Flood Impact
Project

When it comes to preparing for a disaster as destructive as massive flooding, being able to look into future provides a huge advantage for states, cities, and communities.

The Flood Impact AI tool allows users to forsee how long once a major storm, hits that its “red zones,” or the most cirically vulnerable zones will be completely under water, and how to mitigate damage and notify the public.

All storms and distasters impact us differently and within drastically different timeframes.

It’s not just the speed of the storm or wind that plays a role; it’s the elevation of areas in its path, amount of rainfall, size of the storm, and type of storm that determine evacuation guidelines, public warnings, and the amount of damage and potential for loss of human life. The more widely a tool like like Flood Impact can be utilized, the better all communities will be prepared for the next big one.

People have an uncanny ability to justify their actions, and most do not want to disrupt their routines, even during a major hurricane. Emergency first responders know this all to well, and even though alerts and evacuation orders have been issued, there will always be those that try to ride out the storm. Predicting when and how bad those straglers will be hit is critical for emergency crews to know to better understand how to mitigate loss of life and their own safety.

Large cities, or metropolitan centers do not have the same capacity to handle major rainfall or flooding in the same way that sprawling rural communities do. This makes them particularly suseptible to damage and destruction during a major weather event.

The need for controlled drainage, sanbags, evacuations, and property damage estimates changes every minute in a highly populated city, and city managers need to predictive information to reduce cost and mitigate as much damage as possible.

Past storms are not always the best indicators for how floods will impact a region. However, GIS mapping and topography details do not change, and playing out flooding scenarios with AI can help cities allocate proper budgets to those departments and purchase supplies that usually run out first.

This tool also provides insight how different weather paterns require regions to respond differently. Users can select a zip code and then play with the number within each category to better understand what to expect and how to properly plan for the future.

Gutter, drains, hills and buildings, all have an impact on flood management and prevention in a concrete jungle.

Underground facilities like parking garages and sub-terranian building floors all have their own levels of risk, but knowing what to expect and when changes a building managers entire approach to dealing with major storms.