Hong Kong authorities have developed an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven flood forecasting and alert system capable of three-dimensional simulations, aimed at enabling more timely pre-emptive measures and emergency responses to flooding.

The technology is the latest addition to the existing territory-wide flood risk visualisation system, which was deployed during Super Typhoon Ragasa last year.

“This is to foster Hong Kong as a future-facing and climate-resilient city,” Ringo Mok Wing-cheong, director of the Drainage Services Department, said.

The new model, a collaborative effort between the department and Guangzhou-based South China University of Technology, integrates big data analysis with AI to simulate flooding in 3D.

By training the model with various data sets, including meteorological statistics for nowcasting rainfall and tides, it can generate real-time flood simulations and illustrate how flooding evolves dynamically in three dimensions.

This will in turn support the department in planning ahead for emergency responses to potential flooding.

Esther Yuen Ka-wai, chief engineer of the department’s land drainage division, said the new model marked a step forward from the existing visualisation system, which uses hydraulic models to provide static flood risk maps.