Google announced on Tuesday the expansion of its Flood Hub platform to cover 80 countries worldwide, eight of which are in Africa. This expansion comes with Artificial Intelligence-enabled efforts to address the devastating impacts of floods and provide critical support to vulnerable communities. As part of the Flood Hub expansion, the platform now offers forecasts up to seven days in advance, benefitting a population of 460 million people globally.
The Flood Hub platform aims to empower more people to take necessary precautions and safeguard lives and property. “We are committed to expanding the reach of the Flood Hub platform to support these communities and provide accurate flood forecasting that can help save lives and protect livelihoods,” said Yossi Mattias, Vice President Engineering & Research and Crisis Response Lead.
Prior to this expansion, the Flood Hub platform was available in several African countries, including Angola, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and South Africa. With the expansion, Flood Hub now covers 60 more countries, including Burundi, Eswatini, Guinea Bissau, Lesotho, Madagascar, Rwanda, Senegal, and Zimbabwe.
Floods claim tens of thousands of lives and cause billions of dollars in damages each year across the world. The impact of the damage is particularly severe in low-resource regions that often lack effective early warning systems. By equipping governments, aid organisations, and individuals with advanced flood forecasting tools, Flood Hub empowers communities to take proactive measures and make informed decisions to reduce the devastating effects of floods.
To enhance flood preparedness, Google is expanding flood alerts through search and maps notifications to ensure that individuals have convenient access to timely and critical flood information. Non-profit organisations have been working with Google.org since 2019 to establish offline alerting networks, amplifying the reach of Flood Hub’s warnings to individuals without digital connectivity who might need them the most during crisis periods.
All in all, Flood Hub’s expansion incorporates Artificial Intelligence-powered flood forecasting, a multi-pronged notification system, community-based alerting networks, and wider accessibility.