As extreme weather events worsen, 7Analytics meshes AI and big data to predict flooding
Summary
With its first product, FloodCube, 7Analytics serves customers with AI and advanced machine learning techniques to calculate current surface water and where its flowing today (the runoff), then models how that will look in the future with increased rainfall.So in effect, FloodCube is more about predicting how a flood will unfold, showing exactly where water is likely to accumulate based on various environmental factors. While its possible to achieve this already today through combining multiple software programs and manual calculations, FloodCube brings everything together under one roof.As with just about any AI and ML-infused software, large datasets are pivotal to 7Analytics promise it gathers data from openly available sources spanning digital elevation models (DEM) for terrain, satellite imaging and climate data, then integrates these sources to make it easier for users to derive insights from. Its customers include the Municipality of Bergen, where 7Analytics is headquartered, multinational construction giant Skanska and engineering consultancy Multiconsult. Yesterday, TechCrunch wrote about a six-year-old company called VRAI, which initially delivered VR simulation training to the aerospace and defence sectors, but is now expanding into renewable energy, where it will focus on helping to upskill the European workforce and support plans to increase offshore wind energy capacity in the coming decade.Elsewhere, Australias FloodMapp recently raised $8.5 million to serve real-time flood forecasts, while last year we wrote about New York-based Forerunner, which is developing a flood plain management platform.To take things to the next level now that its officially entered the U.S. market, 7Analytics today announced that it has raised $2.5 million in a seed round of funding led by sustainability-focused VC firm Momentum Partners, with participation from Construct Venture and Obos VC. Our models are easy to adapt for new use cases which is underlined by the various customer groups we have onboarded from construction developers to municipal caseworkers and infrastructure owners.