Google’s AI-enabled Flood Forecasting Goes Global

Artificial intelligence is increasingly being tapped to address the impacts of climate change. From a report: Google’s latest announcement is one example. Countries across Africa, the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, and South and Central America can now use its AI-enabled platform that displays flood forecasts. Starting Monday, governments, aid organizations and people in 60 countries across these regions are able to access Google’s flood prediction information up to seven days in advance of an incoming flood.

Initially launched in 2021, Flood Hub displays forecasts for riverine floods — or floods that take place when streams or rivers overflow their banks and into surrounding areas — showing when and where they are likely to occur. Human-caused climate change can cause these kinds of floods to become larger or more frequent than they used to be, per the EPA. Regions with high percentages of population vulnerable to flood risk — like the Netherlands, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia as well as Myanmar, which was just struck by Cyclone Mocha — are now on Google’s list of forecastable places. It can also be used in parts of the Central American “dry corridor” in Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala — where climate change and conflict collide.