A multi-strategy-mode waterlogging-prediction framework for urban flood depth

Flooding is one of the most disruptive natural disasters, causing substantial loss of life and property damage. Coastal cities in Asia face floods almost every year due to monsoon influences. Early notification of flooding events enables governments to implement focused preventive actions. Specifically, short-term forecasts can buy time for evacuation and emergency rescue, giving flood victims timely relief. This paper proposes a novel multi-strategy-mode waterlogging-prediction (MSMWP) framework for forecasting waterlogging depth based on time series prediction and a machine learning regression method. The framework integrates historical rainfall and waterlogging depth to predict near-future waterlogging in time under future meteorological circumstances. An expanded rainfall model is proposed to consider the positive correlation of future rainfall with waterlogging. By selecting a suitable prediction strategy, adjusting the optimal model parameters, and then comparing the different algorithms, the optimal configuration of prediction is selected. In the actual-value testing, the selected model has high computational efficiency, and the accuracy of predicting the waterlogging depth after 30 min can reach 86.1 %, which is superior to many data-driven prediction models for waterlogging depth. The framework is useful for accurately predicting the depth of a target point promptly. The prompt dissemination of early warning information is crucial to preventing casualties and property damage.