Assessing Flood Impacts Using a Multi-Scale Geodatabase for Newcastle (UK)

In support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11 to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, this project develops a geospatial flood database model to assess the impact of floods on the environment, society and infrastructure in Newcastle upon Tyne (UK). The Environment Agency's Risk of Flooding from Surface Water dataset 3.3 percent annual chance will be used to answer questions, such as: Which flood-impacted areas have vulnerable population groups? Where are the most flooded buildings? How much agriculture is impacted? Financial damage of flooded residential buildings is estimated based on flood depth, building type and year. The model further integrates dynamic (real-time) river level measures from the Environment Agency UK and daily rainfall accumulation from the Urban Observatory Newcastle. This solution presents a novel modelling approach combining spatial analysis with data science. It integrates heterogeneous data from different sources, such as Environment Agency, Office for National Statistics and UK Government in a common framework, designs a flood geodatabase model and provides assessment capabilities for three different areas. Integrating dynamic weather and environmental data in real-time provides added value to stakeholders compared to conventional hazard maps. The geodatabase is modelled using Esri ArcGIS Pro 2.5 with the Spatial Analyst and 3D Analyst as main extensions. The integrated Jupyter Notebooks serve as a scripting environment providing Python libraries (ArcPy) in addition to the geospatial tools for flood impact analysis. For data integration and batch operations, the Feature Manipulation Engine (FME) is used. Analyses results of different areas are merged and integrated in a ArcGIS Operations Dashboard offering advanced analytical capabilities, i.e. 3D map, KPIs, lists and charts. The final project is presented using ArcGIS Experience Builder. This solution has the potential to work towards a more resilient city with a sustainable infrastructure. The hazard of flooding and flood impacted areas call for a particular level of awareness amongst citizens, local authorities and government involved in emergency management. The flood geodatabase provides first responders a more profound data foundation, helps to assess risks in advance and enables more targeted response due to better preparation. This integrated framework fosters the reproducibility of the research as the analysis can be applied to other UK cities and is scalable across city-levels. This solution supports the geodesign community by addressing various urban flood-related issues of interest to different stakeholders. Data is extracted using REST API services based on Python to enrich statistical or geographical data for three different reporting levels of the UK Census. This standardized automated process allows for time-efficient analysis and regional or national comparison. With the growing number of publicly freely available datasets, this presented approach can be extended internationally to other cities, regions and states. The audience can benefit from a holistic overview of the assessment of flood impacts on the environment, society and infrastructure using static and real-time data. They can focus on individual areas and explore their interconnectedness, e.g.: vulnerable population groups located in places susceptible to flooding (e.g. nursing homes at risk of flooding from surface water located near a river). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Follow us on Social Media! Twitter: https://twitter.com/Esri Facebook: https://facebook.com/EsriGIS LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/esri Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/esrigram The Science of Where: http://www.esri.com