Google is partnering with government agencies in order to do its bit at times of natural calamities is nothing new. The tech giant has partnered with USA's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for incorporating alerts about natural disasters. It also launched the SOS Alerts feature on its search and Google Maps.
in India, Google has partnered with the Central Water Commission in order to alert people on flood warnings. The first alert for the initiative was sent out last month in Bihar's Patna after heavy rains in the region.
In a blog post, the company said that it will make predictions of Natural Disasters using a combination of machine learning, rainfall records and flood simulations.
The feature will send an alert on your device when it detects a situation in your region. Clicking on the alert will give out more details like the expected duration, severety levels and will mark the 'approximate affected area' on the map (as seen in the image below).
Google's engineering VP said in the blog post, that the company will make use of a variety of elements — from historical events, to river level readings, to the terrain and elevation of a specific area — to feed into its models.
Going forward, use of intelligence to detect such events can lessen the impact of floods, something that had a disastrous effect in regions like Kerala and part of North East India recently.
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