FloodCitiSense: Early warning service for urban pluvial floods for and by citizens and city authorities

Abstract

FloodCitiSense aims at developing an urban pluvial flood early warning service for, but also by citizens and city authorities, building upon the state-of-the-art knowledge, methodologies and smart technologies provided by research units and private companies. FloodCitiSense targets the co-creation of this innovative public service in an urban living lab context with all local actors. This service will reduce the vulnerability of urban areas and citizens to pluvial floods, which occur when heavy rainfall exceeds the capacity of the urban drainage system. Due to their fast onset and localized nature, they cause significant damage to the urban environment and are challenging to manage. Monitoring and management of peak events in cities is typically in the hands of local governmental agencies. Citizens most often just play a passive role as people negatively affected by the flooding, despite the fact that they are often the ‘first responders’ and should therefore be actively involved. The FloodCitiSense project aims at integrating crowdsourced hydrological data, collaboratively monitored by local stakeholders, including citizens, making use of low-cost sensors and web-based technologies, into a flood early warning system. This will enable ‘citizens and cities’ to be better prepared for and better respond to urban pluvial floods. Three European pilot cities are targeted: Brussels – Belgium, Rotterdam – The Netherlands and Birmingham – UK.