Document the Floods - Resilient Environment Department

About the Program

Category: County Resiliency (Best in Category)

Year: 2023

Document the Floods is a citizen science initiative that began in 2016 to better understand and document current pluvial (rain) and tidal flood patterns in Broward County. This effort involves using a web-based crowdsourcing tool to collect photos and observations from members of the public about the frequency and extent of flooding due to either rainfall or high tides [also known as King Tide events]. This effort, which is the first of its kind in the Southeast Florida region, aims to collect, compile, analyze and view the flood occurrences at a county scale. To date, almost eight hundred flood reports have been collected from the public. The methodology and the web-based interface had been updated over the years reflecting the changes in priorities, best practices, and available technology. Within recent years, as awareness about the initiative grew, so did the number of use cases for the data. The potential for this data to further drive planning and decision-making became apparent. This web-based public interface is an effective tool to raise public awareness of flooding risk distributions across different demographic, topographic, and hydrologic areas in the county. In addition to providing the valuable information to communities, the data collected could also serve as a valuable resource to test hydrologic models and other tools aimed to develop future resilient water management strategies.