Chatham County

Chatham County designed, developed, and tested a pilot sensor network for measuring sea level flood risk to inform government officials and other key stakeholders in real time during natural disasters and storm events. The pilot network helped improve flood warnings, emergency response action plans, and flood predictions for future flood events, while also serving as the foundation for future sea management tools, environmental monitoring platforms, and regional data-sharing efforts.

“The City of Savannah is excited at the opportunity to partner with our counterparts at CEMA, and scientists and engineers from Georgia Tech in tackling one of the most pressing issues for our community.”- Heath Lloyd, Chief Officer of Infrastructure and Development for Savannah

“Beyond the application to emergency planning and response, we are excited to partner with the Georgia Tech team to raise awareness about coastal flooding and sea level rise within the coastal community.”- Leon Davenport, Chatham County Engineer

Chatham County’s project leveraged the ongoing Google-funded “Climate Stories” research initiative led by Georgia Tech, the University of Georgia, and Emory University, which used virtual reality to visualize and shape narratives around climate impacts and climate solutions within communities across Georgia. Building upon this work, the project team developed pilot sensor and communications infrastructure, tested system capacity and real-time data delivery capabilities, designed an online aggregation and visualization platform, and conducted preliminary flood risk assessments under varying environmental scenarios. The team also continued engaging coastal residents and stakeholders to explore additional community applications for the collected data.

Chatham County partnered with a multidisciplinary team of Georgia Tech researchers led by Dr. Kim Cobb to study challenges associated with large-scale deployment of IoT-enabled remote sensors. Additional research collaborators included Dr. Russell Clark and Lalith Polepeddi, who focused on remote sensing infrastructure; Dr. Emanuele Di Lorenzo, who integrated ocean models for predictive sea-level risk assessments; and Dr. David Frost, who developed decision-support and resilience-planning tools for community leaders.