This NSF Accelerating Innovation Research (AIR) project will create an innovation ecosystem between/among public-private partners to provide weather warning systems, technologies, and processes. Assessing the guidelines for optimal scale of rainfall-runoff and employing high resolution analyses of the current state of the atmosphere will enable pinpointing areas where storm development will occur. Additionally, social science methods will evaluate human response to flood warnings with recommended warning strategies.
Weather has significant societal impacts. 3.4% or $485 billion of the 2008 U.S. gross domestic product is sensitive to weather variability, and the extreme weather of 2011 resulted in at least 922 deaths and more than $70 billion in total economic losses. This will be one of the first deployments of X-band radars for flood warning in the U.S. These activities will result in the creation of new knowledge in the fields of flash flood warning, storm initiation, and urban-scale decision-making.
