In a ground-breaking initiative aimed at making communities safer during extreme weather events, the NSW Government is conducting a trial using advanced technology powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and mobile networks to predict the potential impact of flooding.
Working with researchers from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and TPG Telecom, the NSW State Emergency Service (SES) is developing and testing network sensing technology that can extract localised weather data such as rainfall, water levels and river flows from signals transmitted over the communications network.
This real-time weather data is then integrated with historical Bureau of Meteorology records and flood information to enable 4D visualisation through the NSW Spatial Digital Twin (SDT) to illustrate changes in the landscape and built environment.
The SDT enables the visualisation of vast amounts of data in 3D and 4D models, enabling detailed analysis and understanding of the information.
The application of artificial intelligence has the potential to predict risks to infrastructure and communities, enabling the NSW SES to rapidly disseminate targeted warnings to affected communities based on the data.
Although still in its developmental stages, this technology could revolutionise the way emergency services operate.
Currently, obtaining accurate real-time information during weather events can be challenging due to limitations in flood sensor coverage, sensor network reach and network disruption.
In addition to rainfall and water levels, real-time environmental data such as wind and landslide information can be fused with historical flood data to improve predictions of flood and storm risk to communities.
Field trials of the technology are underway along Sydney's Parramatta and Georges Rivers as a flagship project of UTS and TPG's newly established Network Sensing Lab.
Funded by Transport for NSW's Smart Places Acceleration Program, which draws on the Digital Restart Fund managed by the Department of Customer Service, the Flood and Storm Intelligence Sensing project builds on cross-agency collaboration to improve flood warnings and prioritise early warning systems within the NSW Government.