Visualization of Object-Centered Vulnerability to Possible Flood Hazards

Information

• Publication Type: Journal Paper with Conference Talk
• Workgroup(s)/Project(s):
  • Visualization Group
• Date: June 2015
• Journal: Computer Graphic Forum
• Volume: 34
• Number: 3
• Note: 3rd Best Paper Award
• Location: Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy
• Lecturer: Daniel Cornel
• ISSN: 1467-8659 (Online ISSN)
• Event: Euro Vis 2015
• Conference date: 25. May 2015 – 29. May 2015
• Pages: 331 – 340

Abstract

As flood events tend to happen more frequently, there is a growing demand for understanding the vulnerability of infrastructure to flood-related hazards. Such demand exists both for flood management personnel and the general public. Modern software tools are capable of generating uncertainty-aware flood predictions. However, the information addressing individual objects is incomplete, scattered, and hard to extract. In this paper, we address vulnerability to flood-related hazards focusing on a specific building. Our approach is based on the automatic extraction of relevant information from a large collection of pre-simulated flooding events, called a scenario pool. From this pool, we generate uncertainty-aware visualizations conveying the vulnerability of the building of interest to different kinds of flooding events. On the one hand, we display the adverse effects of the disaster on a detailed level, ranging from damage inflicted on the building facades or cellars to the accessibility of the important infrastructure in the vicinity. On the other hand, we provide visual indications of the events to which the building of interest is vulnerable in particular. Our visual encodings are displayed in the context of urban 3D renderings to establish an intuitive relation between geospatial and abstract information. We combine all the visualizations in a lightweight interface that enables the user to study the impacts and vulnerabilities of interest and explore the scenarios of choice. We evaluate our solution with experts involved in flood management and public communication.

Additional Files and Images

Weblinks

• http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/wol1/doi/10.1111/cgf.12645/abstract

BibTeX

@article{Cornel_Daniel_2015_VOC,
  title =      "Visualization of Object-Centered Vulnerability to Possible
               Flood Hazards",
  author =     "Daniel Cornel and Artem Konev and Berhard Sadransky and
               Zsolt Horvath and Eduard Gr\"{o}ller and J\"{u}rgen Waser",
  year =       "2015",
  abstract =   "As flood events tend to happen more frequently, there is a
               growing demand for understanding the vulnerability of
               infrastructure to flood-related hazards. Such demand exists
               both for flood management personnel and the general public.
               Modern software tools are capable of generating
               uncertainty-aware flood predictions. However, the
               information addressing individual objects is incomplete,
               scattered, and hard to extract. In this paper, we address
               vulnerability to flood-related hazards focusing on a
               specific building. Our approach is based on the automatic
               extraction of relevant information from a large collection
               of pre-simulated flooding events, called a scenario pool.
               From this pool, we generate uncertainty-aware visualizations
               conveying the vulnerability of the building of interest to
               different kinds of flooding events. On the one hand, we
               display the adverse effects of the disaster on a detailed
               level, ranging from damage inflicted on the building facades
               or cellars to the accessibility of the important
               infrastructure in the vicinity. On the other hand, we
               provide visual indications of the events to which the
               building of interest is vulnerable in particular. Our visual
               encodings are displayed in the context of urban 3D
               renderings to establish an intuitive relation between
               geospatial and abstract information. We combine all the
               visualizations in a lightweight interface that enables the
               user to study the impacts and vulnerabilities of interest
               and explore the scenarios of choice. We evaluate our
               solution with experts involved in flood management and
               public communication.",
  month =      jun,
  journal =    "Computer Graphic Forum",
  volume =     "34",
  number =     "3",
  note =       "3rd Best Paper Award",
  issn =       "1467-8659 (Online ISSN)",
  pages =      "331--340",
  URL =        "https://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/research/publications/2015/Cornel_Daniel_2015_VOC/",
}