Flood risk mapping of coastal communities using UAVs and ai

We are working to mitigate the effect of floods and landslides in coastal communities.

Coastal and low lying communities are at risk of flood and mudslides due to severer climate events and changes in land stability due to deforestation, erosion and urban activity. Drones can be used to map land, IoT devices can be used to track soil characteristics such as liquefaction levels and artificial intelligence can take all of these data points and model where flood or land failure might be eminent. 

Continued tracking of key data and modeling of disaster scenarios will inform community and government authorities on what actions are necessary to immediately keep people safe and create long term infrastructure management strategies.

Our solution is the application of aerial data to map at risk areas then combination of this with weather data, geological samples and assessment of human activity patterns to identify risk of flood or mudslides and using these models to identify the most at risk areas; move people out and develop strategies for where else people can live and work.

Technology is vital because the automated nature of data collection and risk assessment enables decision making to be swiftly when need be and medium to long term strategies are based on verifiable evidence of the immediately at risk area as well as insight on other areas which may not be at risk now but will be in 10 years. This rich, data-based decision making helps authorities create sustainable solutions for community management. 

Our current case study is Martomeh community in Freetown Sierra Leone where sadly, 1,000 people perished in the flood incident of 2017 (https://unsierraleone.exposure... our work is showcased here). Since the landslide last year we have continued working with UNOPS to map for further risk in this mountain community and surrounding communities. 

In the next 12 months however we want to expand our solution to a coastal community in Sierra Leone, specifically Bureh and John Obey beach communities. 

1. Bundle plug and play hardware and software solutions for collecting data and generating needed analytics. 
2. Roll out the solution at all coastal communities across West Africa by training young people in communities to fly drone missions and to be data scientists. 
3. The drones can also be used to create a source of revenue for the community by allowing the trained operators to offer drones as a service solutions in land surveying, agriculture mapping and touristic photography and video etc.

1. Obtain drone operators license in the country of operation.
2. Engage national Government and community authorities 
3. Consult community and assess current state of the community. 
4. Sensitize community on what drones are, reasons for the drone missions, ensure that young and old recognize the technology and it will not create panic or suspicion. 
5. Train drone operators and data handlers from within the community. 
6. Setup to data processing center. 
7. Lead data collection for 12 months then step back into a monitoring role and focusing on the analytics and recommendation development for decision making.

Over 5,000 people via mapping and analysis of Marotmeh and surrounding communities in partnership with UNOPS.

Our solution enables UNOPS to inform the Sierra Leone government and other stakeholders of the community situation or any pertinent risks therein.

12 months: Mortomeh, Bureh Town, Kent, John Obey = 8,000

3 years: Over 2 million people along coastal areas in Sierra Leone are expected to be at risk from predicted sea level rise. According to http://sl.undp.org/content/sie... We see our product as the needed real-time data layer for this and other projects like it.

We are a team of engineers, geologists, surveyors, scientists, data scientists, full stack programmers and drone specialists. We're currently developing map generating engines, GIS for web portals for data management as well as a.i. for automation of the analysis of the data-sets. These soft skills are already on our team. What we need is hardware and more trained drone operators and data handlers. 

Current revenue comes from payments from UNOPS for services offered. We want to pivot though to being a software and data analytics company. 

Our key product in the long term will be the map processing engine which users will pay a subscription fee per month to generate 2D maps, 3D models and Digital Elevation Models (DEMs). 2D maps, 3D models and DEMs are products that are key for land surveys, architecture, engineering design and construction. The construction industry pays minimum $1,000 per acre for 2D maps and DEMs. 

Community drone operators can earn from mapping and surveying services. Track Your Build will earn money from user subscriptions. The community could earn revenue from fees charged on land transactions/permits. A portion of these fees can be used to pay for continual risk mapping.

I believe that Solve and the MIT community will accelerate development of our technology. There is minimal access to data science and a.i. experts in West Africa and our team sorely needs mentorship and guidance. 

The media exposure and grant funding is also crucial as it will enable us to create a larger team to develop the platform as well as fund non revenue generating activities needed for R&D.

Our barriers are lack of guidance and lack of funds for hardware and human resource needed to do the R&D needed for the solution.

Solve can close our knowledge or mentorship gap via mentors from within the MIT community. 

Solve can close our funding gap by connecting us to grant funding opportunities.