, R
qy i+1/2,j = qy i+1,j
2
Fig. 1. Well-balanced scheme for dry-bed applications: local bed
␺
− 共qy i+1,j − qy i,j兲 共12兲 modification
2
where ␺ = evaluated at cell 共i + 1 , j兲. The corresponding velocity
components are then calculated by through 共i − 1 / 2 , j兲 are estimated according to ␩ ⬅ constant, and
therefore, the scheme predicts a net spurious flux increment and
L
ūi+1/2,j = L
q̄xi+1/2,j /h̄i+1/2,j
L
, L
v̄i+1/2,j = q̄Lyi+1/2,j/h̄i+1/2,j
L
drives the flow into motion at cell 共i , j兲. This leads to the violation
of the well-balancing property of the scheme. To overcome this,
R
ūi+1/2,j R
= q̄xi+1/2,j /h̄i+1/2,j
R
, R
v̄i+1/2,j = q̄Ryi+1/2,j/h̄i+1/2,j
R
共13兲 the difference between the actual and fake water surface level is
In a dry cell or a wet cell next to a dry cell, the face values are first sought at 共i + 1 / 2 , j兲
assumed to be the same as the corresponding flow data at the cell
center. This essentially reduces the accuracy of the second-order ⌬z = max关0,共zbi+1/2,j − n̄i+1/2,j
L
兲兴 共17兲
scheme to first-order, which is normal for a slope limiting pro-
as illustrated in Fig. 1. Then the bed elevation and the stage com-
cess.
ponent of Riemann states are locally and instantaneously modi-
To obtain the Riemann states, an important step is to define a
fied by subtracting ⌬z from the original values
single face value of bed elevation as 共Audusse et al. 2004兲
L
zbi+1/2,j = max共z̄bi+1/2,j R
,z̄bi+1/2,j 兲 共14兲 zbi+1/2,j ← zbi+1/2,j − ⌬z, ␩i+1/2,j
L
← ␩i+1/2,j
L
− ⌬z, ␩i+1/2,j
R

The depth components of the Riemann states are then defined by ← ␩i+1/2,j
R
− ⌬z 共18兲
L
hi+1/2,j = max共0,␩ L
¯ i+1/2,j − zbi+1/2,j兲, R
hi+1/2,j = max共0,␩ R
¯ i+1/2,j Obviously, ␩i+1/2,j
L
= ␩i+1/2,j
R
= zbi+1/2,j = ␩
after the above local bed
− zbi+1/2,j兲 共15兲 modification and well balancing is regained.
Local bed modification 关Eq. 共18兲兴 completes the nonnegative
which preserves nonnegativity of water depth. The Riemann reconstruction of Riemann states, which are then employed by the
states of other flow variables can be obtained accordingly HLLC approximate Riemann solver to compute the interface
␩i+1/2,j
L L
= hi+1/2,j + zbi+1/2,j, L
qxi+1/2,j L
= ūi+1/2,j L
hi+1/2,j , qLyi+1/2,j fluxes 共fi+1/2,j兲. The Riemann states on the other cell interfaces
and the corresponding fluxes 共fi−1/2,j , gi,j+1/2 , gi,j−1/2兲 are computed
L L
= v̄i+1/2,j hi+1/2,j in an identical way.

␩i+1/2,j
R R
= hi+1/2,j + zbi+1/2,j, R
qxi+1/2,j R
= ūi+1/2,j R
hi+1/2,j , qRyi+1/2,j
R
= v̄i+1/2,j R
hi+1/2,j 共16兲 Source Term Discretization

It is trivial to prove that the above reconstruction of Riemann The bed slope and friction source terms are treated separately in
states does not affect the well-balancing property of the prebal- order to construct a well-balanced and nonnegative numerical
anced governing equations and the corresponding numerical scheme for simulations involving wetting and drying. The bed
scheme if a wet-bed case is simulated. However, for a dry-bed slope source terms are approximated by a central difference ap-
application, a numerical technique is needed in order to preserve proach that is compatible with the scheme for flux calculation. In
the well-balanced solutions. the x-direction
Without losing generality, Fig. 1 indicates a case where a wet
cell 共i , j兲 shares a common edge 共i + 1 / 2 , j兲 with a dry cell 共i
+ 1 , j兲 at the discrete level, and the bed elevation of the dry cell is
higher than the water surface level at 共i , j兲. Consider a general
− g␩
⳵ zb
⳵x
= − g␩
z
冉 −z
¯ bi+1/2,j bi−1/2,j
⌬x
冊 共19兲

case of lake at rest with u ⬅ 0, v ⬅ 0 but h ⫽ 0 only in the wet where ¯␩ = 共␩i−1/2,j
R
+ ␩i+1/2,j
L
兲 / 2. Similar discretization is applied to
areas. After the aforementioned nonnegative reconstruction at 共i the y-direction.
+ 1 / 2 , j兲, zbi+1/2,j = z̄bi+1/2,j
R L
, hi+1/2,j R
= 0, hi+1/2,j = 0, ␩i+1/2,j
L
= zbi+1/2,j, The friction source terms are evaluated using a splitting point-
and ␩i+1/2,j
R
= zbi+1/2,j. The fluxes across 共i + 1 / 2 , j兲 are thus calcu- implicit scheme 共Bussing and Murman 1988; Fiedler and Ramirez
lated based on the ground level 共zbi+1/2,j兲 rather than the actual 2000兲 for better stability, which is equivalent to solve the follow-
still water level ␩ ⬅ constant at cell 共i , j兲. However, the fluxes ing ordinary differential equations:

