We found that, to monitor the entire globe, using media data is actually a great option. Over the past few years, Floodtags developed several Global Flood Monitors, which vary in geospatial level of detail, and vary in precision and recall score. Applications range between a Global Flood Monitor for the ID-lab of knowledge institute Deltares (to anticipate quickly on new events happening around the globe). And on an entirely different note (and something we are very proud of) a Global Flood Monitor we created for the Watersnood Museum in Ouwerkerk. The museum explains the struggle against water that The Netherlands has fought during centuries of floods in our country, and uses our data to underline how the problems are still extremely topical. Do visit the museum when you are in Holland.

Flood monitors of this kind can trigger actions further downstream, such as processing of remote sensing data, or manual zooming in for additional information. Until now we have been using Twitter as datasource, but for a better coverage we can also include other public media sources. If you are interested in a global monitor, let us know and together we can determine the appropriate datasources, level of detail and level of confidence.