Simulation of flood disaster by use of breadth-first-search algorithm integrated with GIS

The prediction of inundated area helps to reduce flood-disaster damage efficiently by simulating the flood-spreading procedure. The principle and method of flood-spreading simulation were discussed. The needed surface-elevation model was built automatically from existing feature data by use of GIS. The models to simulate floodwater washing and floodwater storing were built using breadth-first-search algorithm. The detailed procedures were provided. The Hengren County of Liaoning Province was used as the study-area as an example. A flood was simulated with the Hengren Reservoir as the main floodwater source. The spatial analysis of GIS was used to predict and analyze the results. The simulating method provides supporting-decisions information for flood-disaster-defending department and base data for flood-disaster-evaluating department.