Along with many other types of natural disasters, floods and hurricanes are becoming increasingly common in this era of accelerating global warming, but help is on the way. A new breakthrough from researchers in Florida could forever change how cities and states respond to rising water levels and impending floods.
In a study at Florida International University, scientists and students recently developed an AI-based model that not only provides rapidly updating simulations of flood scenarios culled from real-time data collection — it also suggests courses of action in response based on almost a decade of historical environmental and weather data collected by the South Florida Water Management District.
"Accuracy is obviously very important to us, because overestimation of water stages can cause false alarms and panic while underestimation can result in unexpected and dangerous flooding events," said Giri Narasimhan, an FIU Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences professor.
"We were able to create a tool that provides water managers with the information to either eliminate a flood event or drastically reduce it."
A model like this is not only welcome but paramount, considering the state of the changing climate and its effects on natural disasters. The better the ability of our technologies to accurately predict flood patterns, respond to real-time changes in conditions, and provide solutions, the more lives can hopefully be saved when disasters like these take place.
Researchers have been developing models like these for some time. Two years ago, the Sea Level Rise program at the nonprofit Climate Central developed the FloodVision model that could show residents in flood-prone areas just how extreme storms and rising sea levels could tangibly alter their homes and neighborhoods, as a way to get people to take these disasters more seriously. And scientists behind these projects believe strongly in the potential for this research to have implications far beyond immediate predictions and responses.
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"The model also holds a lot of potential as a tool to help agencies make longer-term decisions," said Jayantha Obeysekera, this study's co-author and the director of FIU's Sea Level Solutions Center. "It could guide 20- or 30-year infrastructure investments, such as whether to build new pumps, reservoirs or levees by screening potential solutions efficiently."
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