FloodCitiSense: citizen-led mitigation of urban flooding

The impacts of urban flooding can be reduced with better warning systems that alert the public and enable faster incident response. As part of the  FloodCitiSense European research project, RPS has worked with residents to develop innovative monitoring and early-warning systems for urban pluvial flooding.

Bringing together global expertise from industry, academia, local councils and start-up companies, the UK project team included staff from RPS, Imperial College London, water companies, the Local Government Information Unit and Rain++.

Urban living labs were set up in three European pilot cities: Rotterdam, Brussels and Birmingham. Low-cost, pragmatic and data-driven flood forecasting approaches were developed for each pilot. Novel methods were tested, including machine-learning based (using, amongst others, Eigenface models commonly used for facial recognition) and an analogue system in which the weather forecast is matched to historic climatic conditions. RPS’s deep expertise in flood modelling fed into the operational implementation and testing of both these techniques.

Residents fundamentally shaped the research project. They deployed and continue to operate low-cost rainfall sensors and  co-created the free project app, which is used to display live rainfall data and collect flooding information to improve flood alerts. Our team supported UK resident engagement activities through participation at workshops and conceptual design of the forecasting system.