FLOODSS: A flood operational decision support system

The paper describes the implementation of a flood operational decision support System (FLOODSS) aimed at analysing and anticipating catastrophic flood events and at preventing and mitigating their effects on the social environmental and cultural heritage. FLOODS responds to the public administrations' need for an integrated tool that, taking advantage of available high performance computer platforms, allows one to locate areas at risk and to estimate expected damages; to forecast floods and inundation phenomena; to evaluate the effects of decisions; and to conduct continuous training of personnel. The system includes a set of relational and mathematical models all integrated and linked to a relational data bank, a geographical information system (GIS), a Knowledge Based System, and an advanced and interactive graphical users interface.