Floodbase, a climate adaption technology company, has launched a rapid flood response data product covering flood events in continental U.S. which will be available starting 1st August, 2024.
The service will provide a near-real-time flood hazard layer to government and commercial clients that conduct damage assessments or visualise impacts. It aims to enable enhanced rapid response and recovery operations, and improve the insurance claims estimation processes.
According to a recent Senate report, flooding is the most common and costly weather-related disaster in the United States with estimated costs of between $180-496 billion each year.
Floodbase gains its critical flood event analytics by capturing hourly and peak flood extent by leveraging machine learning to fuse data from public satellites, stream gauges, and hydrological models.
The company will make the data it produces for federal agencies such as FEMA available for purchase to clients through the end of the North Atlantic hurricane season (November 30th) each time that the federal government submits a data request within the continental U.S. to Floodbase.
Floodbase also creates a continuous map of flood severity that captures peak flooding at the county and census tract levels. Users can then display the dataset over existing GIS map data layers, making relief and recovery efforts more efficient.
To support rapid relief and recovery efforts, Floodbase will send daily spatial data updates on the location, extent, and severity of select floods, which can cover municipalities, counties, states, or regions depending on the size of the event and scope of the initial request from the federal government.
Once the flood recedes, Floodbase will deliver daily flood extent data for the duration of the flood event-including the point of maximum flooding within the area of interest.
Bessie Schwarz, Chief Executive Officer, Floodbase commented, “Our mission is to enable all communities to prepare for and respond to climate disasters by reducing the barrier to scientific information and capital.
“By making this data more broadly available, communities will be better prepared, and better equipped to deploy resources to recover efficiently, and equitably from flood events.”
Emmalina Glinskis, Head of Public Sector Partnerships, Floodbase, commented, “Regardless of the flood event type, we will begin delivering data to customers within 1-2 days of the federal request being initiated with Floodbase.
“This will enable near-real time situational awareness of flood events so that state and local governments, and businesses can respond in a way that minimizes risk and protects vulnerable populations.”
