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EP-4427185-B1 - AUTOMATED OPTICAL-BASED SYSTEM PROVIDING DYNAMIC PARAMETRIC FLOOD IMPACT COVER AND METHOD THEREOF

EP4427185B1EP 4427185 B1EP4427185 B1EP 4427185B1EP-4427185-B1

Inventors

  • SUNDERMANN, Lukas

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20221103

Claims (14)

  1. An optical-based measuring and/or forecasting method for measuring a quantitative flooding extent (44) and flooding impact measure (45) for physical objects (3) located within a topographic area (2) impacted by an occurrence of a flood event (4), comprising measuring by means of satellite-based and airplane-based aerial remote sensing devices (102/1023/1024) of an optical-based measuring and/or forecasting system (1), optical imaging sensory data (1021) and transmitting said optical imaging sensory data (1021) via a data transmission link (111) to a central ground station (10), comprising: capturing a geographic and/or topographic area (2) to be covered by a predefined data structure (1005) of a flood map generator (100), the data structure (1005) at least comprising definable area parameters (10051) capturing geographic location (100511) and geographic extent (100523) of said geographic and/or topographic area (2) and measuring parameters related to measurands depending on the physical, location-dependent event strength, location, and measured time window, and generating a flood map (1007) by the flood map generator (100) based on the transmitted optical imaging sensory data (1021) comprising at least measured elevation measurements based on transmitted drone sensory data and location data using the predefined data structure (1005), wherein the flood map is generated by the flood map generator (100) through multi-source measuring parameter (1021) processing based on measured satellite radar imagery at least augmented with measured flood data optical satellite imagery and aerial optical imagery and accounting for terrain and hydrology by water sheds measuring data and digital terrain modelling the flood map (1007) comprising peak flood extend and depth, generating spaced network points (10081) over said geographic and/or topographic area (2) providing a meshed network (1008) of network points (10081) having a definable mesh size (10082) and covering the whole geographic and/or topographic area (2), wherein a gird (1002) of grid cells (1003) over the geographic and/or topographic area (2) is defined by the meshed network (1008) each grid cell (1003) having a network point (10081) as a centroid, wherein the geographic and/or topographic area (2) is completely covered by the grid cells (1003) of the grid (1002), wherein the network points (10081) are adjusted to geographic or topographic characteristics within the mesh network (1008) with an adjustable spacing (10083), and wherein after the occurrence of the flood event (4), the affected area (21) of said geographic and/or topographic area (2) is measured based on measuring a flooding at each network point (10081) of the meshed network (1008) within the affected area (21) based on the flood map (1007), detecting an occurrence of a flood event (4) by using a loopback signaling (1022) for signaling of the satellite-based and airplane-based aerial remote sensing devices (102/1023,1024), aggregating, after a measured occurrence of a flood event (4/41,...,43), for an affected area (21) of said geographic and/or topographic area (2) the total number of network points within the affected area (21), wherein network points (10081) measured as flooded (100811) are contributing to the measured affected area (21) while network points (10081) measured as not flooded (100812) are contributing to the area (22) measured as not affected, and measuring the flooding extent value (44) and/or flooding impact measure value (45) of the affected area (21) based on the network points (1008) measured as flooded (10081) to the total number of network points of the geographic and/or topographic area (2).
  2. An automated method according claim 1, characterized by further providing a dynamic parametric flood impact cover (1031) for a physical object (3/31) physically impacted by the occurrence of the flood event (4) by using an adaptive damage-cover structure (1041) based on the measured flooding extent value (44) and/or the flooding impact measure value (45), generating the parametric coverage (1031) covering a possible loss associated with the occurrence of the flood event (4) impacting the geographic area (2) measured by the affected area (21), as per the adjustable damage-cover structure (1041) a flood threshold measure (1031) is triggered by an electronic threshold-trigger (103), wherein the threshold-trigger is selected from a measured percentage value (23) given by the measured affected area (21) to the geographic area (2) or the measured affected network points (100811) to the total number of network points (100813); and transferring, by an electronic payment transfer module, based on the generated parametric coverage (1031) monetary pay-out parameter values by electronic payment transfer to an impacted physical object (3/31) and/or a risk-exposed individual associated with an impacted physical object (3/31).
  3. Method according to one of the claims 1 or 2, characterized in that network points (10081) are measured as flooded when each network point (10081) of a defined area is flooded.
  4. Method according to one of the claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the network points (10081) are regularly spaced within the mesh network (1008) with a pre-definable spacing (10083).
  5. Method according to claim 4, characterized in that the network points (10081) are essentially 0.005 x 0.005 deg mesh network points (10081).
