Development of a Global SDG Progress Index Aimed at “Leaving No One Behind”

The data used in this study are publicly available and can found online as follows: SDG Index https://www.sdgindex.org/reports/, GDP, and Population: International Monetary Fund web (i.e., 2017) https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2017/02/weodata/index.aspx. Surface area: World Bank DataBases https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/AG.SRF.TOTL.K2.The United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) constitute a set of shared global objectives for the development over the coming years, which both developed and developing countries are working together to achieve. It is, however, very difficult to know from tracking national-level SDG performance estimates whether steps are being taken to arrive at 2030 with an adequate degree of compliance, and fully delivering on the aim of “leaving no one behind”. This paper proposes and evaluates a Global SDG Progress Index which exploits the reported country rankings for the SDG Index, and incorporates a series of weighting coefficients to effectively involve all countries in improving SDG performance, regardless of their position in the ranking. Thresholds for the index are established to determine the adequacy of progress in relation to the 2030 goals. The results show that the current rate of progress in developing countries (assuming as an indicator GDP per capita values) is insufficient to achieve equitable compliance with the SDGs at the global level.Xunta de Galicia through the project "Ayudas para la consolidacion y estructuracion de unidades de investigacion competitivas. Modalidad "Grupo de referencia competitiva"" ED431C 2018/56European Union (EU) 754446UGR Research and Knowledge Transfer Fund-Athenea3

Comparison of three different numerical implementations tomodel rainfall-runoff transformation on roofs

Financiado para publicación en acceso aberto: Universidade da Coruña/CISUG[Abstract:] Roofs represent a high percentage of the impervious surfaces in urban areas, and hence their implementation in urban drainage models is essential for accurate results to be achieved. Current modelling approaches are based on parameters such as a roof's slope and width, its roughness coefficient, and the initial abstraction. In this study, an experimental campaign was performed in order to assess the sensitivity of the roof runoff hydrographs to these parameters. The experimental tests were carried out in a new large-scale urban drainage facility equipped with a rainfall simulator. The experimental tests were replicated numerically using three different levels of model resolution, from a high fidelity representation with a spatial resolution of 5 mm (which can be considered a digital twin) to a lumped representation. Our experimental results show that, for practical purposes, the sensitivity of the outlet runoff hydrograph to the roof slope tested is negligible. The numerical upscaling analysis carried out showed that flat roofs present a slightly different hydrograph behaviour with greater times of concentration than sloped roofs. No significant sensitivity of the outlet hydrograph to the surface roughness coefficient was found. In terms of numerical modelling, the use of a very high spatial resolution for the roof, which implies a high computational cost, does not affect the results significantly compared to the far simpler lumped approach. The current research involves the first thorough experimental and computational analysis of the runoff over roofs to date.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación; PID2020-118368RB-I0

A rapid flood inundation model for hazard mapping based on least squares support vector machine regression

Versión aceptada de https://doi.org/10.1111/jfr3.12522[Abstract:] Two-dimensional shallow water models are widely used tools for flood inundation mapping. However, even if High Performance Computing techniques have greatly decreased the computational time needed to run a 2D inundation model, this approach remains unsuitable for applications that require results in a very short time or a large number of model runs. In this paper we test a non-parametric regression model based on least squares support vector machines as a computationally efficient surrogate of the 2D shallow water equations for flood inundation mapping. The methodology is initially applied to a synthetic case study consisting of a straight river reach flowing towards the sea. A coastal urban area is then used as a real test case. Discharge in three streams and tide levels are used as predictor variables to estimate the spatial distribution of maximum water depth and velocity in the study area. The suitability of this regression model for the spatial prediction of flood hazard is evaluated. The results show the potential of the proposed regression technique for fast and accurate computation of flood extent and hazard maps.This work was financially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad) within the project “CAPRI: Probabilistic flood prediction with high resolution hydrologic models from radar rainfall estimates” (reference CGL2013-46245-R). María Bermúdez gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Regional Government of Galicia, Postdoctoral Grant Program 2014 (grant reference ED481B 2014/156-0) and 2018 (grant reference ED481B 2018/016).Xunta de Galicia; ED481B 2014/156-0Xunta de Galicia; ED481B 2018/01

