Heavy Rainfall Early Warning System

Saving lives – preserving values

Heavy rainfall is becoming more and more frequent and can affect everyone. Pictures of the Ahr valley show us how dangerous heavy rain can be.

The district of Fulda and its municipalities want to be prepared for the increasing heavy rainfall events, and for this reason have put a heavy rainfall early warning system into operation with funding from the state of Hesse. “The innovative system provides a vital head start, as everyone involved can be warned, and lives therefore saved,” explained Digital Minister Prof. Dr. Sinemus in her summary of the advantages of the innovative solution.

How the heavy rain early warning system works

In every catchment area, the heavy rain early warning system measures precipitation, water levels and runoff behavior in drains in real time, and combines these details with data from the German Weather Service and with the heavy rainfall risk maps. Within seconds, the data is stored in the cloud, and analyzed.

As soon as critical values are reached, the system alerts citizens, emergency services and the authorities.

Alert levels of the heavy rain early warning system

 There are three alert levels: pre-warning, danger of flooding and danger of flash flooding.
Each of these levels issues clear instructions as to how the people affected should behave.
In addition, all users receive live updates on the current status of the flooding.

Heavy rainfall early warning system App

Quelle: Spekter GmbH

With the heavy rainfall app, every user can decide for him or herself at which alarm levels they wish to be alerted, and how. They have a choice of text message, push notification or voice call. The possibility of alerting by app means that a great many citizens can be contacted quickly and easily.

Apart from accessing the German Weather Service’s (DWD) latest radar forecast data, users can also view all catchment areas with current warning levels.

Partnership between EDAG Group & Spekter

EDAG Production Solutions (EDAG PS) and Spekter have a strong partnership, as demonstrated by the District of Fulda’s “eRisk management heavy rain early warning system” project.

The heavy rainfall early warning system and sensors are supplied by Spekter. EDAG PS is in charge of project management and the installation of the sensors in the district. In addition, EDAG PS is the first point of contact for the municipalities, and has developed its own digital heavy rainfall detector to enable insights from heavy rain events to be communicated.

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