Luke S. Smith, PhD, MEng (Hons), MBCS, AFHEA
Work
I develop software for hydraulic simulations of flooding, create web applications and maps, dabble in hydrology, and sometimes politics.
My academic research focuses on how to incorporate complex hydraulic and hydrological processes across large spatial extents in models, to simulate entire catchment systems without compromising accuracy. The techniques developed are appropriate for nowcasting urban flood events, designing and evaluating 'natural flood management' features, assessing the impacts of dam failure or defence breaches, and forecasting flood inundation in urban areas.
I'm currently Technical Architect at the Urban Observatory, at Newcastle University. I'm also Technical Director of grough, where we provide our own national mapping product for the outdoors, and a web application to plan routes.
HiPIMS
The high-performance integrated modelling system (HiPIMS) is a flexible integrated framework for hydraulic and hydrological modelling of catchment systems. Developed in C++ and OpenCL, it supports Unix and Windows systems and leverages the parallel processing power of CPU and GPU devices from Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA.
A single model can be split across multiple GPU devices, allowing millions of cells to be simulated with expediency. Current features include...
- Console and GUI versions of the software with a single XML-format configuration file and support for all common GIS data formats.
- Real-time 3D visualisations of flow data within the GUI version of the software.
- A range of numerical schemes are available for solving the shallow-water equations, including a second-order accurate MUSCL-Hancock approach, a first-order Godunov-type scheme, and a partial inertial approximation.
- A resilient approach to hydrodynamics which is shock-capturing, numerically stable, and prevents the occurence of negative water depths.
- Tested against analytical test cases and real-world applications, with demonstrable improvements in parameter sensitivity and performance for high-resolution simulations with millions of grid cells.
You can download the current version of HiPIMS, including the source code, on GitHub.
Publications, articles and conferences
Please get in touch if you would like presentation slides or more information. Whenever possible you will find an open version of each paper, which is identical in content but not typeset in the same format as the journal publication.
- Smith LS (2018) Computational methods for and applications of high-performance computing in flood simulation, Newcastle University, PhD Thesis. [source files]
- Liang Q, Smith LS, Xia X (2016) New prospects for computational hydraulics by leveraging high-performance heterogeneous computing techniques, Journal of Hydrodynamics Ser. B, 28(6):977-985.
- Rashid AA, Liang Q, Dawson RJ, Smith LS (2016) Calibrating a High-Performance Hydrodynamic Model for Broad-scale Flood Simulation: Application to Thames Estuary, London, UK, Procedia Engineering, 154:967-974.
- Smith LS, Liang Q (2015) A heterogeneous and parallel computing framework for high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations, Geophysical Research Abstracts, 17(EGU2015):6111, 12-17 April 2015, Vienna, Austria. [abstract]
- Smith LS, Liang Q, James P, Lin W (2017) Assessing the utility of social media as a data source for flood risk management using a real-time modelling framework, Journal of Flood Risk Management. [open version]
- Smith LS (2014) A flexible hydrodynamic modelling framework for GPUs and CPUs: Application to urban flood events, RainGain International Workshop on Urban Pluvial Flood Modelling, 6 October 2014, Met Office, Exeter, UK. [slides]
- Amouzgar R, Liang Q, Smith LS (2014) A GPU-accelerated shallow flow model for tsunami simulations, Proceedings of the ICE - Engineering and Computational Mechanics, 167(EM3):117-125.
- Liang Q, Smith LS (2014) A High-Performance Integrated Hydrodynamic Modelling System for Urban Flood Inundation, Journal of Hydroinformatics, 17(4):518-533. [open version]
- Zhang H, Wang Y, Liang Q, Smith LS, Kilsby CG (2014) Non-Negative Depth Reconstruction for a Two Dimensional Partial Inertial Inundation Model, Journal of Hydroinformatics, 16(5):1158-1177
- Smith LS, Liang Q, Quinn PF (2015) Towards a hydrodynamic modelling framework appropriate for applications in urban flood assessment and mitigation using heterogeneous computing, Urban Water Journal, 12(1):67-78. [open version]
- Smith LS, Liang Q, James P, Lin W (2014) Crowd-sourcing for a flood resilient city, Circulation (British Hydrological Society), 120:4-5.
- Liang Q, Smith LS (2013) A GPU-Accelerated Hydrodynamic Model for Urban Flood Inundation, Proceedings of the 35th IAHR World Congress, 8-13 September 2013, Chengdu China.
- Smith LS, Liang Q (2013) A flexible hydrodynamic modelling framework for GPUs and CPUs: Application to the Carlisle 2005 floods, International Conference on Flood Resilience: Experiences in Asia and Europe, 5-7 September 2013, Exeter UK. [slides]
- Smith LS, Liang Q (2013) Towards a generalised GPU/CPU shallow-flow modelling tool, Computers & Fluids, 88:334-343. [open version]
Get in touch
0191 208 6766
Room 2.048, Urban Sciences Building
Newcastle University
Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 5TG UK
