{"id":403692,"date":"2026-09-18T16:22:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T16:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/403692\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T16:22:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T16:22:16","slug":"usf-researchers-developed-flood-monitoring-cameras-now-their-funding-is-running-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/403692\/","title":{"rendered":"USF researchers developed flood monitoring cameras; now their funding is running out"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Hurricane
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStreet flooding in Gulfport, Florida from Hurricane Idalia storm surge. By Se\u00e1n Kinane\/WMNF News (30 Aug. 2023)<\/p>\n

Listen:<\/p>\n

Years of research from the University of South Florida led to flood monitoring cameras across Pinellas County.<\/p>\n

Flooding in St Petersburg is often caused by hurricanes and summer thunderstorms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To address the disaster, USF Professor Barnali Dixon began developing static cameras that monitor water levels.<\/p>\n

These cameras take one picture every 15 minutes and operate 24 hours a day.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal over here is to collect people\u2019s lived experience as a photograph, then use machine learning algorithms to make data out of it, so we can further validate and calibrate maps and models,\u201d Dixon said.<\/p>\n

The project includes a neighborhood reporting app that Dixon calls \u201cWAZE for flooding\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said that much like the traffic app Waze, residents upload a real-time photo of flooding, warning others in the community to avoid that area.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese cameras [are] helping them see what is going on in their backyard, and especially the app, because app actually helps neighbors helping another neighbor,\u201d Dixon said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The name of the web app<\/a> is Flood Report and you can find on Google.<\/p>\n

Most of the cameras are concentrated in the St Petersburg area with 37 feeding information to the Flood App.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, researchers installed a camera in Clam Bayou.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alec Colarusso, a PhD student working in the project, said the researchers chose the camera placement after the city of St. Petersburg recommended it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s usually a nice coastal low-lying area,\u201d Colarusso said. \u201cThere are flood protections in place, but most of the time they don\u2019t always ideally work as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team will install another camera in Riviera Bay.<\/p>\n

In 2023, the lead researcher Barnali Dixon received a $1.5 million National Science Foundation grant to conduct the project, but this will not last long.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe contract is going to be ending in 2026, and then the city and county hopefully will assume the operating costs for those cameras,\u201d Dixon said.<\/p>\n

The U.S. National Science Foundation is an independent federal agency that funds research in science and engineering, according to the U.S. National Science Foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The researchers are still waiting on funding to know if they will be able to add cameras in other counties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Street flooding in Gulfport, Florida from Hurricane Idalia storm surge. By Se\u00e1n Kinane\/WMNF News (30 Aug. 2023) Listen:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1563,6641,2927,1846,3741,160572,30415,596,199,135,137,136],"class_list":["post-403692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-environment","tag-flood-insurance","tag-flooding","tag-hurricane","tag-infrastructure","tag-local-flooding","tag-news-and-public-affairs","tag-pinellas-county","tag-st-petersburg","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}