Innovations Item Code: IN-2024-2100574
Sector: Transportation and Mobility
Description:
Existing devices that offer warning signals on safe threshold during flooding are predictive in nature and based on complex technologies that are cumbersome and rather expensive thereby affecting the attractiveness to low-economy societies of developing countries. There is therefore a dare need for better inventions towards greater mitigation. This paper presents an adaptive, affordable, robust, efficient and effective road vehicle flood level monitoring device for detecting rising flood on roads above a user defined safe threshold to mitigate road flooding disasters. The device operates on the principle of level conductivity sensor. The developed device offers interoperability with Google map enabling the level of flood on road to be accessed by road users online when fully commercialized. By this, road users are aware of the dangerous levels of flood to enable them use alternative routes. The study therefore recommends for adoption of mandatory inclusion of this invention on roads towards averting the usual road flooding hazard in Africa.
Stage of Innovation: Proof of Concept (You have created something to show the innovation can work)
Problem:
The rapid spike of the number of casualties of road flooding and the associated huge economic losses demands urgent solutions given the tremendous rise of global road flooding casualties in recent times. Incidentally, the risks associated with global climate change have manifested in various forms in various regions. This research work identifies high cost, inappropriate sensor technology and inefficient implementation as the challenges that limit the existing road flooding level caution devices. The identified research gaps make the existing technologies unsuitable for low income countries of Africa which are the most vulnerable to road flooding. Consequently, this paper presents the invention of a simple, robust, adaptive and affordable device to address the limitations of the current road flooding warning solutions suitable for Africa.
Unique Selling Point: The available flood warning devices are unattractive due to their high cost and inability to function on poorly constructed muddy roads common in low-income countries. The state-of-art technologies like the Space-borne earth observation technology using commercial satellites for the acquisition of flood images are capital intensive and are not an option for countries that cannot afford quality roads. This research work identifies high cost, inappropriate sensor technology and inefficient implementation as the challenges that limit the existing road flooding level caution devices. The identified research gaps make the existing technologies unsuitable for low income countries of Africa which are the most vulnerable to road flooding. The applied methodology relied on a simple, efficient water sensor technology using common electronic components, and wide coverage implementation mechanism that is adapted for poorly constructed roads prevalent in remote areas of Africa. The developed device delivers real time online report of flood levels, not a predictive approach. It implements very low cost simple water sensor architecture that can operate in muddy poorly constructed roads. The installation on streetlights enables it to have very wide area coverage of the roads. The planned integration of the system to Google-Map means that the generated data will be available to users globally and at their comfort which summarizes the novelty of this work.