@misc{AyzelHeistermannWinterrath2019,
  author    = {Ayzel, Georgy and Heistermann, Maik and Winterrath, Tanja},
  title     = {Optical flow models as an open benchmark for radar-based precipitation nowcasting (rainymotion v0.1)},
  series = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe},
  journal   = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe},
  number    = {709},
  issn      = {1866-8372},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-42933},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-429333},
  pages     = {16},
  year      = {2019},
  abstract  = {Quantitative precipitation nowcasting (QPN) has become an essential technique in various application contexts, such as early warning or urban sewage control. A common heuristic prediction approach is to track the motion of precipitation features from a sequence of weather radar images and then to displace the precipitation field to the imminent future (minutes to hours) based on that motion, assuming that the intensity of the features remains constant ("Lagrangian persistence"). In that context, "optical flow" has become one of the most popular tracking techniques. Yet the present landscape of computational QPN models still struggles with producing open software implementations. Focusing on this gap, we have developed and extensively benchmarked a stack of models based on different optical flow algorithms for the tracking step and a set of parsimonious extrapolation procedures based on image warping and advection. We demonstrate that these models provide skillful predictions comparable with or even superior to state-of-the-art operational software. Our software library ("rainymotion") for precipitation nowcasting is written in the Python programming language and openly available at GitHub (https://github.com/hydrogo/rainymotion, Ayzel et al., 2019). That way, the library may serve as a tool for providing fast, free, and transparent solutions that could serve as a benchmark for further model development and hypothesis testing - a benchmark that is far more advanced than the conventional benchmark of Eulerian persistence commonly used in QPN verification experiments.},
  language  = {en}
}
@misc{SeleemAyzelCostaTomazdeSouzaetal.2022,
  author    = {Seleem, Omar and Ayzel, Georgy and Costa Tomaz de Souza, Arthur and Bronstert, Axel and Heistermann, Maik},
  title     = {Towards urban flood susceptibility mapping using data-driven models in Berlin, Germany},
  series = {Zweitver{\"o}ffentlichungen der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe},
  journal   = {Zweitver{\"o}ffentlichungen der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe},
  number    = {1297},
  issn      = {1866-8372},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-57680},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-576806},
  pages     = {1640 -- 1662},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {Identifying urban pluvial flood-prone areas is necessary but the application of two-dimensional hydrodynamic models is limited to small areas. Data-driven models have been showing their ability to map flood susceptibility but their application in urban pluvial flooding is still rare. A flood inventory (4333 flooded locations) and 11 factors which potentially indicate an increased hazard for pluvial flooding were used to implement convolutional neural network (CNN), artificial neural network (ANN), random forest (RF) and support vector machine (SVM) to: (1) Map flood susceptibility in Berlin at 30, 10, 5, and 2 m spatial resolutions. (2) Evaluate the trained models' transferability in space. (3) Estimate the most useful factors for flood susceptibility mapping. The models' performance was validated using the Kappa, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). The results indicated that all models perform very well (minimum AUC = 0.87 for the testing dataset). The RF models outperformed all other models at all spatial resolutions and the RF model at 2 m spatial resolution was superior for the present flood inventory and predictor variables. The majority of the models had a moderate performance for predictions outside the training area based on Kappa evaluation (minimum AUC = 0.8). Aspect and altitude were the most influencing factors on the image-based and point-based models respectively. Data-driven models can be a reliable tool for urban pluvial flood susceptibility mapping wherever a reliable flood inventory is available.},
  language  = {en}
}
@misc{SeleemAyzelBronstertetal.2023,
  author    = {Seleem, Omar and Ayzel, Georgy and Bronstert, Axel and Heistermann, Maik},
  title     = {Transferability of data-driven models to predict urban pluvial flood water depth in Berlin, Germany},
  series = {Zweitver{\"o}ffentlichungen der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe},
  journal   = {Zweitver{\"o}ffentlichungen der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe},
  number    = {1323},
  issn      = {1866-8372},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-58916},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-589168},
  pages     = {809 -- 822},
  year      = {2023},
  abstract  = {Data-driven models have been recently suggested to surrogate computationally expensive hydrodynamic models to map flood hazards. However, most studies focused on developing models for the same area or the same precipitation event. It is thus not obvious how transferable the models are in space. This study evaluates the performance of a convolutional neural network (CNN) based on the U-Net architecture and the random forest (RF) algorithm to predict flood water depth, the models' transferability in space and performance improvement using transfer learning techniques. We used three study areas in Berlin to train, validate and test the models. The results showed that (1) the RF models outperformed the CNN models for predictions within the training domain, presumable at the cost of overfitting; (2) the CNN models had significantly higher potential than the RF models to generalize beyond the training domain; and (3) the CNN models could better benefit from transfer learning technique to boost their performance outside training domains than RF models.},
  language  = {en}
}