Flood zones detection using a runoff model built on Hexagonal shape based cellular automata

This article presents a 3D geographic information systems (GIS) modeling and simulation of water flow in a landscape defined by a digital terrain model, provided by some available geolocation APIs. The proposed approach uses a cellular automata based algorithm to calculate water flow dynamic. The methodology was tested on a case study area of 27kmx19km located in Tangier, north of Morocco. In fact, we aim to detect flood zones in order to prevent problems related to space occupation in urban and rural regions. Some indices can be deduced from the stream shape using Cellular Automata (CA) based approach that can reduce the complexity related to space structures with multiple changes. A spatiotemporal simulation of the runoff process is provided using 3D visualization that we can pair with geographical information system tools (GIS). The 3D GIS modeling approach that was developed for the analyses of flood zones detection using a runoff model based on cellular automata was comprised of three main steps: Input (collection of data), calculation (CA tool) and visualization (3D simulation). 7 pages, 19 figures, Published with International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT)