I always imagined that the global flood was created by a comet or meteor hitting one of our oceans and sending tsunamis around the planet and rain that would last a long time.
Nothing in any of the global flood stories contradicts that theory (so far) that I am aware of.
If so, then the knowledge that this was going to happen, with instructions to build a substantial sea-worthy vessel indicates some serious knowledge of space and trajectories and the consequences of what was going to happen.
The flood was a consequence of the final capture of the Southern part of our system (Neptune, Saturn, Mars, Earth), that is, the bodies with the roughly 26-degree axis tilts, by our present sun.