All4Elevation
Flooding kills more than 6000 people every year, leaves millions of people homeless and causes more than $60 billion in annual damages. Flood predictions help reduce these fallouts which are expected to amplify due to rising sea levels and heavier storms triggered by climate change.
Flood predictions rely on knowing how high each and every spot within a country, region or city is. The better the so called “elevation data”, the better the prediction and the more people and assets can be protected from flooding events. Unfortunately, the time and price for creating this data increases as well, which is why most countries can’t afford accurate and recent datasets.
All4Elevation wants to provide accurate and affordable elevation data through combining smartphones, satellite navigation and the power of the crowd. Together with the European Space Agency we are developing a crowdsourced mobile application which allows to turn smartphones into “smart sensors” being able to conduct elevation measurements by utilising potentially millions of phones.
Technology validated in lab.
Basic technological components are integrated to establish that they will work together. This is relatively “low fidelity” compared with the eventual system. Examples include integration of “ad hoc” hardware in the laboratory.
Basic technological components are integrated to establish that they will work together. This is relatively “low fidelity” compared with the eventual system. Examples include integration of “ad hoc” hardware in the laboratory.
The idea of crowdsourced elevation data originated in 2016 with which we applied for the European Space Navigation Competition (ESNC) and won the Dutch regional prize. Beginning of 2017 we applied for the European Space Agency (ESA) Business Incubation program in The Netherlands to which we got accepted and which now supports us with technical, business and monetary incentives regarding product development. The product development grant from the ESA was used to develop a Proof of Principle of our innovation in collaboration with CGI. Accordingly we situate our innovation between TRL 4 and 5 at the moment.
How does it work?
Our innovation is based on three pillars:
1. A mobile application which allows smartphones to collect relevant satellite navigation data necessary to derive an elevation point and send this data to our database
2. Our global database receiving the data from the crowdsourced application, combining the measurements with existing data and enriching it with dedicated algorithms
3. An online web interface presenting and offering the elevation data to our customers
By logging in you can access to more detailed information on the innovation