1. Flood Information and Notification System (FINS)
History, Current, and Future of the Flood Information and Notification System (FINS) of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina
Josh McSwain
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services
First time giving this presentation, so may rely on cheat sheet to keep me on track and on time. Since we have two projects on the Trustees current agenda that will not be discussing, I will be focusing on the larger initiatives underway in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County and the magnitude of those efforts.

2. FINS History: Why is a flood warning system needed?
Bottom line, flooding is a threat to human life.
Flood warning became one part of the Strategic Floodplain Guidance Document developed in the late 90’s.
David Ford Consulting Engineers was hired to study the different methods of detecting possible floods (Ex. Forecasting, Modeling, Real-time Analysis).
Our best option was Real-time Analysis

3. Flood System Requirements
Real-time rain and stream data
Gages and instruments to measure data
Method to report the measured data
Maintenance of field equipment and computers
A plan to receive the data, monitor, and issue warnings
Funding
Staffing for a 24hr 7day system
Particular sites to protect (warning sites) =

4. USGS Partnership
Mecklenburg County has had a working relationship with the USGS for 30+ years and rain and stream gages have been in place for 40+ years.
1960's         's         's         's         's        51
Currently Mecklenburg County pays approximately $260,000 as part of the partnership to manage FINS. Overall operation budget of just under $1 million (split between the city of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, and the USGS).
USGS maintains all gage equipment (installation and routine maintenance) along with the radio equipment used to transmit and receive the alert and polling data. Also, they capture, post process, and store all of the alert and polling data within our network of gages.

5. Receive Alert Data
Alert data is transmitted (from the gage) using a protocol called ALERT.
This data is recognized by our radio equipment, decoded, then passed to DIADvisor and Contrail where it is written to a database.
FINSLIVE and DIADvisor then displays the rain and stream.

6. Monitor Alert Data and send out Warnings
Threat recognition rules developed for 12 vulnerable sites in the county.
Each site has 3 levels of threat status: alert, investigate, emergency.
Total of 59 unique precipitation and stage rules (some with as many as 35 threats) also we have 48 system component rules. Precipitation and stage threats are based on water level, rate of rise, rainfall, and mean areal precipitation (MAP).
Example of Precipitation Rule

7. Gage Network 51 Streamgages – 2.5 to 92 sq. mi.
73 Raingages (1 per 7.5 sq. mi.)
4 Base Stations Receiving Data
Routine (Polling) Data - Fixed Interval (USGS)
ALERT Data – True Real-Time, Event Driven

8. Aviso FS – HEC HMS

9. Streamgages Pressure Transducers / Stilling Wells / Radars
Water Level Checked Every Minute (once threshold is exceeded) Alert transmits every few seconds
Routine (Polling) Data Recorded Every 5 Minutes
ALERT Data Based on Predetermined Water Level Threshold and/or Rate of Change

10. Benefits of the System
True Real-Time Data as Opposed to Near Real-Time (Flood Warning vs. 911 call)
Two-Way Communication / Data Verification
Redundancy to Cover Catastrophic Failures
Cooperation between Federal, County, and City Governments, and the Private Sector
Timely Response by Emergency Managers

11. FINS Room

12. FINS Future Enhancements
Webcams

13. Advancements Will Allow…
On-call staff and emergency service members to access data from anywhere with an internet connection
More than one user to access the data at anytime
User interaction with a GIS mapping application
Provide additional redundancy for system security and reliability

14. Additional plans for the Future of FINS
Update phase 2 of AvisoFS live Hec-HMS modeling
Explore the Alert2 protocol.
Questions?