As part of her effort to capitalize on the Artificial Intelligence to deal with the climate crisis, Google announced today that it is expanding its systems for the flood forecast in 80 countries.

The Flood Hub expands to 80 countries providing forecasts up to 7 days before a flood, to 460 million people.

With the addition of 80 new countries from across Europe (including parts of Greece), Africa, the Asia Pacific region, as well as South and Central America, the Flood Hub platform now includes some of the world’s most exposure to risks from floods or other extreme weather events, protecting 460 million people around the globe.

Flood Hub’s AI system uses a number of different public information sources, such as weather reports and satellite imagery. It then combines two models: the Hydrologic Model, which predicts the amount of water flowing in a river, and the Inundation Model, which predicts which areas will be affected and how high the waters will reach.

As stated in a related announcement, natural disaster phenomena, such as floods, are constantly increasing in frequency and intensity due to climate change, threatening the safety and living conditions of the population

According to estimates, catastrophic floods affect more than 250 million people worldwide each year, causing approximately $10 billion in damages.

Flood Hub can be used by governments, aid organizations and individual users to take early action and prepare for potential flooding by accessing 7-day depth data and forecasts.

This is a significant improvement over last year, where such information was only available at a depth of 48 hours.