With the help of artificial intelligence, Google will in future be able to predict whether there will be a flood in Belgium. The tech giant announced this to the HLN editors on Monday.
A total of 460 million people in 80 countries can now be warned of a possible flood up to seven days in advance. When Google’s computer models detect the likelihood of a river bursting its banks, it shows up in the Flood Hub, and soon in Google Search and Google Maps, among other places.
In Belgium, forecasts are made for different areas, such as Demer and Vesder. There are still obvious gaps in the Flood Hub. For example, a possible flooding of the Meuse is predicted for Flemish communes in the river basin, but not for the city of Liège. At the time of publication, Google could not say which rivers and related communities are being monitored in our country.
The AI consists of two different computer models that use publicly available data such as weather forecasts and satellite photos. One predicts how much water will flow through rivers, the other predicts which areas could be affected by a flood and how deep the water will be in the event of a flood.
The global flood alert map can be viewed at g.co/floodhub.
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Source : HLN