The GloFAS Reporting Point layer consists of a queryable map, with pop-out windows providing additional information.

Reporting Point map

The figure below explains the Reporting Points map layer. The definition of the reporting points is described in CEMS-Flood diagnostic and web reporting points.

Reporting points are defined according to the most severe flood signal in the 30-day forecast horizon, using three severity levels (yellow = 2-year, red = 5-yar and purple = 20-year). The following rules are used:

Flood intensity (colour) according to the probability of exceedance of the three flood thresholds. The reporting point marker colours (from light yellow to dark purple) are consistent with the 'Flood Summary for days 1-30' map, showing the same main colours (yellow, red or purple), without the sub-categories of the probability of exceedance information. The following colours and flood category cases are displayed for the reporting points:

  • Purple: 20-year probability exceeds 30%
  • Red: 20-year probability is below 30% and 5-year probability exceeds 30%
  • Yellow: 5-year probability is below 30% and 2-year probability exceeds 30%
  • Grey: fixed reporting points where no flood signal is forecasted (2-year probability <30%)

Flood tendency (shape) according to the evolution of flood intensity signal over the forecast horizon:

  • Upward triangle: increasing trend of the ensemble median discharge values over the next 30-days. Defined when the 30-day maximum of the median values exceeds the initial river discharge by at least 10%.
  • Downward triangle: decreasing trend of the ensemble median discharge over the next 30-days. Defined when the 30-day maximum of the median is not higher than 10% of the initial discharge and the minimum of the median values is at least 10% below the initial river discharge.
  • Circle: no trend of the ensemble median discharge over the next 30-days. All cases other than the two above are characterised as stagnant flow.

Flood peak timing (border and greyed colours) according to the forecasting timing of the peak flood:

  • Black border contour (default yellow/red/purple shading): flood peak (date of the highest probability) is forecasted within days 1-3.
  • Greyed colour (greyed version of yellow/red/purple shading): flood peak is forecasted after day 10, without any flood within the first 10 days (<30% probability to exceed the 2-year return period flood threshold in the first 10 days).
  • Grey border contour (default yellow/red/purple shading): all other cases with some severity of floods in the first 10 days (>30% probability to exceed the 2-year return period flood threshold) and peaks after day 3.

Flood probability (numbers):

  • Numbers denote the percentage of ensemble members exceeding the specific return period (of the chosen severity level). Numbers are not shown on low zoom levels, where a large area of the world is visible and not shown either for greyed-coloured reporting points which show distant floods beyond day 10.

Pop-out windows

Additional information associated with the reporting point layer is available from the map viewer as pop-up plots. These plots display information such as:

  • Point geographical information: e.g. station coordinates and the equivalent coordinates on the GloFAS river network, country, basin, river, station names or the catchment area.

  • Forecast summary: e.g. forecast issue date, probability values, tendency and time to peak.

  • Flood hydrograph: time evolution of the ensemble forecast river discharge

  • Summary diagrams of catchment meteorological forcing: precipitation, snowmelt and temperature.

  • Consistency diagrams: show the evolution of the forecast signal over forecast run time. They display the forecast threshold exceedance for each return period threshold (2-, 5-, 20-year) for each day of the forecast horizon for the latest seven consecutive forecast runs.