Alerting Communities to Hyperlocalized Urban Flooding
As climate change continues to warm the planet, scientists expect natural hazards such as flooding to increase. Urban flooding can be caused by extreme precipitation events, storm surges, or high tides, with dangerous and expensive consequences for public health and infrastructure.
Urban flooding hazards are complicated by the heterogeneity of cities—various types of land use, development, surfaces, and drainage systems can all change how water moves. Flooding can be localized to areas as specific as a block or a street corner and change quickly, making it difficult to monitor hyperlocal floods distributed across a city in real time. Crowdsourced flood reports from citizens (such as social media posts) are helpful during such events, but the coverage and accuracy can be spotty given that they require human witnesses to register events. Some water level sensors present logistical challenges. For example, pressure sensors installed in sewers are susceptible to damage and require frequent maintenance. Existing camera-based sensing sometimes requires high power or provides low-quality images.
In a new study, Mydlarz et al. present their design for a low-cost, accurate, and robust flood sensor that can be deployed throughout cities.
