Editorial: Flooding into the information gap

Sometimes there’s nothing like the ingenuity of one single person who just gets something done.

One man in Wexford has created what could be a fantastic resource - an app that some said couldn’t be made without spending loads of money!

An innovation consultant in Enniscorthy has developed a new national flood prediction system.

Gavyn Pedley has created the Flood Predictor website and app which can automatically alert people about the chances of flooding in their area and which could be as accurate as to within 10 metres at street level.

Pedley has worked in data analysis to develop products in a number of countries. There is a free option to join as well as a paid option and an option for businesses. Flood Predictor monitors all 457 OPW river gauge stations across Ireland in real time, pulling a fresh reading every 15 minutes. It offers a probability percentage for possible flood events as well as sending out alerts when the system decides an area has hit a certain threshold using a range of publicly available data. On the website, there’s a prediction log which offers a permanent, public record of every flood prediction they make, every warning they have issued, and the public representatives on record for each catchment. When flood risk at a gauge station exceeds a warning threshold, they log the event and list the TDs, councillors, and emergency contacts responsible for that catchment. Their names and roles are then on the public record.

Looking at the website this week, there are lots of predictions of flooding in Wexford, Carlingford, Dundalk, Wicklow and Tipperary for the last few days.

The only official notification is from 4 March for the Glen in Cork city. That seems to be the only official notification that has been sent and the risk was assessed as ‘Extreme’.

So far, the website has sent nearly 4,000 predictions with 0 floods predicted but 0 false alarms too. It will be interesting to see how accurate it proves to be.

When I looked at it on Tuesday, it said the country was ‘all clear’ - that is, there were “no stations currently above the 35% flood probability threshold”.

You can also type any Irish address into the website to see its flood history, current risk level, and what a significant flood event would look like on the map. My address thankfully had no flood risk with “no recorded flood events” near the address.

However some people are already saying that some areas with a history of flooding have “no recorded flood events” listed on the app.

This is the kind of app that should have been created by a government body rather than a private citizen who has now monetised it. Another missed opportunity.