Skip Descant at GovTech: “Worried about the possibility of flooding near your home in Iowa? Soon, you can just ask Alexa.
The move to merge flood sensor data with artificially intelligent chatbots marks the next generation of flood data analysis available all across Iowa. The project is being led by the Iowa Flood Center, based at the University of Iowa, which has a long history of studying the effects of rainfall and flooding in the state.
“Next-generation IFIS, [Iowa Flood Information System] Flood AI — an artificial intelligence system — will be launched in March with Siri-like capabilities on many communication platforms,” said Ibrahim Demir, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Iowa and the architect behind the Web-based flood alert and analysis system….
Getting flood and rainfall data into the hands of local elected officials, emergency planners and average citizens is the flood center’s primary goal, which is why officials stress that it should be as user-friendly as possible.
“Really, the general public is our target audience, so we try to minimize the technical detail, and the technical jargon and try to make it usable for everyone,” said Young.
That thinking is what’s driving the Iowa Flood Information System’s next evolution where it can be engaged via platforms like Skype, Facebook Messenger, Siri, Google Assistant, Google Home, Amazon Echo and many others, according to Demir.
For now, the primary dashboard for receiving flood and water level data is on the site’s Web portal, which is fed information every 15 minutes from the network of connected sensors. The data, which can forecast floods, is also shared with the National Weather Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, county emergency managers, Iowa Homeland Security, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other partners….(More)”.
Full Post: Iowa Flood Sensors Wade into Artificial Intelligence