SSPEED to build flood, water-quality sensor network prototype

SSPEED to build flood, water-quality sensor network prototype

BY JADE BOYD
Rice News Staff

The Rice University-based Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disaster Center (SSPEED) has received a grant from the Houston Endowment to develop a prototype smart-sensor system that can offer real-time analysis of both flood risks and water-quality hazards in Houston-area waterways.

PHILIP BEDIENT

Funding for the Watershed Information Sensing and Evaluation (WISE) system will be split evenly between Rice and the University of Houston (UH). SSPEED Director Philip Bedient, the Herman Brown Professor of Engineering at Rice, and SSPEED Co-director Hanadi Rifai, professor of civil and environmental engineering at UH, are co-principal investigators for the project.

“The nation’s best-known hurricane research centers were each begun with local or private funding,” Bedient said. “The generous support from the Houston Endowment is very important as a first step to research storm-flood and water-quality impacts, and it contributes to a fully functioning center that includes universities such as the University of Houston, the University of Texas at Austin, Louisiana State University and others.”

Bedient and Rifai will install in-stream water-quality sensors in test areas in urban drainage watersheds, including Brays and Buffalo bayous for WISE. Water-quality sensor data, state-of-the-art radar rainfall, and land use data from GIS information will be collected and analyzed using advanced geographic databases.

The resulting information will be used to refine a computer model that can predict flood and water-quality risks related to land use and topography. The results will be published on the Internet so city and emergency officials can quickly respond to specific storm threats as they occur.

“We are excited by this opportunity and the support from the Houston Endowment,” Rifai said. “As the city of Houston continues to grow, our urban infrastructure will be challenged in a number of ways, including flooding and water-quality. The goal of this project is to develop the next generation of tools that can facilitate planning and decision-making toward sustainable growth.”

Created in May, the SSPEED Center organizes universities, researchers, emergency managers and public and private entities to better address severe storm impacts along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana. It will focus on Houston as the first testbed, followed by Brownsville in the second year.