A Sensor Network Based Real-Time Flood Warning System

Participants: Soon Ae Chun, CSI/CUNY; MERI

Problem:

The Meadowlands District experiences frequent tidal and fluvial flooding with 5,100 homes and 2,100 commercial and industrial buildings declared within FEMA’s Special Flood Hazard Area. The average elevation of the District is only one foot above normal high tide and approximately 75% of the District land area is impacted by the 100-year sea surge event.  The NJMC also monitors a network of more than thirty tide gates in different stages of disrepair and there is no way of knowing their current status. It is important to be able to continuously monitor the status of the tide gates in case of flooding and also for their timely maintenance.  The NJMC has set a high priority to prevent flooding and to warn its citizens of impending flooding conditions through a comprehensive “District Flood Warning System”.

Objective:

The overall goal is to prepare emergency managers in case of flooding due to tidal surges through an automated flood warning system that uses predicted water elevations from NOAA and real-time remotely sensed data from tide gates.

Strategy:

We analyzed the current system’s workflow among the existing modules to understand the process in flood warning prediction and dissemination. The proposed system’s architecture is designed as an integration of modules and an automated process.  It includes the following four elements:

  1. Automated Flood Prediction and Warning Module
  2. Verification Module of Predicted flood events
  3. Manual Testing and Configuration Module
  4. Real-time Tide Gate Monitoring Module

Activities: 

  • developing and integrating the system modules and components with the current existing portal system
  • developing and deploying a prototype sensor network for a tide gate and its data visualization, remote administration and a real-time tide gate reporting system

The development will be done using a standard Web application development platform, i.e. PHP scripting language and a backend mySQL database, to generate the dynamic Web pages. The application modules will be deployed on the UNIX Web application server.

Deliverables:

  1. Automated Flood Prediction and Warning Module
  2. Verification Module of Predicted flood events
  3. Manual Testing and Configuration Module
  4. A prototype deployment of tide gate sensor networks
  5. Real-time Tide Gate Monitoring Module