  6. Method according to one of the claims 4 or 5, characterized in that the network points (10081) represent the corner points of two dimensional m x n blocks.
  7. Method according to claim 6, characterized in that the dimensional m x n blocks are of approx. 8.72*10-5 radian.
  8. Method according to one of the claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the topographic area (2) comprising unvarying landscape representative of area covered by dry land (24) and wetland (25).
  9. Method according to one of the claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the occurrence of the flood event (4) is detected using loopback signaling (1022).
  10. Method according to one of the claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the mesh network points (10081) measured as flooded (100811) are determined using at least a machine-learning approach.
  11. Method according to one of the claims 1 to 10, characterized in that the affected area (21) is measured using on-air imaging devices.
  12. Method according to one of the claims 1 to 11, characterized in that a step of generating a premium value based on the payout coverage (1031) associated with a measurement.
  13. An optical-based measuring and forecasting system (1) for providing a dynamic parametric cover (1031) in case of a measured occurrence of a flood event (2) by using an adaptive damage cover structure (1041) based on physical flood event measurements, comprising a predefined data structure (1005) to capture a geographic and/or topographic area (2) to be covered, the data structure (1005) at least comprising definable area parameters (10051) capturing geographic location (100511) and/or geographic extent (100512) of said geographic and/or topographic area (2), wherein the optical-based system (1) comprises satellite-based and airplane-based aerial remote sensing devices (102/1023,1024) for measuring optical imaging sensory data (1021) and transmitting said optical imaging sensory data (1021) via a data transmission link (111) and network (11) to a central ground station (10), further defined: in that the central ground station (10) comprises a flood map generator (100) for capturing the geographic and/or topographic area (2) by means of a measured flood map (1007) using the data structure (1005), the data structure (1005) further comprising measuring parameters related to measurands depending on the physical, location-dependent event strength, location, and measured time window, and for generating the flood map (1007) by the flood map generator (100) based on the transmitted optical imaging sensory data (1021) comprising at least measured elevation measurements based on transmitted drone sensory data and location data using the predefined data structure (1005), wherein the flood map is generated by the flood map generator (100) through multi-source measuring parameter (1021) processing based on measured satellite radar imagery at least augmented with measured flood data optical satellite imagery and aerial optical imagery and accounting for terrain and hydrology by water sheds measuring data and digital terrain modelling the flood map (1007) comprising peak flood extend and depth, in that the central ground station (10) comprises a meshed network structure (1008) of network points (10081) generated with spaced network points (1008) over said geographic and/or topographic area (2) having a definable mesh size (10082) and covering the whole geographic and/or topographic area (2), wherein the network points (10081) are adjusted to geographic or topographic characteristics within the mesh network (1008) with an adjustable spacing (10083), and wherein after the occurrence of the flood event (4), the affected area (21) of said geographic and/or topographic area (2) is measured based on measuring a flooding at each network point (10081) of the meshed network (1008) within the affected area (21) based on the flood map (1007), in that an occurrence of a flood event (4) is detected by using a loopback signaling (1022) for signaling of the satellite-based and airplane-based aerial remote sensing devices (102/1023,1024), and in that the central ground station (10) comprises a measuring engine for aggregating, after an occurrence of a flood event (4), within an affected area (21) of said geographic and/or topographic area (2) the total number of network points (100813), wherein network points (10081) measured as flooded are contributing to the measured affected area (21) while network points (10082) measured as not flooded are contributing to the area (22) measured as not affected, and for measuring the flooding extent value (44) and/or flooding impact measure value (45) of the affected area (21) based on the network points (10081) measured as flooded (100811) to the total number of network points (100813) of the affected area (21).
  14. An optical-based measuring and forecasting system (1) according to claim 13, wherein a parametric coverage (1031) is generated covering a loss associated with the occurrence of the flood event (4) and impacting the geographic area (2) measured by the affected area (21), as per the adjustable damage-cover structure (1041) a threshold measure (1032) is triggered by a threshold-trigger (103), wherein the threshold-trigger is selected from a percentage (23) of the affected area (21) to the geographic area (2), and wherein by an electronic payment transfer module, based on the generated parametric coverage (1031), monetary pay-out parameter values are transferred by electronic payment transfer to the flood-exposed physical object (3) and/or an individual associated with the flood-exposed physical object (3).

