DEVELOPMENT OF AN OPERATIONAL MONSOON FLOOD MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

By

Mardiana Shafiee1, Azman Ahmad1, Faizu Hassan1, Mohd Azuar Yaakub1,

Ir. Low Koon Sing2, Ir. Chong Sun Fatt2, Norlida Mohd Dom2,
Nurjannah Andi Samsinar2, Sazali Osman2, Zainab Hashim2,
Ir. Mohd Zaki Mat Amin3, and Tan Sek Aun4
1
Malaysian Centre for Remote Sensing (MACRES)
2
Hydrology and Water Resources Division,
Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID)
3
National Hydraulics Research Institute of Malaysia (NAHRIM)
4
Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM)

Abstract

In Malaysia, there are two types of flood that occur namely, monsoon flood and flash flood.
Monsoon flood usually occurs during the north-east monsoon period and is associated with high
intensity rainfall of a few days’ duration. Flash flood commonly affecting urban areas is due to
higher intensity rainfall of short duration. Even though floods in Malaysia are relatively less severe
than those occurring in the world’s largest river basins such as Yellow River, Ganges River and
Mekong River, there is still a need to manage its occurrences to minimise its damage. To achieve
this objective, an operational flood management system called GEOREX FLOOD was jointly
developed and implemented by MACRES and DID with technical assistance from the Canadian
Government. The system that comprises of three components of disaster management, namely,
early warning, detection and monitoring, and mitigation, integrates remote sensing, GIS,
hydrological modelling and telecommunications technologies. Radarsat images acquired over
flooded areas are used to detect and monitor the occurrence of floods and to determine the
extent of inundation. Hydrological model is also incorporated for flood forecasting purposes.
Information such as road networks, landuse, evacuation centres and population are overlaid on
flood extent maps generated from Radarsat images to assess the effects of floods on the
populations.

1.0 Introduction

One of the projects carried out under the MACRES – DID MOU agreement was to develop and
implement an operational flood management system that would allow real time information to
be effectively disseminated to the Natural Disaster Relief Machinery. Centralized flood related
information that could be accessed by various levels of the relevant authorities would assist them
in efficient planning and execution of evacuation exercise, rescue mission and relief efforts. Such
information would also enable them to evaluate the effectiveness and relevancy of mitigation
measures and determine the extent of further improvements required.

The flood management system called GEOREX FLOOD was developed and implemented in the
state of Kelantan with collaborative efforts from the Canadian Government. The design and
development of the system which began in 2001 looked into the availability of spatial data
pertinent to the requirements of proposed system and the needs of end users, operational
mechanisms of the Natural Disaster Relief Machinery, existing methods used in the collection of
hydrometeorology data from hydrological stations, and techniques and technologies used to
disseminate such information to the hydrologists responsible for flood forecasting. The
hydrological model adopted for flood forecasting, namely Streamflow Synthesis and Reservoir
Regulation (SSARR) was calibrated based on the characteristics of Kelantan River watershed prior
to its incorporation into the system. In addition, for a centralized system to facilitate data and
information sharing successfully, it is crucial to understand and acknowledge the present state of

Paper presented at the Third National Microwave Remote Sensing Seminar, 28 September 2004,
MACRES, Kuala Lumpur

1
information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure in Malaysia and in particular,
between MACRES and DID as the users of the system.

GEOREX FLOOD system was successfully tested under operational conditions in MACRES and DID
in December 2003. Nevertheless, further enhancement of the system is still desirable, particularly
in establishing a comprehensive and up-to-date database and strengthening its GIS capabilities.

2.0 Objective

The objective of this project is to develop and implement an operational monsoon flood
management system by integrating remote sensing, GIS, hydrological modeling and
telecommunications technologies.

3.0 Study Area

The GEOREX FLOOD system was developed for Kelantan River basin, as shown in Figure 1(a),
which experience flooding during the north-east monsoon season period between November
and January. As flooding of this river basin is an annual phenomena, DID have established a well-
distributed network of hydrological stations to facilitate flood forecasting activities. In addition,
its comprehensive compilation of hydrometeorological data made it possible for hydrological
model for this river basin to be calibrated.

4.0 Components of flood management system

4.1" Remote sensing

Landsat image was used to generate the land use map to be incorporated as one of the GIS
layers. It was also used as a reference image to geo-reference the Radarsat data. Radarsat data
acquired during the monsoon periods were used to determine the extent of flooded areas. Since
1998, forty scenes of multi-modes of Radarsat images of Kelantan were acquired during the
monsoon seasons.

