Floodmapp, a safety app is helping to protect drivers in the middle of a natural disaster in flooded Norfolk, Virginia.
Norfolk is a city beset by water. Tucked into the confluence of the Elizabeth River and Chesapeake Bay, the low-lying city is crossed by dozens of tributaries. And it’s sinking, too. Any decent rain, combined with the right tide, will back up sewers all across the city, flooding any low-lying streets. Norfolk also experiences what the locals call ‘rain bombs,’ sudden downpours which drop an inch of water on a small area in less than an hour.
It doesn’t take much depth of water to make driving unsafe. Six inches of flowing water or twelve inches of standing water will both float a car, making it unable to steer or stop.
FloodMapp, together with the Waze traffic app, are working out the technology to inform users of flooded roadways along their route, in real time. FloodMapp uses data from rain forecasts, tide gauges, and terrain maps to inform an algorithm, which then predicts which streets will see at least six inches of flooding. Drivers are notified by Waze, so long as they’ve entered a route and are following it.
If over twelve inches of standing water are predicted on the road, Waze will reroute the driver entirely. The flood information will update every 15 minutes.
FloodMapp, founded in Australia, was brought to Norfolk by city officials and a $300,000 grant from RISE Resilience Innovations, a nonprofit which finances climate-related technologies.
Waze, which sees over 140 million users a month, is largely made of crowdsourced data. That crowdsourcing, which includes a function for users to verify data the app has given them, will help refine FloodMapp’s functions as well.
“We’re seeing floods become more frequent and more severe,” said Murphy, the CEO of FloodMapp. “Unfortunately, this is only getting worse.”
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