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Google AI makes disaster alerts more precise, targeted

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Jessica Fenol, ABS-CBN News

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2019/news/06/25/20190625rain-commuters-gc4044.jpg"/><figcaption>A little girl crosses the road with her mother under a heavy downpour in JP Rizal Avenue Makati. <em>George Calvelo, ABS-CBN News</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>TOKYO -- Google on Wednesday pitched artificial intelligence-powered disaster alert systems to help reduce human and economic losses.</p><p>The Mountain View, California-based internet giant is harnessing satellite imagery to produce high-resolution maps and real time river level measurements, said Google AI’s software engineering manager Sella Nevo.</p><p>This will help identify areas that are prone to flooding and where people should evacuate, Nevo said. Hydraulic maps help experts understand which areas are going to be affected.</p><p>“The reason we do this work is to be able to warn people and protect them… We’re working to give people even more information and alert them early,” he said.</p><p>Some 2.3 billion people globally were affected by floods, 660 million were hit by storm, 1.1 billion suffered from drought and 8 million from landslides and wildfires from 1995 to 2015, data from Google showed.</p><p>Machine learning can help reduce fatalies due to floods through early prediction and it “can pave the way for vast improvement in this space,” Nevo said.</p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2019/news/07/10/2.gif"/><figcaption>Google&#x27;s AI helps forecast rising rivers. <em>Google image</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>Nevo said a pilot program was run in Patna, India where it recorded 95 percent accuracy in alerts and 90 percent precision. He said Google’s “priority was to scale the system up so we can scale and protect as many people as possible”</p><p>Google uses it platforms such as Google Search, Google Maps and its smartphone operating system Android to disseminate flood information to the government and the public.</p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2019/news/07/10/3.jpg"/><figcaption>Google&#x27;s flood alerts are shown in this handout photo. <em>Google image</em></figcaption></figure></div>

<p>The Mountain View, California-based internet giant is harnessing satellite imagery to produce high-resolution maps and real time river level measurements</p>

The Mountain View, California-based internet giant is harnessing satellite imagery to produce high-resolution maps and real time river level measurements

Google AI makes disaster alerts more precise, targeted

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Google AI makes disaster alerts more precise, targeted

Jessica Fenol,

ABS-CBN News

Published Jul 10, 2019 10:41 AM PHT

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Updated Jul 10, 2019 10:56 AM PHT

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flood

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artificial intelligence

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