THE LASER SCAN DATA AS A KEY ELEMENT IN THE HYDRAULIC FLOOD MODELLING IN URBAN AREAS

Abstract. This paper is intended to highlight the need to use data at high spatial resolution, such as those obtained through the use of Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) techniques, to support hydraulic models for the assessment of flood hazards in urban territory. In fact, the significant structural features (houses, walls, roads, etc.) in the city are important in relation to both the volume of the floodplain that can be occupied by the flow and the direction that the flow takes across the floodplain. ALS data can range up to several terabytes in size and is a function of the geographic scale of the mission. Also, this data is typically irregular with uneven point density. Therefore, a quick method is described to ride out the difficulties to handle the large datasets with uneven point densities and to improve the extracting of feature information for further use in Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis. Finally, a comparison is made between the maximum inundated area obtained from ALS data and that one calculated using a traditional topographic map. The results show that the high-resolution data obtained from airborne remote sensing can increase the opportunities for representation of small-scale structural elements in complex systems using two-dimensional models of flood inundation.