Enhancing Flood Resilience in Manufacturing Hubs through Advanced Sensing and AI

Flooding stands as the foremost cause of property damage in the United States, surpassing all other natural hazards combined. Our goal is to protect coastal and riverine manufacturing hubs against the escalating threats of flooding, extreme weather, and climate change. There is a massive risk of manufacturing companies leaving America’s “Industrial Heartland”– especially across the Great Lakes – driven away by the inability of many under-resourced host communities to manage ongoing and recurring wet-weather disruptions. In this SBIR proposal, we will combine artificial intelligence (AI) with state-of-the-art wireless sensing technologies to transform the ability of municipal managers to safeguard facilities and the vital workforce that underpins local manufacturing hubs. The incorporation of AI is critical for ensuring that our solution is accessible for communities that lack the financial resources or technical expertise to develop and maintain complex manual systems, thereby democratizing access to advanced flood management technologies. Leveraging a wireless sensor pilot network in Dearborn, MI, we will work closely with municipal managers to test the project outputs in a manufacturing-centric community at the frontlines of US climate adaptation.