University of Houston Engineers Reveal How Houston's Flood Risk Has Shifted Over Time
By: Laurie Fickman
Engineers at the University of Houston have unlocked decades of hidden flood risk data, using artificial intelligence to transform paper flood maps into digital tools that reveal how flooding has evolved – and where future risks are rising.
The team developed an AI-driven framework that extracts and georeferences historical Flood Insurance Rate Maps, converting paper records into high-accuracy digital datasets. The approach allows researchers, planners and policymakers to track how flood risk has shifted over time and make more informed decisions about development, infrastructure and disaster preparedness.
"The resulting dataset of longitudinal flood evolution can now be used to understand how geophysical drivers exacerbated flooding," said Francisco Haces-Garcia, former UH doctoral student and lead author of the paper published in Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies. "When combined with other variables, it would be possible to envision strategies to reduce vulnerabilities and enhance recoveries from floods."
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