An innovative, life-saving flood forecasting technology that will save thousands of lives will be developed by NASA in collaboration with leading scientific laboratories. Floods are one of the world’s deadliest and costliest fiascos, and are being exacerbated by environmental change. Her manager of the Disaster Program for NASA’s Earth Sciences Applied Sciences Program, Dr. Shanna N. McClain, stated:
“We will be able to monitor flood risk and predict the likelihood of flooding in ways that have never been possible before with this new technology, which has global coverage. Communities all over the world, particularly those on small islands and in developing nations, lack the early warning information they require to safeguard themselves and those they care about during floods.
PDC
The University of Hawaii’s PDC is an applied science research center that focuses on the science and technology of disaster risk reduction and assists organizations worldwide in creating a safer world. Half of the world’s nations lack adequate hazard early warning systems, according to a recent study by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). According to his executive director and associate at the Pacific Disaster Center, Chris Chiesa, he was a crucial partner in the project.
“Until now, it has not been possible to provide comprehensive global early warning of floods. Constraints of hydrological observing organizations make it challenging to use prescient models and aptitude to scatter results broadly, particularly in little and weak nations. MoM will change everything.
After devastating floods in 2022 that displaced more than 7.9 million people and killed more than 1,700 people, the Pakistan Red Crescent Society is providing assistance to communities. The following was stated by Omar Abou Samra, Director of the Global Disaster Preparedness Center of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC):
It has been demonstrated that effective early warning information can save lives. Until now, flood early warning has been expensive and necessitated hyperlocal investment, expertise, and upkeep. The IFRC currently integrates all of PDC’s DisasterAWARE early warning and risk information into its Go Platform, which provides its 192 national societies and more than 15 million volunteers with critical emergency needs information and the tools they need to provide an adequate response. I am looking forward to helping PDC and NASA make this powerful tool available to all communities to complement the efforts of national disaster management organizations and meteorological agencies to help early warnings reach the last mile.
NASA
Dr. McClain of NASA offered his congratulations to the Disasters flood team as a whole. This group of experts from a variety of fields has worked for the past three years on the NASA ROSES A.37 project to create an algorithm that can lessen the effects of global floods.
“Propelling Admittance to Worldwide Flood Demonstrating and Alarming utilizing the PDC DisasterAWARE® Stage and Remote Detecting Advances”.
MoM was improved by incorporating features like triggers for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) analysis and exposure analysis through ImageCat’s Global Economic Disruption Index (GEDI) under the Global Initiative for Flood Forecasting and Alerting (GIFFT) project. MoM predictions were incorporated into DisasterAWARE, NASA’s global multi-hazard warning platform, through a partnership with PDC. DisasterAWARE will send flood early warning notifications to affected communities whenever MoM determines that flooding is likely in that area. This will allow those communities to swiftly take the necessary steps to safeguard lives and livelihoods. This prediction can be used by local governments to start emergency plans, order evacuations, send out response teams, and send out humanitarian aid. PDC recently received the 2022 United Nations Award for its work in multi-hazard resilience building. Acquired the Sasakawa Award for Disaster Prevention.
