How AI is Improving Global Access to Reliable Flood Forecasts @GoogleResearch

Uploaded March 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

Floods are the most common type of natural disaster, and are responsible for roughly $50 billion in annual financial damages worldwide. Nearly 1.5 billion people, making up 19% of the world’s population, are exposed to substantial risks from severe flood events. However, upgrading early warning systems to make accurate and timely information accessible to these populations can save thousands of lives per year.

In “Global prediction of extreme floods in ungauged watersheds”, published in Nature, we demonstrate how Google Research technologies can significantly improve global-scale flood forecasting relative to the current state-of-the-art for countries where flood-related data is scarce. With these AI-based technologies we extended, on average, the reliability of currently-available global nowcasts from zero to five days, and improved forecasts across regions in Africa and Asia to be similar to what are currently available in Europe.

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How AI is Improving Global Access to Reliable Flood Forecasts

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$Making Weather Forecasts More Accurate Climate change is real, and its effects are becoming increasingly evident. Traditional climate models struggle to produce clear, accurate pictures of how our climate will continue to change due to limitations in how the models represent complex phenomena. This video explores NeuralGCM, a groundbreaking AI-powered approach developed by Google Research that could someday offer a faster, more efficient, and more accurate way to predict climate change. Learn more about NeuralGCM in Nature! You’ll hear from: Stephan Hoyer, PhD, AI weather/climate lead at Google Research Janni Yuval, PhD, visiting Google Research Scientist Watch more Research Bytes → https://goo.gle/ResearchBytes Subscribe to the Google Research Channel → https://goo.gle/GoogleResearch The Challenge of Climate Prediction Accurate climate predictions are a matter of urgency because they could allow us to prepare and adapt to climate change. NeuralGCM tackles the limitations of current physics-based models by combining them with machine learning. This allows for faster simulations and more accurate results. How Does NeuralGCM Work? Traditional climate models divide the world into large cubes, simulating the climate in each and sometimes making approximations about small-scale phenomena like clouds. NeuralGCM uses AI to make better approximations by learning about these phenomena from past data patterns, ultimately leading to a more accurate prediction engine. A Game-Changer for Climate Science We’ll dive into the revolutionary potential of NeuralGCM. It is more accurate than traditional models, reduces bias, and achieves supercomputer-level accuracy while using a fraction of the computational power. This allows researchers to simulate thousands of days in the same amount of time it would take them to simulate just one day using a high-resolution physics model, significantly improving our understanding of future climate scenarios. Benefits for Humanity NeuralGCM is a groundbreaking step toward a new approach of building climate models that could make them faster and more accurate. Improving climate models would empower us to understand and prepare for the impacts of climate change. We can mitigate global warming by reducing carbon emissions and adapt to its effects through regional planning and infrastructure development. Open-source research like NeuralGCM supports Googles commitment to making this technology universally accessible. This video is perfect for anyone interested in: Climate change and its impact Artificial intelligence applications The future of weather prediction Technological solutions for a sustainable future #AI #climateaction #GoogleResearch #climatescience #machinelearning #AIforsocialgood #globalwarming #climatestrategy #ECMWF #naturemagazine$

How to get started with the Google FloodHub