A low-cost flash flood monitoring system

Abstract

Flash flood is a disaster that requires fast detection in order to prevent loss of life. We proposed a low-cost system, which is developed on Android phone and Arduino board. The system is about to measure water level by an echolocation method, collect information by its sensors, and transmit information to the server via mobile network or long-range WIFI. Low-level features, such as color, are analyzed at the phone as a decision trigger for network connection in order to reduce network cost. Other high-level features are extracted at the server in order to determine whether it is a flash flood.