Mobile Apps Case Study - Riverside Technology, inc.

Challenge

Reliance on smartphone applications, for notifications and information gathering, is increasing exponentially as the public becomes more comfortable using mobile smartphones. Many smartphone users already depend on weather apps for daily and weekly forecast information. Many of these applications, however, do not address the question: “Am I in an area at risk for flooding?”

Solution

Riverside has a unique opportunity to develop a useful, flood awareness mobile application for the public under the NOAA’s NWS Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service (AHPS) program.

Riverside Goes to Work

Riverside has developed FloodAware, a mobile Smartphone application on the Android platform that alerts users of actual or potential flooding in an area of interest. FloodAware uses information on observed and forecast river stages available from NOAA’s National Weather Services (NWS). These data are available from the NWS Water website where users can click on nationwide stream gages and see if they are in a current or forecasted flood area. The application displays nearby river conditions based on the user’s location, which is determined by either GPS, cell tower triangulation, or by entering a location on an interactive map.

Results

Users of the FloodAware mobile app can view flow of a river at specific points of interest and can see if it is forecasted to rise or fall. Travelers, vacationers, and recreationalists can use FloodAware to help assess the risk of flooding when visiting a new area, camping or hiking near a river, or planning a river-related activity such as rafting or kayaking. Residents who live near a flood prone river and emergency responders who protect the public will be able to use FloodAware to help determine how to protect property or use the information from FloodAware to make clearer decisions about whether or not to evacuate a flood risk area. With FloodAware, alerts can reach those at risk via mobile technology.