Lately there has been a lot of flooding around the US and the world. New technologies may help with both predicting and helping us better cope with flooding.
With flash floods there isn't a lot of warning for people to get outside of the flood zone safely. Using supercomputers, weather experts hope to help predict extreme flooding events more precisely than before. In the past broader regions would get a flash flood warning but using a variety of data such as current weather reports, history of floods, topographic maps, watershed information and more these super computers can be used to give a faster and more narrowed down warning to residents of affected areas. Floods could also be mapped out ahead of time with these predictions helping with emergency response. More recently satellite data has been added to help with predicting flooding events as well.
Satellites have proven useful for collecting data in more remote places for cheaper than building weather recording stations. This data is then easily accessed and allows experts to give warns to the affected areas such as those with high soil moisture that can't hold any more water during a storm. Maps from the satellite data can also be used to predict what areas may be affected in the future and determine what kind of property losses may occur.
Building loss can be mitigated with this a new technology originally designed for hurricane flooding. Houses or business can be built on a hydraulic system that with a simple press of a button either physical or on a smartphone raises the building out of way of the water. High Tide Homes is one company building new houses and renovating old ones with this technology. To see more in depth how this technology works view the video below. This method could also be introduced into frequent flood zones to prevent property damage and health issues, possibly saving lives and thousands of dollars over time.
