AFWEAR - Advanced Flood Warning
and Environmental Awareness System
as presented at GCTC, Spring 2016
Global City Teams
Challenge
This March a team from the Sonoma
State Engineering Department traveled to
Washington D.C. to participate in The
Global City Teams Challenge (GCTC) Tech
Jam. Dr. Farid Farahmand and
engineering student Jarrett Baglietto
presented The Advanced Flood Warning
and Environmental Awareness System to
nearly 200
researchers,
business and city
representatives,
and scientists
from 10 different countries. The event
was sponsored by the National Institute
of Standards and Technology (NIST),
USIgnite, Intel and IBM. The goal of the
GCTC conference was to bring together
representatives
from local
companies,
government
Agencies and higher institutions to share
their ideas and efforts in using technology
to advance environmental studies and
understanding.
Project Focus
Goals
AFWEAR is a real-time network of
environmental sensors, including rain and
precipitation
sensors that will
be located
throughout
the city of
Rohnert Park.
Our key performance indicators which we
will use to measure the success of this
project are:
• Reduce flood related property loss by
15% (accidents, property destructions,
loss of livestock, etc.)
• Develop a watershed model to forecast
stream flow rates and water levels for
periods ranging from 5-6 hours ahead.
• Improve alerting of facilities located on
or near potential flood zones by 80
percent within 5-6 hours prior to
potential flood occurrence.
• Notify emergency workers to block
roads, bridges, and overpasses located in
flood zones 5-6 hours ahead in order to
place appropriate flood-signs and
sandbags.
• Improve community awareness about
flood risks.
• Coordinate with agencies to incorporate
Sonoma County -Endorsed flood
emergency procedures into their
Emergency Operations Center plans.
The purpose of the system will be the
following:
• Improve flood response time and
efficiency throughout the city.
• Link rainfall observations in the upper
watershed (on the hill) and coasts to
predictions of stream flow in the city.
• Provide ability to incorporate various
environmental sensors, watershed
models (assessment tools to plan and
manage watersheds), and user-friendly
communication tools into the network to
allow for rapid understanding and
collaboration between scientists, citizens,
and city planners as necessary.
Team Members and Municipal Partners
Dr. Faird Farahmand
Jarrett Baglietto
Shivakumar Mathapathi
Chairman
Engineering Science Department
Sonoma State University, CA
Student - Capstone project
Engineering Science Department
Sonoma State University, CA
Co-founder and CTO
Dew Mobility, California , CA
Michael Thompson
Mary Grace Pawson
Jaime Penherrera
Assistant General Manager,
Sonoma County Water Agency
Director of Development Services.
Rohnert Park, CA
Community Engagement Director,
City of Santa Rosa, California.
Jarrett Baglietto
Dr. Farid Farahmand
Dept. of Engineering Science
Sonoma State University
Challenges and
Future Work
Some of the challenges to this project and
future work we will be addressing are:
• Ensuring data accuracy reported by
sensors from monitoring nodes
• Creating a reliable and automatic
alerting system.
• Establishing a
user-friendly
climate database
with easy to
understand data
visualization features
• Providing continuous off-grid energy for
remote monitoring stations
• Scalability for the entire County of
Sonoma to install multiple sensor
networks for multiple jurisdictions.
Collaborations
The AFWEAR Advanced Flood Warning System
has been the work of a collaborative effort by
The Sonoma State Engineering Department,
The Sonoma County Water Department, The
SSU Office of Undergraduate Research and
Creative Experiences(SOURCE), The Cities of
Rohnert Park and Santa Rosa and Dew
Mobility Systems. This project owes all of its
current progress to the effort and teamwork of
these agencies and industry leaders. As the
project moves into its next phase this
continued cooperation will provide the
support needed to make this project a success.