Flood sensor project to offer NYC real-time data as storms intensify

Over the next five years, New York City, relying on a team of academics from CUNY and New York University, plans to install 500 sensors in places across the city that see routine flooding.

So far, they’ve put up 28, mostly in clusters in the south Bronx; Red Hook and Gowanus in Brooklyn; southeast Queens; and in Harlem.

Significant coverage from sensors will allow the city to place accurate signage warning of flooding, as well as issue alerts that communities can actually use.

The project offers a glimpse at how complicated an endeavor it is for the city to even begin understanding its vulnerabilities to climate change.

The scientists are relying as much on the city for funding and permission as on residents for their knowledge of neighborhood problem spots, where rising water can indicate wider flooding.

Then, location by location, they’ll install the sensors on signs, buildings and telephone poles, cataloging the city’s water problem.

Toledo-Crow, a research associate professor at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center, said: “We have three major stakeholders: the city, the communities and the academics.”