Modelling Pluvial Flooding in Urban Areas Coupling the Models Iber and SWMM

[Abstract] Dual urban drainage models allow users to simulate pluvial urban flooding by analysing the interaction between the sewer network (minor drainage system) and the overland flow (major drainage system). This work presents a free distribution dual drainage model linking the models Iber and Storm Water Management Model (SWMM), which are a 2D overland flow model and a 1D sewer network model, respectively. The linking methodology consists in a step by step calling process from Iber to a Dynamic-link Library (DLL) that contains the functions in which the SWMM code is split. The work involves the validation of the model in a simplified urban street, in a full-scale urban drainage physical model and in a real urban settlement. The three study cases have been carefully chosen to show and validate the main capabilities of the model. Therefore, the model is developed as a tool that considers the main hydrological and hydraulic processes during a rainfall event in an urban basin, allowing the user to plan, evaluate and design new or existing urban drainage systems in a realistic way.Xunta de Galicia; EAPA_45/201

Using integrated hydrological–hydraulic modelling and global data sources to analyse the February 2023 floods in the Umbeluzi Catchment (Mozambique)

[Abstract:] On 9–13 February 2023 an intense flood event took place in the province of Maputo (Mozambique), resulting in severe damage to agricultural lands and transport infrastructure and with serious consequences for the population. In the district of Boane, located a few kilometres downstream of the Pequenos Libombos dam, the flood destroyed many food crops as well as two bridges linking the district to Maputo, thus affecting the food security of the population. These events are quite frequent in this region, making the delineation of improved flood hazard maps and the development of new flood risk management plans necessary. We reproduce this flood event with a high-resolution integrated hydrologic-hydraulic model fed with freely available global data sources, using a methodology that can be easily reproduced in other data-scarce regions. The model results are validated with observed estimations of the inflow to the Pequenos Libombos reservoir, with water marks left by the flood in the district of Boane, and with a Sentinel-1 image taken during the recession of the flood. We analyse the effect of the Pequenos Libombos reservoir on the flood hazard, which was subject to debate among the affected population and in the media. The results obtained show that integrated hydrologic–hydraulic models based on two-dimensional shallow-water equations, combined with global databases, are currently able to reasonably reproduce the extent and peak discharge of extreme flood events in data-scarce basins and are therefore very useful tools for the development of flood management plans in these regions

MERLIN: a flood hazard forecasting system for coastal river reaches

Versión aceptada de https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-020-03855-7[Abstract:] This study presents MERLIN, an innovative flood hazard forecasting system for predicting discharges and water levels at flood prone areas of coastal catchments. Discharge forecasts are preceded by a hindcast stage. During this stage, the hydrological models assimilate soil moisture and hydro-meteorological observations to evaluate soil infiltration capacities at the beginning of the discharge forecast. Predicted discharges are converted to water-level forecasts using the hydraulic model Iber+, a GPU-parallelized bidimensional flow model. Hydraulic models also assimilate tidal-level forecasts in order to define the boundary conditions of the models. The performance of MERLIN was evaluated over 4 months at three coastal catchments of 4.95, 16.96, and 83.9 km2. Forecasted discharges and water levels presented a good fit to observed values, especially at the larger catchments, which confirmed the potential utility of the presented system.Funding was provided by European Regional Development Fund

Efecto de la densidad de población y la distribución de tallas en la erosión de berberechos Cerastoderma edule adultos

A series of experimental flume experiments were carried out to evaluate the passive transport of the adult cockle Cerastoderma edule with shell sizes from 15 to 35 mm. The purpose of the study was to measure the erosion of this bivalve under controlled laboratory conditions, reproducing the current velocities and the cockle size distribution found at the Lombos do Ulla river mouth in Spain during high river discharges. Increasing velocities (0.29, 0.31, 0.35, 0.40, 0.44 and 0.47 m s–1) were applied to the bivalves, analysing the influence of population density (500 and 1000 ind. m–2), activity (live vs dead individuals), and mollusc size and distribution. To assess the effect of bivalve size distribution on the cockle transport, uniform and non-uniform cockle size distributions were tested. The particle image velocimetry technique and the double-averaged methodology were used to determine velocity fields during the experiments. In the experiments cockle erosion rates were found to be directly related to the flow velocity and inversely related to the population density. The erosion behaviour of uniform and graded cockle size distributions showed differences similar to those found in the bedload transport of uniform and non-uniform sediment mixtures. Our results provide a mechanism to explain the observed physical transport of bivalve populations after large storm events.En este trabajo se han desarrollado una serie de ensayos en laboratorio analizando el transporte de berberechos Cerastoderma edule adultos de tamaños de entre 15 y 35 mm. El objetivo del estudio ha sido medir la erosión de este bivalvo bajo condiciones controladas de laboratorio, reproduciendo las velocidades y la distribución de tamaños del berberecho del banco marisquero de Os Lombos do Ulla (España) durante episodios de caudales altos en la desembocadura del río. Una serie de velocidades crecientes (0.29, 0.31, 0.35, 0.40, 0.44 y 0.47 m s–1) fueron aplicadas a los bivalvos, analizando la influencia de la densidad de población (500 y 1000 ind. m–2), la actividad (berberechos vivos vs muertos), y la talla y distribución de tamaños. Para estudiar el efecto de la distribución de tamaños de los bivalvos en su transporte se emplearon distribuciones uniformes y no uniformes de berberechos. Para estimar los campos de velocidades durante los experimentos se aplicó la técnica de velocimetría láser de partículas (PIV) y la metodología del doble promediado (DA). En los experimentos se halló que el transporte de los berberechos está directamente relacionado con la velocidad del flujo e inversamente relacionado con la densidad de población. Los procesos de erosión de las distribuciones de berberechos uniformes y graduadas presentaron diferencias similares a las halladas en el transporte de mezclas de sedimentos uniformes y no uniformes. Los resultados obtenidos proporcionan un mecanismo que explica el transporte observado de las poblaciones de bivalvos después de grandes episodios de tormenta

