By Greg DeLong
With many thoughts turned to the ever-present threat of flooding this abnormally wet season, a handful of researchers are working to alleviate the threat posed by rain.
BYU?s Civil Engineering Department is responsible for the development of software that aids in predicting where run-off will go and where flooding might occur.
Jim Nelson, BYU associate civil engineering professor, was heavily involved in the development of the technology, known as the Watershed Modeling System.
?I think this takes advantage of current technology both in computation and in geographic data to automate processes that were very mundane and laden with possible human errors,? Nelson said. ?It automates that process so that it doesn?t take us as long to do the background work, and we can focus more on the uncertainty and the engineering side of it.?
Last April, Nelson and Chris Smemoe, research associate for the BYU Civil Engineering Department, traveled to Egypt to teach Iraqis the same system, which they are currently using to help rebuild their country.
The WMS system utilizes digital terrain data, which Nelson and his team can then use to compute the area of a given ?watershed,? or drainage area. Pairing the watershed information with other factors, they can then ascertain the flow rate of the run-off, which in turn helps determine how much something like the Provo River could hold before flooding, Nelson said.
Aside from helping determine where flooding might occur, the system also has ramifications for the flood insurance industry in the U.S., Smemoe said.
Currently, flood insurance is calculated by determining boundaries where the extent of the flood might reach. Anyone inside the flood plain boundaries pays insurance; anyone outside the boundaries doesn?t, Smemoe said.
The BYU team proposes calculating flood insurance in a manner similar to car insurance, with higher risk customers paying a higher premium.
?We think that people who have a lower probability of flooding should have to pay less flood insurance than the people who have a higher probability of flooding,? Smemoe said.
The team can use the WMS and run multiple tests for an area and see with absolute certainty which particular areas were flooded every time, Nelson said. This would allow insurers to accurately calculate flood insurance based on the risk for a given area.
Even if insurance companies can?t be convinced to switch methods anytime soon, the WMS is still benefiting hundreds of organizations throughout the world, including federal, state and educational institutions, according to the BYU?s Environmental Modeling Research Laboratory Web site.
?It?s rewarding to be involved in something that?s used,? Nelson said. ?At the end of the day, hundreds of people are out there using the software to help them get their work done.?