Developed for the
Department of Natural Resources, Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB), the
Colorado Flood Decision Support System provides a one-stop shop for floodplain
and emergency managers for snowpack, streamflow, flood maps, and other related
data to allow them to estimate risk and near future conditions up to and above
a NWS flood warning and alert.
The
Flood DSS is a web based GIS mapping application that displays a variety of
flood-related data, including: historic flooding, critical facilities,
community flood insurance information, wildfire risk, and FEMA flood hazard
layers. In addition to the regulatory and hazard information, a real-time data
component was included, which is useful for assessing current and near-future
conditions. The real time data consists of precipitation radar, streamflow
conditions, air temperature, gauge measured precipitation, NWS and NOAA radar
estimated precipitation products, flood warnings, U.S.D.A.’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) SNOTEL
data (SNOwpack TELemetry), and the Snow Data Assimilation System (SNODAS)
modeled spatial snowpack data. CWCB and HDR’s seasonal Flood Threat Bulletin
products are also available in spatial and text format from May to September.
Features within the application allow users to find locations by address,
provide distance measuring tools, and the ability to identify features for more
information.
Future phases may include
incorporating more data layers and possibly even a mobile application for smart
phones. Customer feedback and suggestions are welcomed for future phases of the
CWCB FloodDSS and can be sent to chris.sturm@state.co.us or carolyn.fritz@state.co.us.
