doi: 10.18178/ijesd.2025.16.5.1545
RaINS and HEC-HMS Applications for Flood Nowcasting in the Langat River Basin
Wardah Tahir1,*
,
Noor Shazwani Osman1 ,
Jazuri Abdullah1 ,
Muhammad Azizi Mohd Ariffin2 ,
Hafiz Hassan3 ,
Lariyah Mohd Sidek4 ,
Hidayah Basri5 ,
Suzana Ramli1 ,
Nursalleh K Chang6 ,
Yip Weng Sang6
- 1Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
- 2Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, Malaysia
- 3Department of Irrigation and Drainage, Kuala Lumpur 50626 Malaysia
- 4ZHL Engineers Sdn Bhd Seri Kembangan, Selangor 43300 Malaysia
- 5Dam Safety Management & Engineering Group, Institute of Energy Infrastructure, Universiti Tenaga Nasional
- 6Malaysian Meteorological Department, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
- Manuscript receivedDecember 8, 2024
- revisedJanuary 23, 2025
- acceptedApril 9, 2025
- publishedSeptember 19, 2025
Abstract
Floods are one of the most prevalent naturaldisasters in the world, posing substantial hazards to human lifeand causing extensive property damage. Reliable floodforecasting enables timelier flood rescue and evacuation,resulting in fewer socioeconomic losses. Despite improvements,existing flood forecasting systems lack the reliability requiredfor practical use in real-world scenarios. Inaccurate forecastingcan erode public trust, which may reduce the possibility thatpeople will follow warnings in the future. This paper describesthe application of the Radar Integrated Nowcasting System(RaINS) to produce 3h, 2h, and 1h calibrated QuantitativePrecipitation Nowcast (QPN) data for input to flood forecasting.The radar QPN is used as alternative rainfall input to thehydrological model in HEC-HMS software to simulate anextreme flood event over the Langat River basin, Malaysia.RaINS data combine radar advection adopting SWIRLS (ShortrangeWarning of Intense Rainstorms in Localized Systems)with the Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) model. Theresults indicate that the radar Quantitative PrecipitationEstimate (QPE) from RaINS can perform very well and isslightly better than the raingauge value in simulating the flood,with an NSE value of 0.77 for the raingauge estimation and 0.78for the RaINS QPE. However, the QPN data have not performedas accurately as the QPE, especially for the 2h and 3h lead times.Nonetheless, although not quantitatively precise, the simulationresults indicate that the QPN data can provide an earlyapproximation of the impending flood disaster. Integrating QPNderived from the RaINS data with the HEC-HMS model canprovide a flood nowcasting system with an extended lead timefor timely warnings and rescue operations. The simulated casestudy is scalable to other regions. Further research isrecommended to enhance the reliability of the QPN and theintegrated flood nowcasting system.
Keywords
- flood nowcasting
- RaINS
- Langat River Basin
- mean bias correction
- radar rainfall
- Quantitative Precipitation Estimates (QPE)
- Quantitative Precipitation Nowcast (QPN)
How to Cite
Wardah Tahir, Noor Shazwani Osman, Jazuri Abdullah, Muhammad Azizi Mohd Ariffin, Hafiz Hassan, Lariyah Mohd Sidek, Hidayah Basri, Suzana Ramli, Nursalleh K Chang, and Yip Weng Sang, "RaINS and HEC-HMS Applications for Flood Nowcasting in the Langat River Basin," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development, vol. 16, no. 5, pp. 364-373, 2025. https://doi.org/10.18178/ijesd.2025.16.5.1545
Copyright & License
Copyright © 2025 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).