Flood Alert System Using Sensor Networks in Flood Prone Zone

Abstract

Floods are one of the most costly natural disasters in the world and represent a common hazard in Puerto Rico. Floods can be local, impacting neighborhoods and communities, or large scale, impacting regions or the entire Island. Some floods develop slowly, sometimes over a period of a day or more. But flash floods can develop quickly, sometimes in just a few minutes and without any visible signs of rain. The uses of new technologies, such as a sensor network in parking lots connected to mobile phones that can determine the specific level of flooding, are important for prevention or for flood forecasting efforts and for mitigate the damage caused by this natural hazard. This project provides a real-time system able to monitor sudden floods in parking lots, streets or avenues; creating a personal opt-in alert that could reach an end user through their mobile phone. The system includes a wireless sensor network in which the sensor nodes are responsible for monitoring the water level using hydrostatic pressure sensors, and the sink node is responsible for sending the received data from the sensor nodes to a remote server via mobile communications network (GSM). Keywords—Floods, parking lots, SMS