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 dq t = 1.5 (hrs)
= Sf 共20兲
dt 14 bed profile
analytical solution
where S f = 关0 S fx S fy兴 with S fx = −␶bx / ␳ and S fy = −␶by / ␳. For the
T
numerical prediction
12
x-direction momentum entry of Eq. 共20兲, the friction term can be
isolated and expanded using a Taylor series as 共Fiedler and
10
Ramirez 2000兲

冉 冊
⳵ S fx n

η (m)
8
Sn+1 n
fx = S fx + ⌬qx + o共⌬q2x 兲 共21兲
⳵ qx
6
where ⌬qx = qn+1 n
x − qx . Ignoring the higher-order terms, the follow-
ing time-marching formula can then be obtained for qx: 4

x = qx + ⌬t
qn+1 n
冉 冊
S fx
Dx
n
= qnx + ⌬tFx 共22兲
2

0
where Dx = 1 − ⌬t共⳵S fx / ⳵qx兲n = implicit coefficient and Fx = friction −8000 −4000 0 4000 8000
source term including the implicit coefficient. Numerical experi- (a) x (m)
ments indicate that Fx should be bounded according to the physics t = 2.0 (hrs)
of the fluid in order to maintain stability of the scheme. By noting
that the maximum effect of friction force is to stop the fluid, i.e., 14 bed profile
x qx ⱖ 0, the following expression can be easily derived to limit
qn+1 n analytical solution
the implicit friction force 共Fx兲 共Liang and Marche 2009兲: 12 numerical prediction

Fx 再 ⱖ−
ⱕ−
qnx /⌬t
qnx /⌬t
if
if
qnx
qnx
ⱖ0
ⱕ0
冎 共23兲
η (m)
10

8
The value of Fx will be replaced by the above critical one when it
is computed beyond the limit. Similar treatment can be applied to 6
the y-direction equation.
4

Results and Discussion 2

In all the simulations undertaken in this section, g = 9.81 m / s2 0

−8000 −4000 0 4000 8000
and ␳ = 1 , 000 kg/ m3. (b) x (m)

Shallow Water Sloshing in a Parabolic Basin Fig. 2. Wetting and drying over a parabolic topography: water sur-
face elevation at different output times 共a兲 t = 1.5 h; 共b兲 t = 2.0 h
The case of a 2D shallow flow sloshing in a frictionless parabolic
basin involves simultaneously wetting and drying and is a severe ⫻ 20, 000 m computational domain is approximated by a 200
test for a numerical model. A periodic flow with a planar free ⫻ 200 uniform grid. The lateral boundaries are assumed to be
surface is assumed to take place in a parabolic basin with the bed transmissive, but their settings are irrelevant to the numerical pre-
elevation described by diction as no flow reaches the boundaries. The initial conditions
are provided according to Eq. 共25兲 at t = 0.
hs0 2 2
zb共x,y兲 = 共x + y 兲 共24兲 Fig. 2 compares the analytical and numerical water surface
L2 profiles along the line y = 0 at two sample output times. The nu-
where hs0 and L = positive constants and the analytical solutions merical predictions are found to match perfectly with those given
were given by Thacker 共1981兲 by the analytical solutions. No obvious distortion is detected near

冋 册
␺ 共␨兲 and x-direction velocity component 共u兲 against time at a
␩ = hs0 1 + 共2x cos ␻t + 2y sin ␻t − ␺兲
L2
u = − ␺␻ sin ␻t
and
v = − ␺␻ cos ␻t
where ␺ determines the amplitude of the motion and ␻ = 2␲ / T
= frequency with T being the period. Eq. 共25兲 actually describes a
water surface moving as a planar circle around the center of the
domain. The movement of the water is restricted within a circular
area of radius L + ␺. During the simulation, T = 3600 s, hs0
= 10 m, L = 8 , 025.5 m, and ␺ = L / 10. The 20, 000 m
to the wet-dry interface. Fig. 3 plots the oscillation of free surface
sample point 共2000, 0兲 for three periods. For both ␨ and u, nu-
merical predictions again agree very well with the analytical so-
lutions. Numerical dissipation is negligible throughout the
simulation. Less accurate solutions are predicted on a coarser grid
and numerical convergence to the analytical solutions is observed
when increasing grid resolution. The results indicate that the cur-
共25兲
rent shallow flow model is applicable to solve complex flow hy-
drodynamics involving wetting and drying.
Flood Inundation at Thamesmead
Herein the current numerical model is used to simulate a flood
inundation event in a 36-km2 floodplain at Thamesmead, United

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 analytical
0.8 ∆x = 200m
∆x = 100m
0.6 ∆x = 50m

0.4
ζ (m)

