Calculates Lowest Floor Elevation Using Low-Cost Drone-based Images and Existing Public Data
This algorithm uses low-cost thermal and digital drone images in combination with existing public data to calculate building metrics used for determining flood insurance requirements and building energy efficiency rates.
In the United States in 2019, floods caused $3.75 billion in damage. Only 6 percent of American homeowners have a flood insurance policy from the National Flood Insurance Program. To receive flood insurance, building owners must submit elevation certificates, which can vary in price from $160 to $2000, with the average being $600. The price depends on the quality of the survey, timing, available elevation data, demand, structure type, and occupancy type of the building. The location of the building can extend the time and cost of an elevation certificate if it is far from existing local or USGS benchmarks.
Currently, there is not a technique to let people know if the Lowest Floor Elevation (LFE) is lower than Base Flood Elevation (the local elevation to which water level for a 100-year flood rises) without getting a ground survey done which is expensive and time-consuming. This keeps the building owners in the dark about the likelihood of storm damage on their property and whether they should get flood insurance or not.
Researchers at the University of Florida have developed an algorithm that uses pre-existing data and low-cost drone images to solve this problem. Our method estimates the LFE which can help map the risk of flooding using geospatial analysis. This work will help insurance companies, building owners, to have a preliminary report of the buildings that stand at a risk of flooding.
Application
Algorithm that uses low-cost drone digital and thermal infrared (TIR) images to calculate metrics important in determining flood vulnerability of a building.
The following is the list of possible interested stakeholders to use this algorithm:
- Cities and counties can get the LFE estimation done to spread awareness among residents to get flood insurance based on vulnerability.
- Property appraisal websites such as Zillow can use the LFE estimation on their platform and include that in estimating property prices. As global warming and rising sea levels cause more of a concern, flooding risks needs to be included in property prices.
- Developing a graphical mapping interface for comparing LFE’s of the buildings to the BFE of the area will enable insurance companies to provide an estimated quote for flood insurance at the first meeting with prospective clients.
- It will also help building owners in deciding whether they need to spend money on getting an elevation certificate by having a survey done of their building.
Advantages
- Uses pre-existing, publicly-available data, and low-cost drone images to calculate building metrics, reducing costs associated with traditional surveying methods.
- Calculations are based on an automated algorithm, which reduced the risk of human error in calculating building metrics.
- Increases the speed of data collection to be able to build a large database quickly.
- Non-intrusive estimation technique as the algorithm doesn’t require access to premises to calculate LFE.
Technology
This flexible algorithm uses drone-based digital and TIR images and publicly-available data to estimate the Lowest Floor Elevation, an important metric for determining the flood insurance requirements of a building. Using thermal image and image corrections lets the algorithm visualize the elevation of the slab inside the building using non-intrusive measurement using drones from outside. Calibrating the image with the County parcel data yield extremely accurate elevation information. Once LFE is obtained, it is compared with the BFE from the GIS parcel data to estimate the likeliness of flooding. The algorithm uses the same data to estimate wall and roof U-factors that are important for determining the energy efficiency of a building.
Brochure
