Ask a Scientist: How can researchers use AI to predict a flood

How is Flood Hub helping communities impacted by floods?

Researchers and aid organizations, like Give Directly, are using Flood Hub to help understand where floods will occur and who's at risk. Last year, by using our Flood Forecasting API, Give Directly was able to deliver cash to people in Kogi, Nigeria - one of the most flood-affected regions in West Africa - before water actually rose. They found that this early cash helped families evacuate, protect assets, and rebuild. Incomes more than doubled, food insecurity dropped by 90%, and 93% of recipients felt better prepared for future floods.

What's next for Flood Hub and Groundsource?

The models that power Flood Hub are currently limited to predicting flash floods in urban areas because that's where we have the best data. We're researching ways to increase the quality of our models and to include predictions for flash flooding in rural areas, as well as coastal flooding. This is pretty difficult to do with the data sets we currently have, but we haven't let that stop us before - that's why we created Groundsource, to fill a data gap. We're also doing more research there to see how the Groundsource methodology could be useful for other disasters like heat waves or mudslides.

Where can researchers find this data?

To help further protect the communities that most need this information, we open sourced our hydrology framework. This enables National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) and other meteorological agencies to integrate their own data with the model, generate tailored forecasts, and use those forecasts for their specific needs. We've also made the Groundsource dataset and the Flood Forecasting API publicly available to help improve future research on floods. Ultimately, this is all part of our goal to use AI to help accurately predict natural disasters and keep as many people safe as possible.