Expanding Flood Inundation Mapping for Infrastructure Impacts under CIROH

Follum Hydrologic Solutions (FHS) is teaming with Brigham Young University under a CIROH-funded research effort to expand the National Water Model (NWM) Flood Inundation Mapping (FIM) framework to better assess and communicate flood impacts on infrastructure. The project integrates FHS’s open-source Automated Rating Curve (ARC) and Curve2Flood tools into the existing CIROH FIM ecosystem, enabling the direct conversion of ensemble NWM streamflows into detailed hydraulic variables, probabilistic flood inundation maps, and topobathymetric surfaces at continental scales. By building on decades of applied hydraulic modeling research, FHS delivers efficient, data-sparse solutions that align with NOAA’s open-science and open-source strategies.

FHS also advances how flood risk information reaches decision-makers by improving visualization and consequence assessment. The team adapts ARC and Curve2Flood outputs to comply with CIROH FIM database standards, ensuring effective data discovery, dissemination, and reuse. Using consequence assessment tools such as the National Structure Inventory and GO-Consequences, FHS develops and tests new visualizations that directly link flood hydraulics and inundation to potential impacts on buildings and critical infrastructure. The team validates these methods using historical flood events and archived damage data and documents the results through open repositories and peer-reviewed publications to support flood early warning, risk communication, and infrastructure resilience planning.