Images of cities submerged by water are part of our daily lives. In France, more than half of the 264,000 natural disasters that occurred between 1982 and 2021 were floods. To try to prevent these climatic incidents, the American giant Google has been developing for several years a service called Flood Hub, capable thanks to artificial intelligence of predicting up to a week in advance the overflow of a course of water. The service is now available in France in the application and on the Google Maps site.
The artificial intelligence developed by Google performs hydrological readings using satellite images and meteorological data. By comparing the expected level of watercourses to the mapping of flood zones, Flood Hub is able to accurately flag a risk of flooding at a given address. “We are working to expand flood forecast alerts in Search and Maps to make this information available to people when they need it most,” Google Vice President Yossi Matias said in a statement. communicated.
Besides France, the digital giant is extending this service to 79 other countries this week and now covers 460 million people. The company welcomes the development of Flood Hub in “some of the territories with the highest percentages of population exposed to flood risk”. The vice-president of Google recalls estimates according to which “floods affect more than 250 million people worldwide each year and cause economic damage of approximately 10 billion dollars”.
Prevention is one of the keys in an environment marked by climate change and all the natural disasters that follow. One in four French people lives in an area exposed to the various consequences of flooding by the overflow of a river, according to the Ministry of Ecological Transition. Among them, 64% are not aware of it. A technology like Flood Hub is likely to directly inform potential victims several days in advance.
The service also corresponds to Google’s philosophy on artificial intelligence. In a column in the British daily Financial Times, Google boss Sundar Pichai defended a “responsible” vision of this technology which “captured the imagination of the whole world” this year, according to his own expression. “AI represents a unique opportunity for the world to achieve its climate goals, build sustainable growth, maintain global competitiveness and much more,” he said.
