In addition to knowing if a neighborhood is experiencing active flooding, it helps to have a bit more data. How regularly do these events occur? Is flooding expected based on the forecast?
“The sensor is just the first part,” remarked Brandon Wong, CEO for Hyfi, a maker of flood detection technology. He went on to explain how flood sensor data can offer the kinds of analysis of weather events cities need.
The issue of flooding “is growing more and more relevant within the communities we work with. Being able to have data, see what’s going on,” said Wong, is critically important. A new pilot project launched in Chicago this week to deploy about 50 sensors across the city. The first 10 have been installed in and around the Chatham neighborhood in south Chicago, an area of frequent flooding.
Project partners include the city of Chicago, Hyfi and Verizon, which is funding the effort. The sensors can be easily deployed in under 20 minutes, without the need for trenching or hardwiring, said officials. They provide real-time data via Verizon’s 5G communications network.
“It’s really a proof of concept to show how technology can improve the city’s ability to respond and support residents during a flood event,” said Donna Epps, chief responsible business officer for Verizon, speaking about the Chicago pilot.
The project is similar to one deployed in New Orleans last year, also a partnership among the city, the United Way of Southeast Louisiana, Verizon and Hyfi. In that project, 27 sensors were deployed, with the data streamed to Streetwise, a consumer app available to residents.
Urban flooding has been a persistent challenge for cities. However, severe weather events have become both more common and more intense, prompting planners and others to look for tools to mitigate these dangers.
“In Chicago, it [flooding] is already an ongoing challenge,” said Brendan Schreiber, deputy commissioner and chief sewers engineer for Chicago, in an email. “We are seeing more severe rain events, which have a one percent chance of occurring in any given year. Some of these events involve more than six inches of rain falling in a short period from slow-moving storms.”
It’s why the city has a well-developed emergency management plan, which officials regularly review, Schreiber added.
“We are seeing increased flooding events in the city due to climate change and have been working to adapt our infrastructure to accommodate the more intense rain events we are experiencing,” he added.
The project in Chicago will run through the end of 2026, giving the city and community organizations more data to better understand flooding, and then develop mitigation strategies.
“We are excited about the data,” remarked Nedra Sims Fears, executive director of The Greater Chatham Initiative, a community development organization in south Chicago. “It helps inform the work we are doing.”
The Greater Chatham Initiative already works with university partners to better understand flooding, said Fears, adding, “they have a lot of different data points, and they use that information to help inform.
“This is another set of data that’s really critical for us to understand street flooding, and how that impacts the grey infrastructure, and the green infrastructure that we are examining,” she continued.
The data tells observers not only the scope and scale of flooding, but whether it’s impacting surrounding facilities like schools, hospitals, work centers and critical infrastructure, according to Wong.
“We’re combining the sensors with the analytics to help provide a comprehensive citywide picture of what flooding may be going on at a given time,” he explained. “Then that feeds into an alert engine.”
Epps, with Verizon, described the project as a, “three-pronged approach to investing in cities to empower them to prepare, respond and recover with more confidence to natural disasters.”
“This is the technology and innovation component of that broader initiative,” she added.