Products

The Pilot Service generates two types of output products daily. An IFS-driven run is always available. When the flood-indicator trigger is activated, an additional ICON-driven run is produced for the same date.

Streamflow Forecast

The streamflow forecast consists of simulated discharge time series at approximately 500 river sections distributed across 17 Italian catchment domains.

Covered Domains

FloodPROOFS operates across the following 17 Italian catchment domains:

  • Adige

  • Basilicata

  • Calabria

  • Friuli

  • Gargano

  • Lazio

  • Liguria

  • Liri

  • Marche

  • Po Basin

  • Puglia

  • Romagna

  • Sardegna

  • Sicilia

  • Tevere

  • Toscana

  • Volturno

Observed data and thresholds

Observed discharge time series and alert thresholds are collected from local authorities’ instrumentation and operational indications, coordinated and provided to the project by CIMA Foundation. Alert thresholds (Level 1, Level 2, Level 3) are defined on a per-station basis and are not available for every section.

Product format

  • File format: NetCDF (CF-1.8 conventions)

  • Spatial concept: multiple river sections, each identified by coordinates and metadata

  • Temporal resolution: hourly

  • Forecast window: 48 hours (IFS-driven run); 24 hours (ICON-driven run)

  • CRS: EPSG:4326

Core variables (units: m³/s):

  • simulated_discharge(time, sections) — hourly model output from FloodPROOFS

  • observed_discharge(time, sections) — provided by local authorities instrumentation channels

Per-section metadata includes:

  • Identifiers: id, tag

  • Names: section_name, station_name, catchment_name, domain_name

  • Administrative: municipality, province, region, basin

  • Coordinates: longitude(sections), latitude(sections)

  • Physical attributes: catchment_area_km2, correlation_time_hr, curve_number

  • Alert thresholds (where available, from local authorities): threshold_level_1, threshold_level_2, threshold_level_3

Input data specification

Input fields from Extremes-DT

Variable

Param ID

Short Name

Units

2m Temperature

167

2t

K

2m Dew Point Temperature

168

2d

K

10m U Wind Component

165

10u

m/s

10m V Wind Component

166

10v

m/s

Total Precipitation

228

tp

m

Surface SW Radiation Down (optional)

169

ssrd

J/m²

Surface LW Radiation Down (optional)

175

strd

J/m²

Total Cloud Cover (optional)

164

tcc

fraction (0–1)

Spatial resolution of the forcing:

  • IFS-driven run: 4.4 km (Extremes-DT)

  • ICON-driven run: 1.1 km (ICON high-resolution)

Return Period Forecast

The return-period product represents, for each pixel along the modelled Italian river network, the maximum return period of the flood event within the forecast window. Return periods are computed against the model climatology derived from a long-term simulation (2008–2022).

Product format

  • File format: GeoTIFF (single band), tiled and deflate compressed

  • CRS: EPSG:4326

  • Pixel size: ~0.005° × 0.005°

  • Raster size: 2500 × 2280 pixels

  • Extent: longitude 6.50° to 19.01°, latitude 36.30° to 47.70°

  • Data type: float32

  • NoData: −9999.0

  • Value range: 1 to 100 (years)

Data Availability and Timeliness

  • Products are generated daily from the automated pipeline.

  • IFS-driven products are available approximately 1 hour after the Extremes-DT forecast becomes available.

  • ICON-driven products are only available on dates when the AI-based flood indicator detects critical precipitation thresholds.

  • One streamflow NetCDF and one return-period GeoTIFF per model source (IFS/ICON) per day.