Google flood detection gets a big upgrade with some help from AI

Google sure puts a lot of effort into keeping you safe. Beyond just helping out with your personal safety, the company’s been working for years to put its talents to use at detecting and warning people about natural disasters including earthquakes, fires, and floods. Google is using AI to try and aid those efforts, and its flood early warning models just received a big upgrade that will make early flood detection easier for researchers, first-responders, and residents of affected locations.

Google shares that its AI-powered forecasting model is expanding its coverage to 100 countries, benefiting 700 million people who live in high-risk areas. That’s an impressive growth from the 80 countries covering 460 million people before the expanded availability.

If you live in an area covered by Flood Hub, you’ll receive important information to avoid potential flooding up to seven days in advance through Flood Hub itself, Google Search, and Google Maps. That seven day lead time is important, allowing people who live in a flood zone to prepare in whatever way they can and for first responders to start planning ahead, deciding where they need to go, when they need to go there, and what aid will be needed. In Google Maps, users can see recommended actions, such as avoiding certain areas, and even report road closures so that Google can more accurately provide information to others.

This is already a significant improvement over what Google’s AI model could do before and it should only get better. Google announced that an API will be made available for researchers and first responders to help them predict future incidents with more accuracy based on live data from areas with hardware monitoring, and even areas that lack that infrastructure thanks to historical data going back to 1981.

Whether we always appreciate it or not, AI is something that’s become a fundamental part of the tech industry, and while the things AI can do on our smartphones can be cool gimmicks, this is a good reminder of how it can really benefit humanity when put to the right use.