Democratizing Flood Monitoring Using Smartphones and Open-Source Tools for Flood Discharge Estimation

Mr Suraj Shrestha​
CEO & Environmental Engineer​
AB Data Consultant Pvt Ltd

Mr Bipin Dulal
DRR Analyst, ICIMOD

Mr Abhishek Acharya
Managing Director & IT Engineer
AB Data Consultant Pvt Ltd

Our project transforms flood monitoring with smartphones. Local communities can use our cheaper method for monitoring floods. 10 to 30 seconds mobile video taken from river banks/bridges will help to evaluate velocity and discharge of the flood in any urban or remote area.  Open-source PyOpenRiverCam analyzes videos accurately calculating their velocity and discharge. We estimate discharge by combining data and use hydrological models for predictions, integrating community insights and eventually producing hazard and inundation maps to visualize flooding zones. This method is a cheaper and feasible in remote areas for understanding floods and also helps in early warning system.