Description

Field of the invention The field of the invention is directed towards automated systems providing parametric flood event impact cover to one or more objects based on forward-looking measurements of occurrences and occurrence rates of measurable physical impacts of catastrophic events, in particular measurably impacting flood events. The measurements related to measurands depending on the physical, location-dependent event strength, location (as geographic area-based, cell-based, event strength line based, or geographic or topographic coordinate based (as latitude and longitude)), and measured time window, in particular to measurable impacts associated with the occurrence of flood events. Further, the invention is directed to automated parametric mitigation or transfer of the measured forward-looking impact to a specific object by an automated risk-transfer or risk-absorption system, where the impact e.g. is measured in units of expected damage rate, percentage or other quantifying and/or measuring units associated with the measured forward-looking impact the specific object. This invention further relates to automated methods and systems for automated location-dependent recognition of flood occurrence probabilities (denoted as flood hazards), where flood states are automatically measured or captured, and location-dependent forward-looking probability values are automatically determined, measured or generated based on the direct measuring link to the physical environment and/or measuring-based stochastically modeling. Finally, the invention relates to digital, modular platforms for automated mitigation of impacted physical damages to physical objects on a certain geographic location and future time window. Background of the invention Among the most impacting, damaging, and destructive natural or geophysical disaster of the world, floods are most frequent and uncertain type. Floods endangers lives, properties, infrastructures and damage a lot of livelihoods within a short period of time. Figure 1 showing the physical impact of floods measured by monetary losses incurred in different countries. Controlling floods are difficult, but minimizing the impact by technical approaches is necessary. It is difficult to identify which measure is the better strategy and policy to deal with the floods. The combination of the human vulnerability and the physical exposures result in flood hazards. These losses and hazards can be minimized by making aware the public beforehand by providing them the reliable and suitable measuring data about flood risks, i.e. about the measurable probability value of having a certain impact strength to an object by an occurring flood event with a certain strength. Reliable prediction by technical forecast systems relying on measuring parameter values, preparedness, prevention, diminishing, and damage assessment are the stages of flood disaster management. Flood inundation maps are an important technical tool for providing the data in an accessible way. They reflect for different flood event types, the topographic forecasted pattern of a particular site, the sum of people and physical objects at risk, population anticipation and coping with the disaster and flood protection works. These are a crucial technical requirement for automated flood risk mitigation and risk-transfer rate pricing, municipal planning, ecological studies and set up of emergency action plans. Advancements in Remote Sensing (RS), technical modelling and forecasting and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) turned out to be important and particularly technically useful in flood inundation mapping. Floods can be predicted and flood risk areas can be identified via modelling with appropriately selected sensory input like hydrologic engineering centers-river analysis system (HEC-RAS) and hydrologic engineering centers-hydrologic modelling system (HEC-HMS) clubbing with GIS and Remote Sensing(RS). For example, for one-dimensional and unsteady-flow simulations of the designed floods, HEC-RAS and GIS can be used. Flood maps be generated for different return periods and these maps can be mapped to provide a comparison with other maps, e.g. using gradient or deviation measurements. This can be required for the technical prediction of floods. Not all flood events have the same impact, wherein the impact may vary in strength as well as in type. In urban contexts, for example, flooding can e.g. pose a significant hazard to moving vehicles and causes traffic disruption by placing water flow in the transportation network, resulting in vehicles being swept away, injuries, and the loss of life of passengers. The remote detection of urban flooding over a large area will allow cities to develop flood maps to reduce risk during weather events. Mapping urban flood events is a challenge for three main reasons: the urban environment is highly complex with waterways and drains at submeter resolutions, the flooding will be shallow and ephemeral, an