During the high water levels a few days ago there was some fear the dike at Woltersum might break. People were evacuated and the dike was monitored closely (see eg http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_19686918).

The dike did not break fortunately. However, it would be interesting to see what would have happened if it did break. So one of our colleagues, Tom van Tilburg, installed the Anuga flooding model (http://anuga.anu.edu.au/). In record time this model was configured using GIS data and executed for this specific polder.

Below the situation (water depth) is shown after 45 minutes.The dike broke in this simulation just southwest of Woltersum (in the middle of the dark blue polygon).

The results are just an indication, and absolutely not accurate, validated or whatever. For example, a random speed of 450 cubic meters per second is used for the flooding in stead of a flooding based on the canal properties itself.

Despite the result being just an indication, the speed at which the model van installed and configured using GIS data like height data (AHN) and topographic data (Top10NL) was impressive. Within two hours after downloading the model we had results. And a result based on real, large scale GIS data. With just a bit more accurate estimation of the flooding speed, the results would be more than just an indication.