Danger! Flash flood on its way

• Autores: Hal Hodson
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 2918, 2013, pág. 20
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Flash floods are quick and deadly. Existing forecasting models are good at predicting roughly when an area might experience the right mix of conditions to create a flash flood, but they can't say precisely when or where a flood will strike. Christian Claudel at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology outside Jeddah is working on a drone system that could give such cities between 30 minutes and 2 hours of warning, as well as predicting the flood's path. The goal is to launch a swarm of about 10 drones to automatically monitor a potential flash flood. The drones will drop disposable wireless sensors across the region at risk. If the sensors meet floodwater they will be carried away on the current, sending out a simple signal which the drones can track. The drones relay the sensors' changing positions back to a central database, which builds up a model of floodwater flow.