The Finnish aerospace company ICEYE has announced a strategic partnership with the American Institute of Water Resources (The Water Institute). Within this cooperation ICEYE integrates an advanced flood forecasting system into its services “FloodID”.
A note on context: Institute of Water Resources (The Water Institute) is an independent non-commercial research organization, created in the state of Louisiana (USA), and should not be confused with structures of the US Army Corps of Engineers.
Until now, ICEYE has used its own array of radar satellites (SAR) to capture floods in real time through clouds and darkness. FloodID integration takes technology to a new level:
Forecasting the development of events: The system combines hydrological modeling based on the laws of physics, artificial intelligence (AI), satellite data and cloud computing. This makes it possible to see more than just flooded areas, and predict, exactly how the flood will develop – from the moment of its beginning to the complete subsidence of the water.
Dynamic update of forecasts (Observation-informed forecast): Instead of static predictions, the system creates feedback. When the ICEYE satellites send back new radar images of an active natural disaster, the mathematical model automatically adjusts the forecast.
Advance notice: Combining the systems will enable government emergency response agencies, insurance companies and infrastructure operators to receive detailed warnings for 96 hours before the start of flooding.
Технологія FloodID створювалася для захисту регіонів США, що регулярно потерпають від ураганів, and is already being used by emergency response centers in several US states. The project is implemented on the basis of Amazon Web Services cloud services (AWS) supported by a grant from Amazon.
Along with the technology, the core developers of the platform also joined the ICEYE team. The former head of the project at the Hugh Roberts Institute headed the direction of predictive analytics of the Finnish company. Thanks to ICEYE's global infrastructure, the local American development is now planned to be deployed internationally.
Source: https://spacemedia.jp