A group of North Carolina students are creating a 3D warning system to prepare communities for potential flooding.
While at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, George Cheng, Reichen Schaller, Shubhan Bhattacharya and Sumedh Kotrannavar were concerned with the aftermath of several recent North Carolina hurricanes. The flooding from hurricanes Florence and Matthew and particularly the damage in rural areas, drove home the need for a clearer and more accessible warning system.
Their solution was FloodGate, a web-based application that takes local elevation and historic precipitation data while using AI to model the flood risk of potential future rainfall.
“When we were creating flood gate, it was definitely like balancing both like simplicity and also accuracy, because our like mission was to create something that’s both cost effective and accurate,” Cheng said.
FloodGate was the first prize winner in the 2024 Earth Prize, an international competition focused on sustainability and climate solutions from students between 13 and 19.
The award is split between the students and their school, so NCSSM can use the funding to improve sustainability initiatives. As for the students, they said they’re using the funds to continue their education. The prize also offered additional mentorship to help them refine the FloodGate model.
The group hopes to scale up the project to incorporate it with local emergency management plans and eventually have the information sent out, such as severe weather alerts.
“I think our models, especially the 3D plots, are able to really capture where the flooding will go, and again, be able to emphasize the severity of each natural disaster,” Cheng said.
In the short-term, Cheng said the students have been looking to form partnerships with meteorologists and emergency response teams and eventually create a localized pilot project for the app.
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