IoT, Data Visualization Warn Coastal Residents about Flooding – InformationWeek
Spearheaded by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, the StormSense project combines IoT sensors, cloud systems, predictive analytics modeling, and data visualization mapping to predict flooding impacts and deliver warnings to residents in the Virginia Beach area.
The sound of the ocean waves may be relaxing when you are on a beach vacation, but for coastal communities dealing with increasing risks of flooding, rising water can be costly and dangerous. For those living in coastal communities, having accurate predictions around when those flood waters will rise and how long the flood waters will stay is important for families who must evacuate and property owners looking to protect assets.
That’s been a big impetus for a project called StormSense in the Virginia Beach, Virginia area, according to Jon Derek Loftis, PhD, an assistant research scientist at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. The project provides alerts to emergency management offices in the area and will be rolling out alerts to residents there, looking to predict flooding 36 hours in advance and inform residents of how long the floods will last, Loftis told InformationWeek in an interview.