LISFLOOD is a spatially distributed rainfall-runoff-routing model. It was first developed at the Joint Research Centre in 2000, and has been used for operational flood forecasting at the pan-European scale since the beginning of EFAS. From the version 3.1, it is also used as main hydrological model in GloFAS. Driven by meteorological forcing data (of precipitation, temperature, potential evapotranspiration, and evaporation rates for open water and bare soil surfaces), LISFLOOD calculates a complete water balance (for GloFAS at a daily time step) for every grid cell of the domain. The runoff produced at every grid cell is routed through the river network using a kinematic wave approach. The model also includes options to simulate lakes, reservoirs and water abstraction. LISFLOOD is coded using the Python programming language and a PCRaster Python extension. LISFLOOD and its associated tools are all open-source. The LISFLOOD source code, model documentation, test catchments and tools can be found at the LISFLOOD OS page.

Conceptual diagram of the major hydrological processes in the LISFLOOD model