Brooklyn College Highlights FloodNet at Climate Week Workshop

MIDWOOD — Brooklyn College Professor Brett Branco launched FloodNet in 2022 to address flooding issues through a free online tool, and the project was showcased at a Climate Week event at the college.

“We typically do these workshops in neighborhoods affected by flooding, but since it is Climate Week, we decided to invite people to Brooklyn College to learn more about the technology,” said Branco. “These workshops help ensure that the data we produce are useful and usable by people, so we can be better prepared for flooding.”

The Climate Week workshop, “Engaging Communities With Flood Sensor Data and Storytelling,” offered attendees an opportunity to interact with FloodNet by using data from flood sensors installed across New York City. From this interactive experience, participants got a firsthand look at how the technology works and how it can be used in a community setting. The event was co-hosted by the SRIJB, New York Sea Grant, the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice and FloodNet, in partnership with the New York Climate Exchange.

“This is the first time that quantitative data on urban flood occurrence, depth, and duration have been measured and provided to the public — we’re excited to share the dashboard with communities, city agency partners and other researchers,” said Silverman, an assistant professor of environmental engineering at New York University (NYU). “We’ve heard many stories and desired use cases for the data from a variety of stakeholders and are looking forward to seeing how these communities end up using the real-time and historic flood data.”

Peak storm season in the New York City region is from August to October, though storm season officially begins in June and lasts until the end of November. With accelerating climate change, storms can be more frequent and extreme, leaving devastating effects. FloodNet was launched on Sept. 1, 2022, one year after Hurricane Ida caused deadly flooding. 

As part of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and the executive director of the Science and Resilience Institute at Jamaica Bay (SRIJB) at Brooklyn College, Branco developed FloodNet as the first free online tool to notify agencies and communities of where, when and how quickly flood waters are rising. Researchers, government agencies and community organizations collaborated on the project to raise awareness and pose solutions to flooding and flood-related issues.