Identification of the inundated areas could be carried out in three ways. The first method
identified the water bodies on Landsat TM image and compared them with those appearing on
the Radarsat images acquired during the monsoon season as shown in Figure 2. The second
method was by overlaying multi-temporal Radarsat images as shown in Figure 3. The third
method utilized the region growing technique to determine the extent of floods. Image
processing procedures to extract flood extent boundaries based on this technique are depicted in
Figure 4 and described below.

(a) Pre-processing
(i) Incidence angle correction: To correct incidence angle and convert the
distributed digital image data to radar brightness (Beta naught) and calibrated
radar backscatter (Sigma naught).
(ii) Radiometric calibration: To transform raw data from 16-bit format to 32-bit,
thus accurately represents the original signal amplitudes.
(iii) Filtering: 3 x 3 Kuan filter was used to filter speckled radar data. It
smoothened the image data, without removing edges or sharp features on the
image.
(iv) Scaling: To transform the 32-bit data into 8-bit format and perform a linear or
non-linear mapping of image grey levels to a desired output range, i.e. to scale
data from "high" resolution (32 and 16-bit) channels to "low" resolution (16
and 8-bit) channels.

(b) Image registration

All Radarsat images were registered to Landsat image as the reference image. In
georeferencing Landsat image to RSO projection, a minimum number of 70 ground
control points were required in order to achieve an RMSE value of less than a quarter

2
 pixel (30 meter). For Radarsat registration to Landsat image, it required a minimum of 20
ground control points for an acceptable RMSE value of less than a pixel. Both images
were re-sampled to 12.5 meter pixel size.

(c) Collect seed point

A process of collecting suitable location points as training areas for the subsequent
process of extracting water bodies from the image.

(d) Region growing process

A process in which DN values of training areas were used to extract similar DN values of
water bodies and converting their boundaries into vector data.

(e) Convert TEXT to Shape

The vector data of the water body boundaries were converted into shape file format for
the purpose of inserting the data into GEOREX FLOOD system as the flood extent map.

4.2 Geographic Information System (GIS)

Spatial data as listed in Table 1 have two main functions. Firstly, they were used in the
hydrological modelling and secondly, to fulfil the requirements of relief efforts. As an example,
the contour layer was used to generate terrain model from which information on the catchment
boundary, slope length and slope angle were extracted and subsequently used in the calibration
of the hydrological model. Other information such as evacuation centres would allow the rescue
teams to locate the nearest centre and its capacity to accommodate the population affected by
floods. Similarly information on the road network would allow relevant authorities to be
informed of the sections of the network that would be affected with the impending inundation,
thus enabling efficient planning of the evacuation exercise or rescue mission.

4.3 Hydrology

The model used for Kelantan river basin was the Streamflow Synthesis and Reservoir Regulation
(SSARR) developed in 1956 by the US Corps of Engineers. It is a numeric model of the hydrology
of a river system whereby the streamflow at the headwater points in the system can be
synthesized by evaluating the rainfall and where applicable, snow accumulation and snowmelt.
Streamflows throughout the basin can be synthesized by simulating the effects of channel
routing, diversions, and reservoir regulation and storage.

SSARR model comprises of a generalized watershed model and a river system and reservoir
regulation model. The watershed model simulates rainfall-runoff, snow accumulation, and
snowmelt-runoff. Precipitation, temperature and other hydrometerological variables are input
into the model with derived catchment characteristics to simulate run-off into the river system
model. Thus, it takes into account the interception, evapotranspiration, soil moisture, baseflow
infiltration, and routing of the runoff into the stream system.

The river system and reservoir regulation model routes the streamflows from upstream and
downstream points through channel, lake storage, and reservoirs under free flow or controlled-
flow modes of operation. The simulation proceeds through time by computing the model state
at successive intervals. The time increment can be as short as 0.1 hour or as long as 24 hours. It
depends on the objectives of the simulation and model-dependent factors such as drainage area,
hydrologic response time and the availability of the hydrometeorological data to run and
calibrate the model.

