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Google has recently partnered with the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) and the Access to Information (a2i) Programme to bring the Google Flood Forecasting Initiative to Bangladesh, which experiences more flooding than any other country in the world. Google currently covers more than 40 million people in Bangladesh, and has been working to extend the flood forecasting to the whole country.
If there is a current flooding situation in an area, users will see a visual overview of essential information, including the rise or fall of the water level in the next day with a description of the situation containing specific guidance where available. Users will also see a colour-coded map indicating the flooded areas clicking on this map will open a larger, more detailed view in Google Maps, where users can zoom in to understand water levels in specific regions. The feature can be used from any neighb
Rising to meet the tide
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Christina Laughlin usually does whatever she can to avoid the flooding that plagues her neighborhood in Norfolk, Virginia, on the Chesapeake Bay. But on a blustery Sunday morning in October 2019, she donned a windbreaker and rain boots, grabbed her battered smartphone, and deliberately headed straight to the high-water line.
Like her, hundreds of other locals were out and about that day, busy taking photos of the water and linking them to GPS markers during the year s highest astronomical tide, known as the king tide. Norfolk is one of several eastern U.S. coastal cities with record rates of sea level rise, and scientists hope that the data collected by these citizen scientists can help hone the ability to forecast exactly when and where damaging floods will occur.