Research Partnerships
Floodi is designed to be the community-reporting and distribution layer that takes university flood research statewide. We partner with institutions building flood observation networks, AI depth models, and extreme weather early-warning systems across Florida.
The CRIS-HAZARD model — why it works
USF St. Petersburg's CRIS-HAZARD project (PI: Prof. Barnali Dixon, $1.5M NSF grant) proved that crowdsourced flood cameras co-deployed with local floodplain managers generate ground-truth data that NWS sensors miss. When Hurricanes Helene and Milton hit in September 2024, CRIS-HAZARD's 8 cameras (now 31 across Pinellas County) captured street-level flooding hours before satellite imagery confirmed it.
Floodi mirrors this model on the community-reporting side — crowdsourced photos, geo-tagged severity assessments, and NWS cross-referencing — and extends it statewide beyond Pinellas County. Research institutions can use Floodi as the public-facing layer for camera deployments and community observations outside their grant geography.
Research areas we support
Crowdsourced geo-tagged flood reports combined with AI water-depth estimation — the same model USF CRIS-HAZARD pioneered with fixed cameras in Pinellas County.
Training flood depth estimation models on community photos. Floodi provides ground-truth reports with NWS-confirmed severity for model validation.
Street-level community reports surface 2+ hours before sensor or satellite confirmation. Floodi data can serve as a rapid-onset signal for academic forecast validation.
Floodi's timestamped, geolocated event archive enables parcel-level flood history analysis for real estate, insurance, and displacement research.
Overlay community reports with demographic and mobility data to study differential flood exposure — relevant to NSF CIVIC and NIH environmental health programs.
Partnership types
Data access partnership
Academic institutions can apply for research-tier API access to Floodi's community flood report dataset under a data use agreement. Aggregated, de-identified export available.
Co-deployment pilot
Universities building community flood observation networks (cameras, sensors) can use Floodi as the community-facing reporting and alert layer — similar to the CRIS-HAZARD camera network model in Pinellas County.
Grant co-investigator
Floodi can participate as a private-sector co-investigator on NSF CIVIC, NOAA Sea Grant, BRIC, and DHS S&T proposals — providing data infrastructure, real-world deployment, and commercialization pathway.
Validation dataset
Floodi's geo-tagged reports with NWS confirmation flags are available as a validation layer for academic flood forecasting and remote-sensing research.
Relevant funding programs
- NSF CIVIC (Community Innovation Challenge) — community-academic co-production of civic technology
- NSF LEAP-HI / ENG — community-scale flood monitoring and early warning
- NOAA Sea Grant Florida — coastal resilience and flood risk communication
- DHS S&T SVIP — flood analytics for FEMA (FloodMapp won Phase 1 in 2023)
- BRIC (Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities) — pre-disaster mitigation grants; Floodi components can be data/monitoring elements of larger capital projects
- Resilient Florida (DEP §380.093) — state program funding vulnerability assessments and resilience projects; Floodi pilots can serve as data components
Start a partnership conversation
We respond to research inquiries within 5 business days. Include your institution, research area, and what kind of data access or co-deployment you're exploring.