Flood modeling using WMS Software: A case study of the Dez River Basin, Iran

Flood is one of the natural disasters in many areas. This paper develops a framework for flood modeling that integrates GIS with WMS and interconnect terrain models and GIS softwares, with commercial standard hydrological and hydraulic models, including HEC-1, HEC- RAS, and others. The Dez River Basin (about 16213 km²) in Khuzestan province, IRAN, is domain of study because of occuring frequent severe flash flooding. As a case of study, a major flood in autumn of 2001 is chosen to examine the modeling framework. The model consists of a rainfall-runoff model (HEC-1) that converts excess precipitation to overland flow and channel runoff, and a hydraulic model (HEC-RAS) that simulates steady state flow through the river channel network based on the HEC-1, peak hydrographs. In addition, it delineates the maps of potential flood zonation for the Dez River Basin. These are achieved based on the state of the art GIS with using WMS software. Watershed parameters are calibrated manually to perform a good simulation of discharge at three sub-basins. With the calibrated discharge, WMS is capable of producing flood hazard map. The modeling framework presented in this study demonstrates the accuracy and usefulness of the WMS software for flash flooding control. The results of this research will benefit future modeling efforts by providing validate hydrological software to forecast flooding on a regional scale. This model designed for the Dez River Basin, while this regional scale model may be used as a prototype for model applications in other areas.