Roadway Flood Severity Index
Output from the RFSI during the March 2019 rain-on-snow / ice jamming flooding event along the Missouri River. Blue counties were identified by the model as “no flooding” while orange counties were highlighted for possible flooding. Gray counties lacked sufficient data for the model to make a prediction.
The Roadway Flood Severity Index (RFSI) project is a proof-of-concept funded by the United States Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, as part of the 2020 Emergency Planning Transportation Data Initiative. The goal of this project is to integrate geo-located weather, hydrologic, and roadway information during flooding conditions to improve public safety, emergency evacuation, and response capabilities.
The core foundation of the RFSI is based on NCAR’s coupled atmospheric hydrologic, WRF-Hydro, which is used operationally as the National Water Model.
The initial tool provides a retrospective (1982-2020) assessment of daily, county-level potential areas of roadway flooding. Ongoing efforts are refining the tool for predictive applications and finer resolution down to the road segment level.