People usually seek for accurate information at times of crisis to keep themselves safe and simultaneously same for their loved ones. Flood is the most common natural disaster and affects more than a billion individuals worldwide. Reliable flood forecasting is a challenge due to data limitations and complexity. However, integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into flood forecasting systems can now change the way we forecast it.
Nature journal published an article lately revealing AI is revolutionizing this field and offering accurate predictions. It is learned the flood can be forecasted 7 days in advance. Google Research has significantly enhanced global flood forecasting with the use of AI tools and it is said to be benefiting about 460 million people across 80 countries.
The journey started with a pilot project in India by collaborating with local authorities as well as utilizing real-time data, Google developed flood forecasts for the region and thereafter integrated it into Google Public Alerts in 2018.
Subsequent collaborations further refined flood forecasting models. The project combined hydrological simulations with AI techniques like Long Short-Term Memory networks (LSTMs). The advancements further enabled the expansion of flood forecasting coverage and has reached to millions of people in India and Bangladesh.
Google pivoted towards a global AI-based forecasting model to overcome limitations and launched the Flood Hub platform in 2022. The project now provid forecasts for 20 countries. It is further learned that more countries will be included with subsequent expansions.
Partnerships with international aid organizations including the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) are under way to enhance early warning systems.
It can be wrapped up that AI integration into global flood forecasting will save lives and simultaneously empower communities to prepare.
