Advances in Urban Flood Studies: Modeling, Monitoring, Strategic Planning, and Lessons Learned

Flooding in urban areas is one of the most significant and impactful natural hazards, with recent deadly disasters underscoring its global importance. However, it remains particularly challenging to model and mitigate due to the topographic complexity of urban landscapes, the erratic nature of fine-scale precipitation, and the typically short response times that limit mitigation efforts. The built environment—including building infrastructure and urban drainage networks—both influences and is affected by urban flooding. Despite its critical importance, the complex interactions between urban flooding and the built environment, as well as their impacts on human lives, property, and infrastructure, remain poorly understood and inadequately modeled. Advancing research in this area is essential for developing effective risk mitigation strategies at the urban scale.

Despite existing limitations, recent technological advancements have opened new pathways for understanding and modeling urban flooding, significantly reducing uncertainties. Earth observation technologies, including remote sensing and rainfall forecasting tools, offer transformative potential for early-warning systems and retrospective disaster analyses. Non-conventional data sources such as social media footage, crowd-sourced information, and insurance datasets are also increasingly employed to model flood dynamics and assess their impacts on communities and infrastructure.

Drones and photogrammetric technologies now enable detailed assessments of terrain and built environments, allowing for unprecedented precision in urban terrain representation. Advances in numerical methods and machine learning have enabled the development of more efficient and innovative flood modeling approaches. These include novel methods for integrating urban drainage systems into flood models, cost-effective flood prediction algorithms, and fine-scale modeling of critical features, such as floodwater intrusion into buildings.

Additionally, studying past disasters in detail, under comprehensive assessment of all risk parameters (hazard, exposure, vulnerability), remains vital for informing strategic planning, enhancing preparedness, and avoiding the recurrence of similar events.

This Special Issue invites contributions that highlight recent advances in the study of urban flooding, spanning modeling, monitoring, and innovative approaches to inform design and planning while harnessing lessons from past disasters. We welcome submissions in the form of original research, review articles, case studies, and technical notes that align with the following themes:

•Development of innovative urban flood monitoring networks, including the use of crowdsourcing and Earth observation data for hazard monitoring and prediction.
•Utilization of novel data sources (e.g., proxy records, insurance claims, and crowd-sourced data) to enhance flood modeling, improve predictive accuracy, and assess elements at risk.
•Technological advancements in urban terrain representation, such as drones, photogrammetry, and high-resolution digital surface models, for improved flood analysis.
•Advances in urban flood modeling, ranging from low-cost, fast-processing schemes to detailed, fine-scale assessments of flood dynamics, including simulations of floodwater intrusion and analyses of impacts on critical infrastructure.
•Strategic planning for resilient urban design and mitigation measures, informed by risk and resilience assessments.
•Post-event analyses of recent urban flood disasters, with a focus on spatio-temporal dynamics, the value of disaster memory, and proactive strategies to mitigate future risks.