FloodArea HPC 11.6 User Manual
Welcome to the FloodArea!
Since its first release in 2001, more and more authorities, municipalities, engineering companies and research institutions in now 20 countries across 5 continents have come to rely on the high-end simulation and modeling tool FloodArea HPC 11.
FloodArea HPC 11 is a raster-based, hydrodynamic numerical model. In addition to various flood hazard mapping projects, large atlas projects (e.g. Rhine Atlas, Oder Atlas, Elbe Atlas) and operational dike breach modeling, the model has been used for heavy rainfall and development of decentralized flood protection measures for 20 years. The area size and resolution are not limited by the model. With the computing resources currently available at geomer, areas with up to 10 billion raster cells can be processed in a single simulation.
We are continuously working on the improvement of FloodArea HPC 11.
The latest version (11.6) from 2025 includes the following improvements:
Internal slope calculations for special situations like ditches or roof runoff have been revised.
Exchange directions were increased from 16 to 32, resulting in more uniform flow fields.
Additionally, momentum representation was improved and optimizations were made in the area of very low water depths. Strong wave formation in narrow channel structures (e.g. overflow of 1px wide ditches) is now avoided.
Interpolation between different roughness value rasters was improved.
Improvements in tiling lead to better distribution of computational load across available processor cores. Tiles where the digital terrain model contains only NoData values no longer consume memory or CPU resources.
Inactive calculation tiles, i.e. areas where nothing needs to be calculated at the moment, do not burden simulation resources.
Optimization of volume balance to nearly 100%. The volume balance is now broken down in detail by individual elements: (i) Model input: rainfall, pump input and water level; (ii) Water in system; (iii) Leaving the model system: infiltration, pump connections without destination, and water flowing over model boundaries and NoData areas.
New handling of NoData values: Outflows into NoData areas are removed from the model system. NoData areas are no longer flow obstacles. This now allows clearer representation of model boundaries or removal of water bodies that should not be considered in the simulation. No buffer zone is needed anymore!
Extended integrity checks at program start reduce calculation errors due to faulty input data. Improved error messages facilitate troubleshooting.
New functions for pump connections: Flow connections can now be given a flow momentum (direction) to generate a more realistic flow pattern. The water levels at inlet and outlet of the pump connection can now be compared so that pumping only occurs when the water level at the outlet is lower than at the inlet.
Complete integration of all functionalities in ArcGIS Pro. Further development of functionalities only takes place for ArcGIS Pro. The GUI under Map will not be maintained further.
Version 11.4 (2022) included the following improvements:
Improved error output and troubleshooting
Output of volume balance and pump characteristics
Multiple infiltration curves can be used simultaneously
The FloodArea from 2021 brought the following innovations:
Improved error detection
Further optimization of computational performance through the latest gdal-version
A new calculation option: time-variable infiltration
Revision of the animation tool, enabling creation of mp4 videos
FloodArea HPC 11.4 User Manual.
If you are still working with FloodArea HPC 11.4 and need the manual follow this for this version folllow this link. A local version of the user manual is downloaded as a .zip file. Inside the html folder, you will find the file index.html. You can use this file to open the manual.