During the model calibration, the meteorological, hydrological and routing parameters were
adjusted until the model produced a flow hydrograph similar to the observed flows. These
parameters are as follows:

3
(a) Meteorological
(i) Precipitation precipitation data from each meteorological station
has to be weighted in order to derive a representative
average precipitation over the water shed.
(ii) Interception the first part of each rainfall wets the leaves of trees
and bushes and later evaporates
(iii) Evapotranspiration the loss of a water through evaporation of water from
the soil and from transpiration of water from the
vegetation

(b) Hydrological
(i) Runoff components:
- Direct runoff, surface component
- Direct runoff, sub-surface component
- Infiltration, baseflow component
- Infiltration, lower zone component
(ii) Soil moisture index
(iii) Baseflow Infiltration Index (BII)
(iv) Surface-sub-surface separation

(c) River routing

KTS where Ts time of storage per phase

Ts = KTS, n coefficients of the routing
n
Q equation
Q routed flow

From the forecast discharge, the stage-discharge rating curve is used to relate the discharge with
water level at a particular station. In Kelantan, flood warning is issued based on the water level
forecast and monitoring at Kuala Krai. The sub-catchment and hydrometeorological stations used
in the SSARR model for Kelantan River basin are shown in Figure 1(b) and Table 2.

4.4 Communications

Hydrometeorological data from the Remote Telemetry Units (RTU) is transmitted at every 6-hr
interval to the Master Telemetry Unit (MTU) located in DID Kota Bharu office by utilizing UHF and
VHF radio. An automatic emailer program in the state DID office sends all the data through the
Internet to the Hydrology and Water Resources Division of DID Ampang where flood forecast
modelling is being carried out. In situations where breakdown in Internet communications
occurs, information is conveyed by facsimile or telephone.

5.0 GEOREX Flood System

5.1 Descriptions

The geospatial data exchange (GEOREX) system for flood developed for Kelantan River basin
comprised of five components, namely, C1 server, C2 server, C3 server, GEOREX Hydro, and
GEOREX Flood Client. These components are schematically depicted in the Figure 5 have the
following functions and features:

C1 server is the main server that manages the meta data lists for C2 and C3 data servers and
access rights of users of the system. Among its functions are to set or modify server
configuration, allow viewing of data layers, historical data, location maps, make connection with
one or many GEOREX data servers and to vew users or group of users and their access rights to
the data. Access to this server is restricted to administrative personnel only.

4
C2 server is a data server that manages all the data information and controls the access rights of
each data. Among its functions are to set or modify server configuration, add, modify or delete
names of owner, collections, themes, layers, data files, keyword, keyword categories, location
maps and association of access rights to users; make connection to main server; and add, modify
or delete users or groups of users to have access to data server. Access to this server is restricted
to administrative personnel only.

C3 server is the server that controls the database related to hydrological modelling. Among its
functions are to set or modify server configuration of the server, integrate, modify, delete or
suppress new hydrometeorological station, delete or archive data used in forecasting, make
connection to main server; and add, modify or delete users or groups of users to have access to
hydrological server. Access to this server is restricted to administrative personnel only.

GEOREX Hydro is a module that allows users to retrieve hydrological data from C3 server,
executes SSARR modelling and determines if forecast water level is at “alert”, “warning’ or
“danger” level. It also allows users to search information stored related to a telemetry station
based on user-specified date and time, input new water level or rainfall data and input forecast
water level or rainfall data. Access to this module is through the Internet protocol and restricted
to DID personnel authorized to carry out SSARR modelling.

Georex Flood Client is a module that allows end users to view or extract information from C2
and C3 servers to assist in the decision making process during flood operations. It also allows
users to execute functions such as selecting location maps or hydrometeorological stations,
searching for information based on date or water level and viewing of metadata such as river,
road and evacuation centres, results of water level forecast and statistical analysis. This module
can be accessed by anyone with authorized access to view the information.

5.2 Implementation

All the five components of GEOREX Flood System have been installed in MACRES, DID Ampang
and DID Kota Bharu. Whilst only GEOREX Flood Client was installed in DID Kuala Krai. At
present, not all components at each location are active. The C3 server in MACRES is not active
and being set up as a backup to the C3 server in DID Ampang. Similarly, C1 and C2 servers in
DID Ampang are not active and act as back-up to the servers in MACRES. The system in DID Kota
Bharu runs as a stand alone system due to the current Internet infrastructure limitation. The
Internet communications between each location are depicted in the Figure 6.

6.0 Results and Discussions

The GEOREX Flood System was operationally tested in December 2003. Water level forecasts at
6-hour intervals were carried out for every 24-hour period using real time data from the
telemetric stations. The results of SSARR modelling with 10-day initial conditions are as shown in
Figure 7. In comparison with the results from Tank Model which is being used by DID in their
flood forecasting, SSARR modelling requires further refinement, in particular with respect to
parameters used in its calibration, sufficiency of the input data for real-time forecasting and
sufficiency of the duration of the initial conditions.

