Amir Behzadan’s new app uses photos of stop signs to determine the height of floodwaters.
As Hurricane Laura’s menacing march to the Texas and Louisiana coasts continues, a new app developed by Amir Behzadan, Texas A&M University associate professor of construction science, and collaborators will help provide precise, timely information about flood levels to first responders and Gulf Coast residents.
The concept of the app, BluPix, is simple: anyone can use the free app to upload a photo of floodwaters that includes a stop sign and pole. The uploaded image and a photo of the same location taken before the flood are then pinned to the app’s built-in map using the photos’ metadata.
Because stop signs in the U.S. are all the same height and width, a computer algorithm can “turn them into low-tech flood sensors,” Behzadan told KHOU-TV. First responders and citizens can use the app to quickly determine the height of flood waters and use its built-in map to determine flood risk in their area. The app processes the crowdsourced photos with an artificial intelligence algorithm to calculate floodwater depth.
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