Interception:

A Flood Awareness Education Platform

Suchith Anand, Matei Copot, Sabira Gulamali Damji, Kirsty Holder, Michael Saunby, Wil Selwood, Aneesh Subramanian, Lyndsay Thackrah

The Problem:

Insufficient information dissemination

• Data is available but not disseminated to the right channels
• Proactive versus Reactive response to floods

The solution

• To educate people in both the value of the data and how it can be used to save more lives from the flood hazard

​

• Our aim is to achieve this through a scenario game where people explore and learn how best to help an area that is issued with a flood warning

​

• It can be used at a variety of levels:
• For use with children in schools
• For use with local communities
• For training and education purposes at all levels.

Paper prototypes of the game

UX

• Simple and user intuitive

​

• As fewer clicks as possible - automatic moving forward

​

• Blue counter shows clear location along route/journey

​

• See the progress you have made in terms of positive/negative impact on the area

DEMO THE GAME

Relevance/Usefulness

• Today’s younger generation will have an important role to play in flood prediction and planning – we need to ensure that they have a good knowledge and understanding
• The flood hazard is an ever increasing issue with climate change
• There is a need for people to understand the importance of being place specific and using appropriate technology
• With an ever shrinking world a greater awareness of flooding as a hazard is important for everyone.

Technologies used/our approach

• 3D Globe rendering : ThreeJS - HTML5 Canvas, CSS3
• Data Access : WMS
• Game backend, Database: JSON - Javascripting, SQLite, Python, Flask
• Web Hosting: OpenShift
• Code and Data sharing: Github

Backend

Frontend

Web hosting

Potential for innovation

• Customizable platform ready for development
• Before, during and after floods stages in the game.
• Only flood response is developed in the last 2 days.
• Potential to educate on the causes of flooding
• Likelihood and probability of flooding using the ensemble forecasting
• Prequel stage to the game : Raw data (precipitation, evaporation rates, wind speed, cloud cover) and probabilistic decision making.
• This would more directed at A-Level and undergraduate students

Potential for innovation

• Removes a barrier in terms of a lack of knowledge and understanding
• Easy for people to play and learn from it
• Scalable game design - Extendable to before, during and after floods
• A social network based on flood stories and live flood news from users can be developed around this ecosystem
• Can be publicised/shared through NGOs, education institutions, governments.

QUESTIONS ?