Abstract

Floods are natural disasters that can be difficult topredict, as there are no obvious time or location factors. Thisstudy aims to improve flood-forecasting models in order toanalyze rainfall discharge and to investigate the threshold valuesfor conveying alert messages. Improvements of the operation ofexisting software-based resources are made by providing asimple interface on a Web-based system that conducts theanalysis by eliminating redundant steps from the computationprocedure and making it available beyond a stand-aloneoperation. Topography, rainfall, soil and land cover are mainfactors for a flood-forecasting model. Among them, rainfall isconsidered a driving factor with spatial-temporal aspects.Hydrological data such as Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission(TRMM) acquired through Internet communication is used toanalyze rainfall discharge and informative flood analysis as anear real-time data source. The rainfall discharge distribution inthe Wangthong watershed is proposed as an example of theworldwide use of TRMM data. The TRMM satellite is provingits worth regarding precipitation data, particularly for thoseareas where rainfall measuring is not practical. An integratedgeospatial Web-based system is established to facilitate publicawareness by allocating information in a timely manner withoutthe need for cumbersome software installation.