Google AI predicts floods four days early in South America and Africa

Google’s artificial intelligence flood prediction system can now forecast floods four days in advance in data-poor regions, like South America and Africa, as well as data-rich areas like Europe and the US.

Most of the world’s waterways don’t have accurate measurements for water flow, which makes predicting floods hard. Lower-income countries are disproportionately affected by a lack of data, whereas higher-income countries are more likely to have well-measured rivers and lakes and so more accurate flood predictions.

In 2018, Google introduced an …