Floodbase, a leading provider of flood analytics and data solutions, has announced the launch of its rapid flood response data product.
This innovative service aims to enhance disaster response and recovery operations across the continental U.S.
Flooding is the most common and costly weather-related disaster in the United States, costing between $180bn and $496bn annually according to a recent Senate report.
Floodbase’s new product addresses this critical issue by providing near-real time flood hazard data to aid in damage assessments and visualising impacts on critical assets and populations.
The new flood response data product offers near-real time flood hazard layers that can be integrated into existing GIS map data.
This allows users, including government agencies, insurance companies, and large corporations, to overlay flood data with infrastructure, policyholder information, or social vulnerability indexes, thus improving the efficiency of relief and recovery efforts.
Starting on August 1st, the rapid flood response data will be accessible to government and commercial customers, including state and local emergency management agencies, insurance data platforms, and large corporations with national emergency operations centres.
Floodbase will provide this data for purchase through the end of the North Atlantic hurricane season on November 30th, each time the federal government submits a data request within the continental U.S. The data is useful for analyzing flooding caused by major events like Hurricane Harvey and unexpected flood events like those recently seen in Iowa.
The firm specialises in capturing hourly and peak flood extent using advanced machine learning techniques to fuse data from public satellites, stream gauges, and hydrological models.
This enables the creation of continuous maps of flood severity, which are crucial for efficient disaster management.
Bessie Schwarz, Floodbase CEO, remarked, “Our mission is to enable all communities to prepare for and respond to climate disasters by reducing the barriers to scientific information and capital. By making this data more broadly available, communities will be better prepared, and better equipped to deploy resources to recover efficiently, and equitably from flood events.”
Emmalina Glinskis, Floodbase Head of Public Sector Partnerships, commented, “Regardless of the flood event type, we will begin delivering data to customers within 1-2 days of the federal request being initiated with Floodbase. This will enable near-real time situational awareness of flood events so that state and local governments, and businesses can respond in a way that minimises risk and protects vulnerable populations.”
Copyright © 2024 InsurTech Analyst
