In this study, multi-layer perceptron (MLP) artificial neural networks have been applied to forecast one-month-ahead inflow for the Ubonratana reservoir, Thailand. This is necessary because without knowing the expected inflow, one would not know the amount of water to allocate at the start of each month. As expected, knowing the inflow through our forecasts significantly improved the performance of the Ubonratana reservoir, the test case. We expect the study to have utility for other systems.

The proposed methodology is easy to use and inexpensive (a free software with minimum amount of data requirement); yet it is very effective in terms of pinpointing the flood-prone locations in urban areas particularly. Expectation is that it provides simple modelling concepts to be help of decision makers in preventing life and monetary losses due to floods. The study is based on an EU project aiming at using simple tools for applicable results.

Many flood events have illustrated that the majority of the fatalities during an inundation occurs in a vehicle. So far, only experimental test on small scale cars have been carried out to identify the critical combinations of water depth and velocity causing the onset of motion. A dimensionless approach is here proposed to define a clearer identification of stable and unstable conditions for flooded vehicles.

Being within the typhoon belt, the Philippines is vulnerable to typhoons that can cause destructive floods. The Land Utilisation and Capability (LUCI) model is being applied to the Cagayan de Oro watershed to identify areas providing flood mitigation services and potential areas to target for improving flood mitigation. LUCI can complement the existing disaster risk framework by assessing land use plans under scenarios of extreme events and climate change, and the effect on flooding downstream.

The apparent absoluteness of flood boundaries on risk maps can lead to serious mistakes, for example when planning new areas. An empirical equation, that considers both digital elevation model (DEM) resolution and terrain slope, was used to create prediction-uncertainty zones around already modelled flood extents. Results show that the method can visualise inaccuracies due to DEM and slope conditions, thereby enhancing the quality of later decision-making processes.

Can differential land-subsidence significantly alter river flooding dynamics, and thus flood risk in flood prone areas? In the area around Ravenna, in Italy, that experimented a cumulative drop of more than 1.5 m after World War II due to groundwater pumping and gas production platforms, we compared the actual effects on flood-hazard dynamics of differential land-subsidence relative to those associated with other man-made topographic alterations, which proved to be much more significant.

Improving flood forecasting can strengthen the reduction of floods impacts through early warning systems. Our study presents improvements obtained with the integration of a data assimilation system into a hydrological model that is part of the operational forecasting chain for Arno river (central Italy). The system effectively combines the model with observations of river flow at multiple locations and satellite data, leading to more accurate predictions of flood peak flow.

Many hydrological studies are devoted to the identification of events that are expected to occur on average within a certain time span. While this topic is well established in the univariate case, recent advances focus on a multivariate characterization of events based on copulas. Following a previous study, we show how the definition of the survival Kendall return period fits into the set of multivariate return periods.

In tropical regions, flash floods often occur on small ungauged catchments. The scarcity of reliable runoff data and high resolution rainfall data in both spatial and temporal scales is one of the challenges. Thus, intensive guidelines for mapping flash flood hazard in ungauged catchments are urgently needed. Regional frequency analysis can benefit from observed daily rainfall data which are normally available in many countries. Flash flood modelling is applied to delineate flood hazard maps.

The paper identifies the opportunities and limits of flood early warning in small catchments. Flood early warning for small, fast-responding catchments usually need to include rainfall forecasts. First, the demands of potential users of warning products are assessed. Second, the quality and limitations of rainfall forecasts (emerging from meteorological forecasting uncertainty) are investigated. Third, different flood forecasting techniques are compared.

Water management is constantly evolving. Trends, such as population growth, urbanization and climate change, pose new challenges to water management. We developed a new and flexible modelling approach to generate very fast models of catchment hydrology, rivers and sewer systems that can be tailored to numerous applications in water management. To illustrate the developed framework, a case study of integrated hydrological-hydraulic modelling for the Grote Nete catchment in Belgium is elaborated.

China is undergoing rapid urbanization during the past decades. For example, the proportion of urban population in Beijing has increased from 57.6 % in 1980 to 86.3 % in 2013. Rapid urbanization has an adverse impact on the urban rainfall-runoff processes, which may result in the increase of urban flooding risk. In this study, the major purpose is to investigate the impact of land use/cover changes on hydrological processes and the flooding risk in Beijing.

This research article presents finding from an interdisciplinary joint research project in integrated river basin management. For the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive, measures to improve the hydromorphological situation and to reduce nutrient emissions have been planned at water body scale. We used a strategy approach to formulate alternative solutions for the whole basin according to policy directions. The results should inform and support stakeholders and decision makers.

