OPAQUE -

Operationelle Abfluss- und Hochwasservorhersage in Quellgebieten   operational discharge and flooding predictions in head catchments

Final Workshops March 2010

• Kempten, Karlsruhe, Pirna, Oberhofen
• Presentations in the internal section

OPAQUE Project

OPAQUE (Operationelle Abfluss- und Hochwasservorhersage in Quellgebieten - operational discharge and flooding predictions in head catchments) is part of the BMBF-Förderaktivität "Risikomanagement extremer Hochwasserereignisse" (RIMAX - risk management of extrem flooding events).

Floodings in head catchments have a high potential for damages of societey and environment because of short lead times and rapid increases of the water level. Therefore, the management of exterme floodings requires very precise operational predictions of rainfall-runoff processes as well as matching control of reservoirs and retention basins. Reliable operational predictions of rainfall-runoff processes in head catchments are very difficult because of high spatio-temporal variability of the precipitation and the non-linearity of the catchment response.

The goal of the project is to reduce the uncertainties of the above mentioned predictions. There are several reasons for the uncertainties in the flood predictions:

• large uncertainties in rainfall predictions on this scale
• certain lacks of hydrological models used on this scale
• missing reliable methods for the identification of critical states of the catchment (e.g. critical soil moisture)

More reliable warnings in terms of time, location, and water level as well as an improved flooding management in such areas has a high potential for risk reduction.