A reach-integrated hydraulic modelling approach  for large-scale and real-time inundation mapping

Chlumsky, Robert; Craig, James R.; Tolson, Bryan A.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-3387-2025

Articles | Volume 18, issue 11

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-3387-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-3387-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 18, issue 11

Development and technical paper

|

12 Jun 2025

Development and technical paper |

| 12 Jun 2025

A reach-integrated hydraulic modelling approach for large-scale and real-time inundation mapping

Robert Chlumsky, James R. Craig, and Bryan A. Tolson

Data sets

Blackbird source code and supporting data sets for benchmarking study Robert Chlumsky et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15042083

Model code and software

Blackbird Heron Hydrologic https://heronhydrologic.ca/blackbird/

Short summary

We aim to improve mapping of floods and present a new method for hydraulic modelling that uses a combination of novel geospatial analysis and existing hydraulic modelling approaches. This method is wrapped into a modelling software called Blackbird. We compared Blackbird with two other existing options for flood mapping and found that the Blackbird model outperformed both. The Blackbird model has the potential to support real-time and large-scale flood mapping applications in the future.