National Flood Forecasting and Warning System of Malaysia: An Overview

Abstract

Across Malaysia, an estimated fifth of the population is at risk of flooding. Large areas of the country repeatedly suffer from prolonged, significant floods; these cause widespread disruption for communities, business and critical infrastructure, often requiring many tens of thousands of people to be evacuated from affected areas. The Malaysian Government’s Department of Irrigation and Drainage (Jabatan Pengairan dan Saliran - JPS) provides a flood forecasting and warning service to the public. JPS is rolling out a program based upon the phased implementation of systems, which together form a new National Flood Forecasting and Warning System (NaFFWS) for its key river basins. The objective of the new NaFFWS is to develop and maintain an effective and efficient integrated flood forecasting and river monitoring system, with flood warning dissemination, using national telemetry network data, radar data and various rainfall forecasts; the NaFFWS is a tool designed to enable effective decision support by JPS. This paper presents the automation of flood forecasting that enables NaFFWS for three east coast catchments of Malaysia. It covers the structure of the operational system, the creation of flood alerts and their dissemination. Some of the key challenges and solutions to overcome them in order to produce a fast and resilient system are discussed.