Nostrum

Universal Event | Measuring the Value of Earth Observations

Awards & Nominations

Nostrum has received the following awards and nominations. Way to go!

Global Nominee

Global Flood Risk Observations for a Better Prepared Humanity

High-Level Project Summary

Team Nostrum focused on flooding as a way to study and mitigate its most detrimental effects on the earth and the global society. Comparisons of flood data and loss from satellite observations paired with past records, help to show us where improvements to our global infrastructure, water management techniques, and storage resources should be made or improved upon. Our research shows the documented stats from historical observations. The benefit of quantifying this research and isolating its access gives Emergency Management Resources, First Responders, Government Agencies, The United Nations, and all other aid providers key resources to mitigate and manage a flood disaster more efficiently.

Link to Project "Demo"

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IIV83yrSlk5pgReaQYXiU-CUeFhNhfDn/view?usp=sharing

Link to Final Project

https://www.nostrum.earth/

Detailed Project Description

The team focused on flooding to highlight its detrimental and devastating effects on the earth and its global society. Water is the only natural substance that can present as a liquid, solid, and gas within the set temperature range of planet Earth. This means that we get to utilize the benefits of all three elements of water. Because water can evaporate, it can be distributed all over the planet, in the various stages of its given properties.


A flood by definition is an overflow of water that submerges a dry land temporarily. Usually, in non-coastal areas, floods can occur because the soil can’t absorb rainwater fast enough, or storm drains can't handle the force and growing amount of incoming water. Generally, floods are categorized in three basic forms based on their occurrence, impacts, and protection requirements:



  1. Fluvial flood (River flood)
  2. Pluvial flood: Surface water floods, Flash floods
  3. Coastal flood (Storm Surge)


Fluvial floods:

A fluvial flood is also known as a river flood. It usually occurs when water bodies like rivers, lakes, and streams overflow due to excessive rainfall or snowmelt. Excessive flow of river water can break dams and dikes, and imbibe nearby swampland areas. Large holding dams that become damaged can put nearby ecosystems in devastating long-term situations. Hence, it is important to forecast the probability of fluvial floods’ occurrence while taking the following parameters into consideration.


  • Past & forecasted precipitation
  • The severity of river water: Measures based on the duration and intensity of rainfall in the catchment area of the river.
  • Current river levels
  • Soil & terrain conditions: -Water saturation in the soil due to previous rainfall

-Elevation of an area: flat or hilly (mountainous)


Pluvial flood:

Extreme rainfall causes pluvial flood conditions independent of overflowing water bodies. It can even occur in areas with no body of water. Based on certain characteristics, pluvial floods get sub-categorize into the following types:


  • Surface water floods

-Occur gradually

-Sources: An overwhelmed urban drainage system

-Shallow water levels: rarely more than 1 meter deep

-Not life-threatening but cause significant economic damages


  • Flash floods

-Occur within a short amount of time

-Sources: Torrential rainfall, sudden release of water from upstream levee or dams

-An intense and high-velocity water

-Very dangerous and destructive: human casualties and severe economic damages


Coastal flood:

Coastal floods occur due to intense windstorm events during the time of high tides (storm surge), and tsunamis in areas that reside near seawater. High winds from windstorms force water onto the shore, causing coastal flooding. The intensity of floods depends on the tides. Windstorms that occur during the high tides result in the devastating loss of life and property. Big waves can erode natural barriers leaving coasts more vulnerable to future storms and flooding. The severity of coastal floods determine based on the following factors:


  • The strength, size, speed, and direction of the windstorm
  • Historical data of previous storms that have affected the area


For the past two centuries, flooding has topped the growing list of disastrous events. Major floods in China during 1887 have killed about 2 million people, and in 1938 an additional 1 million people respectively. In 1993, the United States witnessed the death of 47 people along with the estimated economic loss of between 15-20 billion dollars, caused by flooding on the upper Mississippi River and Midwest.


Since 2015, it is estimated that 9,656 people have died due to the effects of flooding. Climate change is the resulting factor in the extension of the rainy season in the eastern hemisphere. This, in turn, is what causes the various flooding situations in coastal as well as the surrounding low-lying mountains and hills. Often, floods in mountainous areas cause landslides that lead to massive destruction. Studies are forecasting numerous landslide events in the Himalayan mountain range, due to the increased precipitation absorbed and held in the soil. Today, in the United States the majority of presidential disaster declarations, of around 75%, are associated with flooding.


Apart from the initial damage caused by floods, standing floodwater can spread infectious diseases, cause chemical leaching hazards, cause harmful bodily injuries, it can disrupt services like supplies of drinking water, gas, electricity, and food due to the shortage of transportation. Flooding and rising waters cause massive amounts of damage to the land, irreversible damage to ecosystems by changing the direction of the river channels and forming new ones. This can result in substantial damage or loss of agriculture, widespread loss of life, as well as global economic damage resulting in possible species extinction. 