Estimation of flood-exposed population in data-scarce regions combining satellite imagery and high resolution hydrological-hydraulic modelling: A case study in the Licungo basin (Mozambique)

Financiado para publicación en acceso aberto: Universidade da Coruña/CISUG[Abstract:] Study Region Licungo basin (Mozambique) Study Focus The Licungo basin (23,263 km2) suffers frequent severe flooding due to tropical storms, in a country that is among the world’s most vulnerable in terms of exposure to weather-related hazards and climate change. We propose a methodology for the estimation of the population exposed to flooding at the catchment scale in data-scarce regions, combining satellite imagery with integrated high-resolution hydrological-hydraulic modelling. All the input data needed are retrieved from freely-available global satellite products. The numerical model is also freeware. The methodology is therefore replicable worldwide. An estimate of the flood extent and exposed population during Tropical Storm Ana (January 2022) is presented as a case study. New Hydrological Insights for the Region Current freely-available satellite products in combination with high-resolution hydrological-hydraulic models can be used to estimate the population exposed to flooding in the whole catchment. This estimate is more realistic than the one obtained using satellite imagery alone, since satellite images are very rarely taken at the time of maximum flooding. Using the proposed methodology, we estimate that over 273,000 people (out of 1.5 million) were exposed to flooding in the Licungo basin during Tropical Storm Ana. This represents 18% of the basin population and is 8 times larger than the estimate obtained using only the available satellite images.European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Operations (ECHO); ECHO/-SF/BUD/2018/9100

Nonintrusive Method to Compute Water Discharge in Pipes with a Low Depth-to-Diameter Ratio Using Ultrasonic Doppler Velocimetry

[Abstract] A nonintrusive method to calculate water depth and discharge in partially full pipes using data from a single ultrasonic Doppler velocimeter (UDV) profiler is presented. The position of the free surface is identified from the velocity profiles measured with the UDV. The flow discharge is computed from an approximated parameterization of the velocity field in the cross-section, using a single measured velocity profile. The proposed methodology was applied to steady and unsteady flow conditions in two different pipes with diameters of 90 and 200 mm, and depth-to-diameter ratios up to 0.35. Under these conditions, the water depth and discharge were measured with mean absolute errors of 1 mm and 0.1 L=s in the 90-mm pipe and 0.5 mm and 0.05 L=s in the 200-mm pipe. These errors are almost independent of the discharge[Resumen] Este trabajo presenta un método no intrusivo para calcular el calado y el caudal en tuberías parcialmente llenas con datos de un solo perfilador Doppler ultrasónico (UDV). La posición de la superficie libre se identifica a partir de los perfiles de velocidad medidos con el UDV. El caudal de flujo se calcula a partir de una parametrización aproximada del campo de velocidades en la sección transversal, utilizando un único perfil vertical de velocidad medido en la sección central de la tubería. La metodología propuesta se ha aplicado a condiciones de flujo estacionarias y no estacionarias en dos tuberías de diámetros de 90 y 200 mm, y relaciones de y/H de hasta 0.35. En estas condiciones, el calado y caudal se midieron con errores medios absolutos de 1 mm y 0.1 L/s en el tubo de diámetro 90 mm y 0.5 mm y 0.05 L/s en el de 200 mm. Estos errores son casi independientes del caudal circulante