A total of 460 million people in 80 countries can now be warned of a possible flood up to seven days in advance. If Google’s computer models detect the probability that a river will burst its banks, it will be shown in the Flood Hub and soon also in Google Search and Maps, among others.
In Belgium, forecasts are made for various areas, such as the Demer and Vesder. There are still obvious holes in the Flood Hub. For example, possible flooding of the Meuse is predicted for Flemish municipalities in the river basin, but not for the city of Liège. Google could not say at the time of publication which rivers and associated municipalities are being monitored in our country.
The AI consists of two different computer models that use publicly available data such as weather forecasts and satellite photos. One predicts how much water will flow through rivers, the other predicts which areas could be affected by a flood and how deep the water will be in the event of a flood.
The worldwide map of flood warnings can be viewed at g.co/floodhub.