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<br />Advantages and Disadvantages of Manual Flood Warning Systems <br /> <br />Advantal!es Disadvantal!es <br />Simple to operate Costly delays in data collection/warning <br /> dissemination for short-fused flood <br /> events with short lead times <br />Inexpensive High turnover rate of community <br /> volunteers, leading to reduced <br /> effectiveness <br />Encourages high level of Not as timely or accurate as automated <br />communitv involvement svstems <br /> Volunteers - requires training and <br /> retraininll <br /> <br />Automated Svstems <br />Communities are increasingly turning to automated systems as their costs decline and their <br />reliability increases, Systems vary to which and how many components are automated, A fully <br />automated system consists of automated precipitation and river gages, a radio data transmission <br />system, and a computer to process the data and provide a flood forecast. An example of a <br />modern automated flood warning system (ALERT) is described below, The following table lists <br />the advantages and disadvantages of an automated system, <br /> <br />Advantages and Disadvantages of Automated Flood Warning Systems <br /> <br />Advanta.:.es Disadvanta.:.es <br />Provides timely, accurate, and High initial cost <br />reliable data and warninlls <br />Provides stable data network Requires high level of expertise to <br /> install and in some cases to use <br />Provides comprehensive May require costly periodic <br />historical data base replacement <br />Continuously updates Maintenance costs of hardware and <br />information to provide current software may be substantial <br />(real-time) data as it occurs <br /> <br />ALERT <br />The Automated Local Evaluation in Real Time (ALERT) system, a typical automated local flood <br />warning system, was developed by the NWS California-Nevada River Forecast Center in <br />Sacrarnento, California, Available from private vendors, the ALERT system is being adopted at <br />a growing number of sites for flood warnings, reservoir management control, flood fighting and <br />data acquisition. This type of system is becoming widely used in the southwest United States, <br />including Colorado, The Urban Drainage and Flood Control District, in conjunction with a <br />private meteorologist (currently John Henz, Henz Meteorological Services) provides flash flood <br /> <br />II <br />