0.2

−0.2
(a)
−0.4 250

−0.6
200
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
(a) t (hrs)
150

Q (m )
3
2.5 analytical 100
∆x = 200m
2 ∆x = 100m
50
∆x = 50m
1.5
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5
1 (b) t (hr)
u (m/s)

0.5 Fig. 4. Flood inundation at Thamesmead: 共a兲 floodplain; 共b兲 inflow

hydrograph
0

−0.5
et al. 2008兲. The current numerical predictions agree closely with
−1 those produced by TUFLOW. Similar to the TUFLOW predic-
tions, fine graphic structures are clearly present in the water depth
−1.5 plot, which are caused by the flood flow past complex floodplain
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
(b) t (hrs)
topographies. In the time history of water depth, both magnitude
and arriving time resulting from the current model agree reason-
Fig. 3. Wetting and drying over a parabolic topography: time history
of flow variables at the sample point of 共2000, 0兲 共a兲 oscillating water
surface; 共b兲 x-direction velocity component

Kingdom, located on the south bank of the River Thames estuary.

The 9 , 000 m ⫻ 4 , 000 m floodplain is described by a processed
10 m bare earth digital terrain model as shown in Fig. 4共a兲. A
breach on the flood defense is assumed near to the top left part of
the domain. The breach is 150 m wide and centered at 共545,855,
181,040兲, with the coordinates at the bottom left corner of the
domain given by 共543,000, 178,000兲. A time-varying inflow dis-
charge, as shown in Fig. 4共b兲, is assumed to enter the floodplain
through the breach and drive the flood wave. A 10-h simulation is
carried out on a 900⫻ 400 uniform grid. Transmissive conditions
are assumed along the lateral boundaries. A constant Manning
coefficient n = 0.035 s / m1/3 is used for the whole computational
domain.
Fig. 5 presents the final flood map predicted at t = 10 h after
the failure of the flood defense and, in Fig. 6, the change of water
depth against time is recorded at two sample gauge points as
indicated in Fig. 4共a兲. In both cases, the current numerical results
are compared with the alternative predictions obtained by the
widely used commercial software TUFLOW. TUFLOW 共Syme
1991兲 is a finite difference alternating direction implicit model
solving the 2D SWEs. TUFLOW has been applied to predict Fig. 5. Flood inundation at Thamesmead: inundation map at t
large-scale realistic flood inundation and its performance has been = 10 h 共a兲 prediction by the current model; 共b兲 results from TU-
evaluated in the literature 共see, e.g., Tarrant et al. 2005 and Hunter FLOW

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 Gauge 1 lute mass conservation and provides more reliable predictions.
3
TUFLOW
This also distinguishes the current model from a number of
Present model existing wetting and drying and well-balancing algorithms,
2.5 e.g., those presented by Brufau et al. 共2004兲 and Liang and
Borthwick 共2009兲, where negative water depth may be pre-
dicted and special techniques are required to amend the flow
2
variables in order to maintain mass conservation. Therefore,
the current model is particularly suitable for real-world flood
h (m)

1.5 simulations, where complex flows are often observed to propa-

gate over initially dry domains with highly irregular topo-
1
graphic features.
• The current model is based on uniform Cartesian grids but the
numerical scheme can be easily implemented with other grid-
0.5 ding methods, e.g., dynamically adaptive quadtree grids
共Liang et al. 2004兲, to improve further its performance.
0 After validated against an analytical benchmark test, the model
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 has been applied to predict a realistic scenario of flood inundation
(a) t (hours)
in the Thamesmead floodplain near London. The capability of the
Gauge 2 model has thus been verified, and therefore it provides a useful
1.5 and robust numerical tool for real-world flood simulations.
TUFLOW
Present model
1.25
Acknowledgments
1
This work is supported by the U.K. Engineering and Physical
Sciences Research Council 共EPSRC兲 through Grant No. EP/
h (m)

0.75 F030177/1. The writer would like to thank Professor Gary Pender
and Dr. Sylvain Néelz from the Heriot-Watt University for pro-
0.5
viding the DEM and TUFLOW results for the Thamesmead case.

0.25 References

0 Audusse, E., Bouchut, F., Bristeau, M.-O., Klein, R., and Perthame, B.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
(b) t (hours)
Fig. 6. Flood inundation at Thamesmead: time history of water depth
at two sample gauge points
ably well with those provided by the TUFLOW. The results imply
that the performance of the current numerical model in realistic
flood modeling is comparable to, if it is not better than, a prevail-
ing commercial flood software.
Conclusions
This paper presents a numerical scheme developed for modeling
real-world flood wave propagation over complex domains. The
main features of the current model are listed as follows:
• The use of a finite volume Godunov-type scheme provides the
model with automatic shock-capturing capability, and it is
therefore applicable for simulating different types of flood hy-
drodynamics, ranging from slow-varying flood inundation to
violent flash floods or even dam breaks.
• Effective techniques have been implemented to achieve well-
balancing and nonnegative reconstruction. When applying the
current model to perform simulations involving complex to-
pography and wetting and drying, there is no need of any
clipping treatment to modify flow variables or fluxes in order
to maintain numerical stability. This essentially ensures abso-
10
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