Flood Analysis

The social and economic interest in floods is becoming increasingly greater and climate change forecasts have brought into perspective the relevance of water management issues. The traditional approach for risk reduction has focused on building large infrastructures such as dams or channeling existing waterways, both solutions that have proved historically insufficient and now require a different approach that entails taking an in-depth look at risk management practices and soil planning measures as essential instruments to improve civil protection.

Blom, as leader in the field of generating high value added products based on land data acquisition, provides river models obtained from LiDAR data and digital imagery to be used in flood analysis.

In addition to using a conventional airplane-mounted LiDAR system for collecting data, Blom has introduced a technology that provides much more detailed and accurate information: Blom’s TopEye MKIII system. This is a proprietary LiDAR system exclusively developed by Blom and characterized by high precision levels under 5 cm, GSD orthophotos of up to 1 pixel per cm and resolution of up to 200 points per m2. This system enables the perfect characterization of the river channels and the transversal man made structures that cross them. The engineering studies obtained with this system are an unprecedented leap in terms of data quality that will allow for perfect definition of river channels, vegetation cover, bridges and other man-made structures that are obstacles to free water flow.

Flood models are primarily used for flood risk management strategy definition, land-use planning, land management, emergency planning and management and public awareness raising. This models are mainly used by Public Administration, but private companies from the insurance sector have started using them as decision assessment tools.