It's four days before a major flash flood will hit your local river. Authorities notify you and your neighbors, giving you all ample time to prepare, or at least enough time to move to higher ground. This isn't just a disaster preparedness obsessive's fantasy. IBM and researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have developed a piece of flood prediction technology that can accurately warn of impending disaster at up to a hundred times faster than other flood prediction models.
The researchers are currently testing the technology on Texas's 230 mile-long Guadalupe River (and over 9,000 miles of its tributaries), where every hour it has been able to generate 100 hours of accurate future river behavior based on weather predictions and precise maps of the river system. "We're taking in a series of data, running it through a simulation and analytics engine, and getting an output of the flow and depth of the river. If you compare the flows and depths to the topography of the [surrounding] land, you can make a prediction of where flooding will occur," explains IBM researcher Fadi Gebara.
To read the full, original article click on this link: IBM Can Predict Floods And Droughts Days In Advance | Fast Company
Author:Ariel Schwartz
