Recently, Google opened up its Flood Forecasting Initiative that uses Artificial Intelligence to predict when and where flood will occur for India and Bangladesh. They worked with governments to develop systems that predict flood and thus keep people safe and informed.
Google now covers 200 million people living in more than 250,000 square kilometers in India.
This topic was also touched upon in the Decode with Google event last week.
Initiative Plan
Google started this initiative back in 2018.
Floods are devastating natural disasters worldwide—it’s estimated that every year, 250 million people around the world are affected by floods, causing around $10 billion in damages.
The plan was to use AI and create forecasting models based on:
- historical events
- river level readings
- terrain and elevation of an area
An inside look at the flood forecasting was published here that covers:
1. The Inundation Model
2. Real time water level measurements
3. Elevation Map creation
4. Hydraulic modeling
Recent Improvements
The new approach devised for inundation modeling is called a morphological inundation model. It combines physics-based modeling with machine learning to create more accurate and scalable inundation models in real-world settings.
This new forecasting system covers:
1. Forecasting Water Levels
2. Morphological Inundation Modeling
3. Alert targeting
4. Improved Water Levels Forecasting
Have a read of the following blog for full details.
Current State
As shared here, they partnered with Indian Central Water Commission to expand forecasting models and services. For research, they have collaborated with Yale to visit flood affected areas. This helps them to understand how to provide information and what information would people need to protect themselves.
We’re providing people with information about flood depth: when and how much flood waters are likely to rise. And in areas where we can produce depth maps throughout the floodplain, we’re sharing information about depth in the user’s village or area.
To increase it’s reach about alerts, Google.org has started a collaboration with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
My Thoughts
It’s a great use of technology to help mankind. Floods are life changing events and an early prediction and shareout would help big to everyone.
Awesome initiative, breakthroughs and progress!
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