The Tarim Basin in Xinjiang province in northwest China is characterized by a hyper arid climate. Climate change and a strong increase in agricultural land use are major challenges for sustainable water management. The largest competition for water resources exists between irrigated fields and natural riparian vegetation. The Sino-German project SuMaRiO provided a decision support system based on ecosystem services and will implement sustainable water management measures in the next 5-year plan.

To objectively compare possible solutions for drought, they have to be commensurable; a daunting condition if they are implementable on dissimilar spatial scales and/or physical compartments. In a water scarce region in China it is it is shown how a generic meta-model in form of a dynamic water balance simulating the hydrosystem, including anthropogenic factors, allows the appraisal of various measure's effects on one one factor; thus securing commensurability.

Regulation by reservoirs affects both the freshwater regime and the sediment delivery downstream. Spain is one the countries with more water storage capacity by reservoirs in the world. The spatial redistribution of the seasonal and annual water storage in reservoirs mainly for irrigation and urban supply has resulted in significant environmental impacts downstream. This work shows these effects in the Guadalquivir and the Ebro River basins, two of the largest regulated areas in Spain.

Growing water scarcity in agriculture is an increasing problem and future climate predictions enhance drought risks for agricultural production. For assessing irrigation as a measure to increase agricultural water security a generalized stochastic approach for a spatial distributed estimation of future irrigation water demand is proposed, which ensures safe yields and a high water productivity at the same time.

The spatial dimensions of water management heavily rely on accurate hydrological estimates in the landscape. This has been the focus of the Predictions in Ungauged Basins (PUB) initiative of the IAHS. The initiative has significantly advanced the science by furthering process understanding and estimation methods, and by synthesising the knowledge across processes, places and scales. Ongoing research on PUB is increasingly accounts for the feedbacks between humans and water in the landscape.

The design of hydraulic structures where storage is involved, requires estimates of joint probability distribution of flood volumes and flood peaks. The problem of choosing a joint distribution was so far approached more from a statistical point of view. In the paper the suitability of various copula models of this relationships was analysed with a particular focus on the type and seasonality of flood generation processes in a regional context.

River flow series are the essential input of many studies and applications aiming to add value and interpret the water quality data collected at pollution-control sites. They are however available only in a limited number of points on the river network where flows are known. Our paper assess the performance of strategies for simulating incomplete or missing flow series. They rest on the use of a simple hydrological model and the assumption that flows are similar between neighbor catchments.

The flow duration curve is a widely used tool to support water resources management, planning of hydropower plants and many other problems in hydrological engineering. This paper describe a procedure to estimate the flow duration curve in river sections where no data are available by exploiting observations from other gauged river basins. The procedure also allows one to include information about existing water intakes that alter the natural flow in the river.

Developing modelling tools that help to understand the spatial distribution of water resources is a key issue for better management. Ideally, hydrological models which discretise catchment space into sub-catchments should offer better streamflow simulations than lumped models, along with spatially-relevant water resources management solutions. However we demonstrate that those model raise other issues related to the calibration strategy and to the identifiability of the parameters.

The growing concern about the possible effects of climate change on flood frequency regime is leading Authorities to review reference procedures for design flood estimation. Our study focuses on Triveneto (Italy) and proposes an update of the existing reference procedure by properly considering climate and scale controls on flood frequency. Moreover, the study highlights the remarkable influence of a single extreme-floods year on analyses for detecting possible changes in flood frequency regime.

Dams are major source of flow alteration and quantifying their impact is crucial from the point of view of the EU's environmental flow policy. This study demonstrates a method of assessing flow alteration by dams using a large-scale high-resolution hydrological model (SWAT) and three major Polish reservoirs as case studies. The results show that it has some advantages over more conventional methods, e.g. it allows for distinguishing between direct human effect and natural climatic effect.

Maharashtra is one of the states in India that has witnessed highest rates of farmer suicides as proportion of total number of suicides. We interpret the crisis using a socio-hydrological model in two adjoining regions in Maharashtra, Marathwada and Desh, with higher farmer suicide rates in the former. The analysis confirms existing narratives: low (soil) water storage capacities, no irrigation and access to alternative sources of incomes are to blame for the crisis.

In the context of medium to long term river basin and flood risk management there is a growing need to improve the understanding of and the feedbacks between the driving forces "climate and socio-economy" and water systems, e.g. by combining scenarios of the global and regional climate change with those of developments of the society.

This paper analyses the evolution in space and time of human presence in terms of settlements and associated economic activities along the Eastern Alpine river network in Austria and Italy by using high-resolution satellite images. To this aim, nocturnal artificial luminosity images and the geographical location of streams and rivers are employed. Our results reveal a significant increase of nighttime lights, and thus of human presence.