Impact of various flood scenarios on urban emergency responses times based on the TELEMAC-2D model

Pluvial floods can inundate urban road networks which then disrupts traffic flows and public services; thereby, increasing emergency response times. This study used the TELEMAC-2D model to simulate flooding of the Qianshanhe catchment for 50 and 100 year design rainstorms to analyze the response times of hospital ambulances, fire station emergency vehicles and police vehicles in the Qianshanhe catchment for various flooding scenarios. The results show that the average ambulance response time without flooding is 19 min, the average emergency vehicle response time is 24 min and the average police vehicle response time is 15.8 min. The 50 year flood scenario will flood some of the roads which will reduce the average ambulance response time to 133.7 min, the average emergency vehicle response time to 241.8 min and the average police vehicle response time to 201 min, which are much longer than the response times without flooding. The 100 year scenario will flood most roads which will reduce the average ambulance response time to 220.1 min, the average emergency vehicle response time to 366 min and the average police vehicle response time to 304 min. Only areas near the hospitals, fire stations or police stations will get rapid responses, while other areas will get very slow responses. These results show that flooding will significantly affect emergency response times and that roads need to be improved to avoid greater losses. The TELEMAC-2D model is very useful for analyzing the effects of flooding and the emergency response capabilities for urban flooding for urban emergency management.