App helps communities monitor floods and provides data for disaster prevention

An app can change the way communities and government agencies deal with floods. With a cell phone in hand, residents of neighborhoods vulnerable to flooding can not only inform themselves in advance about possible flooding events, but also contribute to the competent bodies in mapping susceptible areas and preventing disasters.

The tool is one of the developments of the Data to Proof of Water project, a partnership between the universities of Glasgow and Warwick, in the United Kingdom, Heidelberg, in Germany, the National Center for Monitoring Natural Disaster Alerts (Cemaden) and the Fundação Getulio Vargas, with support from FAPESP.

“The basic principle is that technology, people engagement, generation, use and circulation of data improve the resilience of communities vulnerable to socio-environmental disasters. In this case, floods”, explains Maria Alexandra da Cunha, professor at the School of Business Administration at Fundação Getúlio Vargas (EAESP-FGV), coordinator of the Brazilian part of the project.

A survey carried out in 2020 by the National Confederation of Municipalities (CNM) counted 1,697 emergency decrees or state of public calamity due to heavy rains that year.

According to the Civil Defense area of ​​the CNM, losses amounted to BRL 10.1 billion, resulting from storms, cyclones, landslides, floods, flash floods and tornadoes, with the housing sector being the most affected, with 280,486 homes damaged or destroyed and losses of R$ 8.5 billion.

The Data to Prova D’Água app, which has the same name as the project, was tested by teachers, students, Civil Defense agents and residents in more than 20 municipalities in the states of Pernambuco, Santa Catarina, Mato Grosso, Acre and São Paulo and should be available soon on the Play Store, Google’s virtual app store.

To power the app, the researchers use the principle of citizen science. Students from public schools undergo training, which involves building handmade rain gauges, using a PET bottle and a simple ruler.

Each student is then responsible for daily checking the amount of rain measured by each of these rain gauges and entering the measurements in the application, which go into the project’s database. It is hoped that this data can help support disaster prevention measures in the future.

“The data necessary for disaster risk management traditionally flow unidirectionally, from the centers of expertise to the population and executing agencies. The application makes it possible to expand this flow, as it promotes the direct participation of the community in the management processes and expands the source of local data from specialized centers”, says Mário Martins, a researcher linked to the project, who is doing his postdoctoral work at EAESP-FGV with a grant from Fapesp.

The application also allows sending information on flooded areas, rainfall intensity and height of water in the river bed, in addition to containing data made available by agencies such as the susceptibility areas of the Geological Survey of Brazil (CPRM) and rainfall data from Cemaden, for use of community residents.

“We didn’t just want to develop an application. During our activities in the study areas, we were concerned with discussing how the application could be used by residents during disasters. Therefore, we ended up developing a new software development method and a tool that could be used by everyone”, says Lívia Degrossi, who is doing a post-doctorate at EAESP-FGV.

The researcher developed the application in collaboration with professionals from Cemaden, Civil Defense and the Acre Environment Department. Students from the state schools Renato Braga and Vicente Leporace, in Jardim São Luís, in the city of São Paulo, and residents of the neighborhood, which is located in M’Boi Mirim, the area of ​​the municipality with the highest number of risk regions, according to the Instituto of Technological Research (IPT).

Memories of Floods

“We work in public schools with low socioeconomic indices and with a history of flooding. Jardim São Luís, with many streams and mountains, is quite vulnerable to flooding, but also to landslides. The idea was to create data and promote the circulation of those that already exist , those that government agencies have, but do not reach the communities”, informs Fernanda Lima e Silva, who is doing a postdoctoral internship at EAESP-FGV with a grant from Fapesp.

Together with Degrossi, the researcher coordinated the construction of a learning guide for the development of an elective subject, to be offered by public schools, preferably with high school students, on disaster prevention, citizen science and the impact of climate change on the people’s daily lives. The network of collaborators involved teachers from schools participating in the project and from Cemaden Educação, which will make the guide available on its website.

In addition to disaster prevention, the project works with memories of floods. Initially, Jardim São Luís students interviewed older relatives and took to the classroom stories that ended up providing data about the region’s past floods.

Conversation circles were also held with the older residents and even the production of a series of mini-documentaries called Memórias à Prova D´Água, available online.

The work was carried out in partnership with researchers from the University of Warwick, who carry out research on disaster memories with the aim of increasing community resilience.

The experience also yielded a book chapter, which will be published in a special issue on memories and sustainability of the Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, to be published in 2023.

“We also carried out a risk perception mapping in which the residents themselves placed the susceptible areas on the map. It is a much more detailed knowledge than that done by Organs competent bodies. a strong problem with floods, for example”, says Lima e Silva.

The researchers also held workshops on the collaborative mapping tool at OpenStreetMap, which is licensed for free and allows users to add information to maps. The objective was to map the neighborhood, drawing attention to floods and the risks of landslides.

This year, the group will launch a manual so that the program can be implemented in more locations in the country. “It is very important that people engage with data, from its generation to its use. We hope to be able to contribute to spread this practice and increase the resilience of these places, since extreme events are becoming increasingly common”, he concludes. Wedge.