Seven days' warning before the water comes
The problem Yossi Matias faced
Floods affect an estimated 95 to 240 million people a year, killing 6,000 to 8,000 and causing up to $33 billion in damage — and in the most vulnerable regions, warnings arrived too late or not at all. In Bangladesh, floods kill an average of 5,000 people a year.
What the project does about it
Google's Flood Hub uses neural-network models to forecast river flooding up to 7 days ahead across 100 countries, publishing hyper-local inundation maps that show predicted flood depth and extent down to the village level. Alerts go out through Search, Maps, and partner networks including the Red Cross.
Who this helped
Yossi Matias, Flood Hub project lead.