{"id":461155,"date":"2026-10-09T12:24:28","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T12:24:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/461155\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T12:24:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T12:24:28","slug":"nasa-funded-utep-research-aims-to-improve-flood-mapping-in-el-paso-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/461155\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA-funded UTEP research aims to improve flood mapping in El Paso"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14\/CBS4) \u2014 A team of UTEP researchers is using NASA-funded technology to help identify flooded areas and potentially affected infrastructure more quickly after major storms in El Paso.<\/p>\n<p>The two-year project, led by Yong Je Kim, an assistant professor in UTEP\u2019s Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering, received nearly $500,000 from NASA. <\/p>\n<p>Researchers plan to combine satellite imagery, Earth observation data and artificial intelligence to rapidly map areas impacted by flooding.<\/p>\n<p>El Paso may be a desert city, but intense monsoon storms can send water rushing through streets, drainage channels and developed neighborhoods,\u201d Kim said. \u201cOnce a storm passes, another challenge begins.<\/p>\n<p>The research team will partner with El Paso Water to examine whether the technology can help utility crews identify flooded areas, prioritize inspections and assess infrastructure that may have been affected following severe weather.<\/p>\n<p>RECOMMENDED:<a href=\"https:\/\/kfoxtv.com\/news\/local\/gecu-pledges-291-million-to-upgrade-utep-venues-and-bolster-miners-athletics?src=link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> GECU pledges $29.1 million to upgrade UTEP venues and bolster Miners athletics<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Researchers will use NASA satellite imagery, Sentinel-1 radar data and Prithvi-EO, an artificial intelligence model designed to analyze Earth observation data. <\/p>\n<p>The approach is intended to help distinguish actual floodwaters from features that can look similar in satellite images, including wet pavement, building shadows and swimming pools, according to UTEP. <\/p>\n<p>The team plans to develop a dashboard that includes flood maps, confidence information and infrastructure overlays to help utility staff determine which assets may need field inspections.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers said the technology would not replace crews on the ground or existing emergency response procedures. Instead, it could provide an additional tool for utility workers and emergency responders as they decide where to send resources after a storm.<\/p>\n<p>Other members of the interdisciplinary research team include UTEP engineering professors Jeffrey Weidner, Sungmin Youn and Jaeyoon Kim, along with Niamat Hossain of the Department of Industrial, Manufacturing and Systems Engineering.<\/p>\n<p>The project is expected to be completed by June 2028.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/kfoxtv.com\/sign-up\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Sign up <\/a>to receive the top interesting stories from in and around our community once daily in your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14\/CBS4) \u2014 A team of UTEP researchers is using NASA-funded technology to help identify flooded&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-461155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}