FloodsFlood Sensors to Support NYC Real-Time Flood Monitoring, Response

Whether the result of tidal flooding, extreme events like Hurricanes Henri and Ida, or more frequent cloudbursts, flooding affects public health and safety, mobility, infrastructure, and the city’s economy. In the face of climate change, which is likely to increase the frequency and severity of such events, the city needs access to real-time data providing critical information on when and where flooding occurs. However, the city has had limited data available on the frequency, extent, and depth of floods. In particular, there has been no quantitative, systematically-collected data on street-level flooding in NYC outside of reports made to NYC’s 311 service request line.

A multi-institutional collaboration, FloodNet, is addressing this challenge through the design, manufacture, and deployment of novel, low-cost, open-source sensors in flood-prone areas across NYC. Involving The City of New York, the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, The City University of New York (CUNY), and community partners in affected neighborhoods, FloodNet aims to provide real-time data on the scope and scale of local flood events to a range of stakeholders, including citizens, policy makers, government agencies, emergency response teams, community advocacy groups, and researchers.

Last week, the city highlighted its support of the FloodNet program, in its first report from the newly created Extreme Weather Response Task Force, highlighting initiatives and strategies for mitigating future extreme precipitation events.

The uses of the FloodNet data include emergency preparedness, resiliency and transportation planning, and validating NYC stormwater flood models and future flood maps. The data will:

·  Feed into an early warning system throughout the city, informing road closures or travel bans and alerting drivers to avoid flooded and dangerous streets.

·  Alert communities to the need for emergency preparedness and response, including activating real-time mitigation measures like sandbags and removal of valuables from basements.

·  Be used to identify areas the most urgently need post-storm assistance

·  Validate existing flood models and better hone predictions and flooding thresholds

·  Inform long-term storm water resiliency planning

“Our sensor data and platform will aid NYC residents living in flood-vulnerable communities by providing high-quality data that can be used for improved resiliency planning, emergency response, and advocacy,” said Andrea Silverman, professor of environmental engineering, who, along with Professors Elizabeth Hénaff, Charlie Mydlarz, and Tega Brain at NYU, and Brett Branco and Ricardo Toledo-Crow at CUNY, oversee the FloodNet sensor deployments.