Eventhough the communications link between MACRES and DID Ampang was successful,
MACRES existing leased line bandwidth did not permit efficient communications. It was observed
that connection to the servers in MACRES from DID was very slow between 8.30 am to 10.30
am and 2.30 pm to 4.00 pm. Apart from the congestion of the bandwidth, there were other
possible causes affecting the communication link. One possible cause might be the occurrence of
SMTP termination in the C2 server which led to failure in the execution of GEOREX Flood Client
functionalities. Such occurrence might be due to conflict of SMTP in the C2 server and MACRES
e-mail server. Internet Information Services (IIS) and World Wide Web terminations in the C2
server also occurred which might have an effect on the speed of accessing to the server. To
resolve this, Windows 2000 service pack for the server was updated. Event log of the C2 server
also showed attempts of unauthorized users from abroad to access to the C2 server.

5
As local area network at DID Kota Bharu was not operational in December 2003 due to earlier
incident of virus attack, an attempt was made to assess the servers in MACRES using the
telephone dial-up line. However, the attempt was aborted as communication link was
unrealistically too slow.

Eleven scenes of Radarsat images over Kelantan were successfully acquired by MACRES Ground
Receiving Station (MGRS) in December 2003. Occurrences of flooding could be detected as
shown in Figure 8. At present, work is underway to verify the flood extent boundaries extracted
from these images with field observations.

7.0 Conclusions

The project has successfully demonstrated the integration of satellite remote sensing, GIS,
hydrology and telecommunication technologies in the implementation of an operational system
to manage the occurrence of monsoon floods. For end-users such as the National Security
Council (NSC) to utilize the system, it is recommended that a dedicated broadband
communications infrastructure be established between MACRES and the end-users to ensure an
efficient on-line communication.

8.0 Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Director of MACRES, Director General of DID, Canadian Space
Agency (CSA), Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and Le Bureau Geo Info inc
(LBGI) for their supports in the implementation of this project. Our appreciation also goes to the
officers and staff of DID Kelantan for their continuous cooperation during this project.

Bibliographies

1. SSARR User Manual. US Army Corps of Engineers. January 1991.

2. Mardiana S., et al, “Flood Monitoring Using Radarsat Data”. Natural Resources and
Environmental Management Program (NaREM) Final Results Seminar – Towards
Operationalization of NaREM, 12 December 2000, MACRES, Kuala Lumpur
3. Reports to MACRES – DID MOU Steering Committee Meetings, 28 March 2001, 5 July
2002 and 3 March 2003.

6
 Table 1: List of Spatial Data

No. Type Item

1 Administrative boundary • Boundary State • Mukim
• District • Town

2 Infrastructure • Car Track • Railway Track

• Single Highway • Transmission line
• Single Carrigeway • Unseal Road
3 Drainage features • Double Canal • Lake
• Single Canal • Single River
4 Statistics • Population 1991 • Population 2000
• Household 1991
5 Emergency Response • Evacuation Centre
6 Soil and geology • Soil type • Geology
7 Land cover • Land use
8 Hydrology • Flood gauges • Discharge station
• Telemetry station (rainfall
and water level)
9 Topography • Contours

Table 2: Hydrometeorological Stations for SSARR Model

1
No. Name of Station Type of Station Sub-catchment
1 Gunung Gagau Rainfall (T) - - Lebir
2 Kg. Aring Rainfall (T) - - Lebir
Kg. Tualang - Water Level (T) Discharge Lebir
3 Gua Musang Rainfall (T) - - Dabong
4 Dabong Rainfall (T) Water Level (T) Discharge Dabong
5 Chabai Rainfall (nT) - - Nenggiri
2
6 Pasik Rainfall (nT) - - Nenggiri
2
7 Bertam Bridge - Water Level (nT) - Nenggiri
7 Kg. Jeli Rainfall (T) - - Pergau
8 Batu Lembu2 - Water Level (nT) - Pergau
9 Kg Laloh Rainfall (T) - - Kuala Krai
10 Kuala Krai Rainfall (T) Water Level (T) - Kuala Krai
11 Guillemard Rainfall (T) Water Level (T) Discharge Guillemard
Bridge

1
Watershed in the SSARR Model
2
Satellite telemetry installed in November 2003
T Telemetric station
nT Non-telemetric station

7
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8
 Landsat-5 TM

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Jan 1999ofStandard 6 Using Landsat TM and Radarsat Images
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9
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10
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Figure 4: Flow Chart of Image Processing Procedures to Extract Flood Extent Boundaries

11
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12
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13
Figure 7: 24-hour Water Level Forecast
14
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11 December 2003

15