Integration of Urban Local Realtime Flood and Extreme Weather Warning Systems with All Hazards Warning

Urban environments in consideration of life, safety and public welfare from high density population and economic activity rely on real time warning systems to be alerted of flood, tornadoes, wildfire and other threats. The real time warning systems are invariably the last line of defense when urban environments are under such threats. The growing threat to urban environments from freezes, droughts and flooding and other hazardous events will see growing emphasis on these real-time warning systems with population growth and climate extremes. Droughts in urban environments can lead to spread of wildfires, freezes can lead to pipe bursts and dangerous driving conditions, extreme wind events can lead to downed trees and flooding can lead to rescues and structural damage, among consequences of extreme weather events. Quite often, a network intended for one purpose like flood warning at low-water street crossings can be adapted to serve additional monitoring and alarming from other extreme threats. In this presentation, I show the current and potential uses of the City of Fort Worth, Texas USA’s flood warning network for monitoring extreme weather events and discuss lessons learned from applications in real-time emergency notification, cell phone apps, and electronic message boards intended to warn drivers.