The first Copernicus Emergency Service (CEMS) Global Flood Forecasting and Monitoring Meeting was held online on 28 October, from 13 to 16 UTC, as part of the 2021 CEMS Week. 117 participants joined the event.

The main topics discussion topics were: GloFAS highlights from the last year and planned developments, the announcement of the foreseen operational release of the Global Flood Monitoring, the hydrological in-situ data collection, and the presentation of user cases.

This page presents a short summary of the event. The presentations (in pdf format) can be downloaded as single files using the links provided throughout the text, or they can be downloaded in bulk as zipped folder using the link at the bottom of the page: section Files (18.8 MB).

The Global Flood Awareness System (GloFAS) – highlights of the last year and planned developments

GloFAS is part of the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS). The system couples information from numerical weather prediction with hydrological modelling to provide global flood forecasts for large river catchments. GloFAS is complementary to national hydrological and meteorological systems. Information from GloFAS is freely available and provides ensemble hydrological forecasts and is updated on a daily basis. GloFAS also contains a seasonal component that is updated weekly. Version 3.2 of GloFAS is available since 27-10-2021.

• GloFAS 3.1 (model, evaluation layers, forecast summary, limitations) -  presented by Ervin Zsoter (CEMS Hydrological Forecast Centre-Computation, ECMWF) 
• Flood hazard to impact forecasting - presented by Calum Baugh (CEMS Hydrological Forecast Centre-Computation, ECMWF)
• Web and data services (CDS, WMS-T, ftp) - presented by Christel Prudhomme (CEMS Hydrological Forecast Centre-Computation, ECMWF).  The three contributions are available from [this link].​

GloFAS 4.0, also referred to as GloFAS Next, will be the next major operational release. In this new version the spatial resolution will be doubled from 0.1 degree to 0.05 degree, this will allow a more accurate representation of the river network and of the spatial variability of the catchments' physical properties. Thanks to the higher ressolution, catchments with an area over 500 km2 will be calibrated (in the previous version this was 5000 km2).

• A first glimpse into GloFAS 4.0 - presented by Stefania Grimaldi (EC JRC) [pdf]

In-situ hydrological data collection for GloFAS

The CEMS Hydrological Data Collection Centre collects historical in-situ observations of discharge at the global scale. The collection of in-situ observations of discharge and the subsequent implementation of quality checks is essential for the calibration and evaluation of GloFAS forecasts.

• Collection of global hydrological data; insight into the quality control - presented by Rafael Garcia (CEMS Hydrological Data Collection Centre, Soologic) [pdf]

The Global Flood Monitoring (GFM) – first operational release

A new operational, near real-time Global Flood Monitoring system (GFM) has been integrated into GloFAS. The new GFM provides continuous monitoring of floods worldwide by immediately processing and analyzing all incoming Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite data. Three algorithms run in parallel to compute the near-real time flood mapping products. GFM computes on a regular basis 8 different flood-related products, accessible via the MONITORING layer tab of the GloFAS map viewer. Seasonal differences can be taken into account.

• Methodology – Quick intro on GFM, explanation on the used methodology to generate flood extent maps, algorithms involved, data cube concept with SAR ARD – presented by Wolfgang Wagner (CEMS Global Flood Monitoring Centre) ​
• Products outline – Available product output layers, uncertainties and limitations – presented by Candace Chow (CEMS Global Flood Monitoring Centre)  ​
• Data access and demonstration – Data access, WMS-T, data download, notification system – presented by Wolfgang Kapferer & Patrick Wolf (CEMS Global Flood Monitoring Centre)  ​
• User support service – Product user manual, currently available user support service, user network creation - presented by Luca Molini  (CEMS Global Flood Monitoring Centre)

 The presentations of this section are available from [this link].

Global use cases and applications – user stories

A number of user stories presented the application of GloFAS and the Global Flood Monitoring System. 

The user stories included the application of GloFAS forecasts during the 2020 monsoon in the Brahmaputra basin in Pakistan; the use of GloFAS within the protcols of the World Food Program; the use of flood forecasts and the implementation of systems like GloFAS in Disaster Risk Financing; the Aristotle project for the provision of transboundary early warnings on 6 types of natural hazards to the EU Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC); case studies on how GloFAS and GFM complement each other for Thailand, China, India and Mexico; the use of GloFAS products to forecast power production.

• Anticipating flood events in Bangladesh using the GloFAS extended range flood forecast​ - presented by Arfizzaman Bhuyan (Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre, Bangladesh)
• Flood forecasting to inform humanitarian response​ - presented by Michael Manalili (World Food Programme)
• Development of Disaster Risk Financing Systems - presented by Elizabeth Rees ​ (Start Network)
• Flood Foresight: Flood forecasting for Disaster Risk Financing systems - presented by Kay Shelton​ (JBA Consulting)
• GLOFAS for small scale hydropower​- presented by Lorenzo Ramella  (DXT Commodities)
• ARISTOTLE-eENHSP flood hazard service - presented by Michaela Mikuličková​ (ARISTOTLE-eENHSP consortium)
• How GloFAS and GFM complement each other: case study in Thailand and China - presented by Wolfgang Wagner (Earth Observation Data Centre for Water Resource Monitoring)

The presentations of the ignite talks are available from [this link]