Authors: Travis Tyler, Guilherme da Silva, Daniel P. Ames, Iman Maghami – Brigham Young University
Title: Real-Time Water Forecasts on the Go: Development of a Mobile App for the National Water Model
Abstract: Flooding is among the most universal natural hazards world-wide. Communities affected by flooding not only experience impediments to travel and recreation, but also property damage and human casualties. In recent years, real-time streamflow forecasts have been made available using a continuous hydrologic model, both globally—in the form of the GEOGloWS ECMWF Streamflow Services—and for the continental United States—in the form of the NOAA National Water Model (NWM). These streamflow forecasts, however, are currently only available through extensive file download and processing effort or through a web-based viewer not optimized for mobile use. The goal of this study is to present a mobile application that democratizes the use of the NWM by making its forecasts more accessible and user-friendly on mobile devices—following the paradigm of a mobile weather app in terms of ease of use and access to usable and actionable information. This app is being developed for iOS and Android using Flutter–an open-source framework by Google for building natively compiled, multi-platform applications from a single codebase. The app aims to use the NWM forecasts to provide users with real-time streamflow forecasts on a Google Map. Users will easily access and save their favorite river locations and view real-time, and several day lead time forecasts for those rivers. The app’s user interface is intended to be intuitive and easy to use, allowing users to quickly and easily access the information they need.