"Context
Weather events have significantly intensified, becoming more localized, frequent and violent, because of the recent strong climate change.
Time and space are crucial aspects to manage emergency and reduce the loss of human lives, as well as environmental, economic and material damages; in order to achieve such a result, rainfall location and strength must be continuously supervised, but unfortunately at the moment territories are not equipped to perform an efficient monitoring.
Thus, on the subject of hydrological risks, there is a growing demand for safety and a need for integrated and localized information in real time, clearly showing the risk context.
Our Disruptive Technology
Everybody knows that satellite TV has a bad reception when it rains a lot. Telecommunications literature explains how the satellite signal is weakened by rainfall.
Inverting the point of view, the attenuation of the signal received by satellite parabolic antenna can be converted in rainfall data.
Thus, analysing the signal received by commercial satellite dishes (the ones we all see on the top of almost every building in our towns), the Artys’ Smart Rainfall System provides HD real-time rainfall maps.
Note: it is important to highlight that, to perform this analysis, it is possible to use already existing parabolic dishes people currently use to receive satellite TV channels. This would allow a huge and robust coverage of large areas at a very low cost, thanks to the participation of citizens in rainfall data collection.
Integrating these maps with rainfall related information coming from other real-time sensor networks (monitoring e.g. rivers level and landslides) makes it possible to better define the environmental context.
Goal Of The Project
The innovation introduced by Smart Rainfall System (and its interoperability with the currently used instruments, in input – weather-radars, rain gauges etc. – and in output – hydrologic models, risk maps etc.) will enable a new paradigm for emergency management. Timely intervention processes will allow to save lives and to ensure the continuity of basic functions and services, also integrating and addressing human and social dynamics in crisis and disaster situations, including the role of the population, the media, and the rescuers.
Thus, the introduction on the market of Artys’ DSS will have substantial impacts both on safety and on economic aspects, allowing the public sector to be more efficient in intervening, but also private stakeholders to preserve and protect their activities, goods, production, employees and customers: with timely evidence on the context, they will only take care to make the right decisions.
The goal of the k-NOW-casting project is to introduce on the market intrinsically ""safety related data"", giving real-time information on rainfall localization and intensity and facilitating the identification of areas where consequences of heavy rain might take place, supporting in fact the decisions on where and when to intervene to protect people, activities and infrastructures."
