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Drone mapping for Floods

Drones, supercomputers and sonar deployed against floods AP | 21 April 2019


https://www.thehansindia.com/tech/drones-supercomputers-and-sonar-deployed-against-floods-522826


An arsenal of new technology is being put to the test

fighting floods this year as rivers inundate towns and farm

fields across the central United States.

Drones, supercomputers and sonar that scans deep

underwater are helping to maintain flood control projects

and predict just where rivers will roar out of their banks.

Together, these tools are putting detailed information to

use in real time, enabling emergency managers and people

at risk to make decisions that can save lives and property,

said Kristie Franz, associate professor of geological and

atmospheric sciences at Iowa State University. Also Read

- iPhones to sport 3-camera setup, 12MP selfie shooter

The cost of this technology is coming down even as

disaster recovery becomes more expensive, so “anything

we can do to reduce the costs of these floods and natural

hazards is worth it,” she said. “Of course, loss of life,

which you can’t put a dollar amount on, is certainly worth

that as well.” US scientists said in their spring weather

outlook that 13 million people are at risk of major

inundation, with more than 200 river gauges this week

showing some level of flooding in the Mississippi River

basin, which drains the vast middle of the United States.

Major flooding continues in places from the Red River

in North Dakota to near the mouth of the Mississippi in

Louisiana, a map from the National Weather Service

shows.


“There are over 200 million people that are under some

elevated threat risk,” said Ed Clark, director of the

National Water Centre in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, a flood

forecasting hub. Much of the technology, such as the

National Water Model, didn’t exist until recently. Fueled

by supercomputers in Virginia and Florida, it came online

about three years ago and expanded streamflow data by

700-fold, assembling data from 5 million river miles (8

million kilometres) of rivers and streams nationwide,

including many smaller ones in remote areas. “Our models

simulate exactly what happens when the rain falls on the

Earth and whether it runs off or infiltrates,” Clark said.

“And so the current conditions, whether that be snowpack

or the soil moisture in the snowpack, well that’s something

we can measure and monitor and know.” Emergency

managers and dam safety officials can see simulations of

the consequences of flood waters washing away a levee

or crashing through a dam using technology developed

at the University of Mississippi — a web-based system

known as DSS-WISE.


There are over 200 million people that are under

some elevated threat risk,” said Ed Clark,

director of the National Water Centre in

Tuscaloosa, Alabama, a flood forecasting hub

The software went online in 2017 and quickly

provided simulations that informed the response to heavy

rains that damaged spillways at the nation’s tallest dam

in northern California. The program also helped forecast

the flooding after Hurricane Harvey in Texas and

Louisiana that year. Engineers monitoring levees along

the Mississippi River have been collecting and checking

data using a geographic information system produced by

Esri, said Nick Bidlack, levee safety program manager

for the Memphis district of the US Army Corps of

Engineers.

…………………..engineers are increasingly

flying drones to get their own aerial photography

and video of flooded areas they can’t otherwise

get to because of high water or rough terrain, said

Edward Dean, a Corps engineer. “We can reach

areas that are unreachable,” Dean said.

The company produces mapping tools such as an

interactive site showing the nation’s largest rivers and

their average monthly flow. On the Mississippi River,

flood inspectors use smartphones or tablets in the field to

input data into map-driven forms for water levels and the

locations of inoperable flood gates, seepages, sand boils

or levee slides, which are cracks or ditches in the slopes

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