A single inch of floodwater is enough to cause damages of around $25,000 in the US. To recover from the flood damages, the government and private sector provide flood insurance, however, the rates increase based on the situation. Flood insurance programs follow strict criteria, making many disaster survivors ineligible to claim the insurance. In addition, federal disaster assistance is only available when the president declares the situation as a disaster. This clause makes it difficult for many civilians to recover from the situation. Hence, it is very important to have storm-related information available to the public, as well as disaster management teams before a flood situation happens.


Software part:

First, the system starts by gathering data from 2 sources.

The first source is in the form of satellite data which includes: temperature sensing Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), salinity, water vapor, stored land water, and mass of the ocean. The second source comes from past data records on the measurements of sea levels and ocean warming.


Second, the data collected will undergo an analyzing data process, which includes building increasingly detailed models to understand the processes that drive local and regional changes in water systems. Additionally, making a simulated model helps us to gain a deeper understanding of the data used to make predictions. Moreover, forecasting anomalies with the knowledge of when, where, and how much precipitation is coming, could decrease the loss of life and economic strain for certain populations who live close to water sources.


Third, implement these findings to visualize and animate an AR/VR application.


This app helps simulate flood impacts on various terrains. For example, you can model a cityscape in the demo to measure impact on the terrain. It will look like a virtual building simulation with a projected simulated impact. Our goal is to aggregate data to simulate various scenarios to better understand the impact of a given region on earth, down to the individual districts, based on available data.


The point of the application is to experiment with the simulated scenarios through AR/VR, to better understand the forecasted impact through interaction with the given variables, to provide improved disaster response and outcome of lives saved. 

- Once the app loads up, rotate the simulation by pressing Alt on Windows PC, or Option on MacBook and mouse click. You don't have to rotate the simulation if you don't want to. 

- Choose the image type you want on the right under "Terrain". "City" is the most fun and the underlying terrain is part of a city so it tends to always be an interesting simulation. 

- If you want to increase the height of the portion of the terrain, simply click ctrl and mouse click. If you want to increase the height of the simulation as a whole, increase "Height" under the terrain. 

- Finally, the best part. Increase "Flood Vol Rate" slowly to witness the effects of flooding on the terrain.


To develop an application we have used the following tools/software:

WebRTC, three.js, skarf.js, skulpt.js, skunami.js, Physijs, HTML5, and NodeJS are the primary libraries/frameworks powering this Proof of concept. The server runs Ubuntu 18 and is from an infrastructure provider called Paperspace. 


Our project is about using the available EO satellite data regarding increasing water levels, forecasts of hurricanes and monsoon seasons in both hemispheres, as well as the intensity of rainfall in the catchment area of rivers. Monitoring the varying precipitation in the soil, forecasts of windstorms with the added detail of their strength, size, speed, and direction of tracking, to develop an accessible and accurate application for the use of all societies. This application will provide flood alerts and educational information to laymen, in a way that is easily understood, while detailing the magnitude of disasters as a way to better prepare for the fight against them. On the other hand, the application will provide the mentioned data in visual form, to aid disaster management teams with a visual guide to use in their decision making. This development of AR/VR technology helps to escalate the decision-making process.


In addition, we suggest that Engineers, City Planners as well as Policymakers study EO data regarding the current and increasing water levels, along with past storms and floods of various areas to improve storm drainage systems in already developed parts, and re-design possible affected areas into resilient infrastructures in developing areas. Additionally, it can be used to plan cities and towns using the consideration of provided flood history of those areas in the underdeveloped parts of the respective country.

Space Agency Data

PACE and NISAR are the two agencies we looked to for data. In a perfect world, we'd be using the latest available data to simulate and calculate potential effects like damage, displacement, socio-economic effects, and so on. In order to get the Proof of concept working asap, we hardcoded and simplified values.

Hackathon Journey

The journey has been like a roller coaster ride where we feel overwhelmed due to its magnificent structure but excited to live each inch of it. It was an amazing experience for all of us. Some of us were living these moments again and a few of us were experiencing it for the very first time. It’s always great to meet new people with the same area of interest and aim for big results, especially in terms of humanity. We are looking forward to taking this project to the next level and are excited to go for a more twisted roller coaster ride.

References

Tags

#flood #vulnerability #susceptibility #risk_management #climatechange #sealevelrise #waterresourcesmanagement #stormsurge #nature #naturaldisaster #noaa #water #oceans #flooding #rain #tidalsurge #hurricane #tornado #storm #weather #weathersimulation #virtualweather #weathertracker #stormwarning #stormtracker

Global Judging

This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.

Measuring the Value of Earth Observations

Information from Earth-observing satellites is used to make decisions that benefit society and the environment, but it can be challenging to document how this information leads to improved outcomes and to measure these improvements. Your challenge is to describe how Earth observations inform a specific decision that improves outcomes for society and propose a strategy for measuring these benefits.