Flood Hack Creates Applications To Help UK Flood Relief Effort

Volunteers from the tech community have used government data to design and create a range of applications to assist with the response and relief effort to the floods which have affected many areas of the UK.

Following an emergency meeting at 10 Downing Street last week, more than 200 developers came to Google Campus in Tech City on Sunday to participate in Flood Hack, an event set up to try and find some solutions. 

The government opened up flood level data from Government Data Services and the Environmental Agency to participants, including developers from the likes of Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft, with 16 teams invited to make pitches for their ideas to a Cabinet Office judging panel.

Successful pitches

“The UK is suffering the worst flooding seen in our lifetime, and as those living in affected areas confront the consequences, it is vital that they have relevant and real time information,” says Tech City UK Chairman Joanna Shields. “In a meeting on Friday convened at No. 10 Downing Street, the government called on the tech community to best use its wealth of flood data and the response we’ve seen from developers has been fantastic.”

The chosen applications included ‘Don’t Panic’, a system which allows people with and without access to request and receive information and assistance, and UKFloodAlerts, a notification system which informs users about events such as power cuts, burst river banks and blocked roads through an application or SMS.

Flood Feeder presents a visualised feed of flood and related data, such as warnings, alerts, mobile phone mast locations and transport routes, while FludBud locates Twitter users near affected areas and sends them information and potential volunteers.

More applications

Vizicities visualises flood levels in 3D and ‘Who do I call when I have a power cut?’, lets people look up their Distribution Network Operator (DNO) based on their post code and provides contact information.

Citizen Flood Journalism also locates people near flooded areas and messages them to request photos and descriptions which are then compiled into a feed and MyState is a service which allows people at risk of flooding to register themselves and their state using their phone to receive information and request help.

“Over the course of the weekend we had hundreds of people volunteer their time to produce genuinely innovative apps that are testament to the creativity, imagination and generosity of our local tech community and demonstrates the power of government opening up data,” adds Shields, who is stepping down as CEO of Tech City, to be replaced by BlackBerry’s Gerard Grech.

Shields is to continue as chairman but has also been appointed as non-executive director of the London Stock Exchange.

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