Democratizing Water Intelligence: Advanced Analytics for Coastal Protection and Flood Prediction

Client Overview

Hohonu, a UN Ocean Decade Project-endorsed environmental technology company, has established a strong presence across 15 U.S. states, protecting coastal communities with their extensive sensor network. With over 1.3 million hours of water monitoring data and a client base that includes major cities like Boston, Annapolis, Palm Beach County, and Hilton Head Island, Hohonu has cemented its reputation as a trusted partner for water resource management.

As a public-private enterprise, Hohonu’s mission is to democratize access to rigorous, real-time water data. Their network spans over 100 locations, accumulating more than 1.8 million hours of critical water monitoring data. Hohonu’s NOAA-approved methods and industry-standard sensors provide comprehensive water intelligence, refreshed every 6 minutes, making them an invaluable resource for coastal communities and water resource managers.

Business Challenges

Hohonu faced several complex challenges in their mission to provide comprehensive water monitoring solutions:

1. Real-time Data Processing: Efficiently processing data from hundreds of sensors refreshing every 6 minutes, managing multiple data types including water level, temperature, dissolved oxygen, and chlorophyll, while integrating data from both cellular and satellite-connected sensors.
2. Advanced Analytics Requirements: Implementation of NOAA-approved methods for tidal harmonic calculations, development of sophisticated quality control systems, and creation of accurate prediction models with complex datum calculations across different locations.
3. Sensor Reliability and Validation: Validating sensor accuracy against NOAA standards and statistically proving sensor network reliability for government clients, while maintaining accuracy across diverse geographical locations.
4. Stakeholder Requirements: Meeting diverse needs of government bodies and municipalities, providing accessible yet comprehensive data visualization, and maintaining regulatory compliance while innovating.

Expected Outcome

Hohonu sought a sophisticated solution that would:

• Validate their sensor network against NOAA standards
• Process and analyze real-time data from multiple sensor types
• Provide accurate flood predictions with longer lead times
• Generate statistical proof of sensor reliability
• Create scalable frameworks for future expansion
• Deliver insights through accessible visualization tools

Our Approach

Agile and Responsive Delivery

TotemXLabs’ team of data engineers and data scientists demonstrated a unique ability to quickly understand Hohonu’s complex requirements and deliver a customized solution. Our agile approach, leveraging the collaborative nature of Google Colab, enabled us to rapidly prototype, test, and iterate on the project, ensuring a quick turnaround and cost-effective implementation.

Handling Missing and Corrupted Data

One of the key challenges we faced was addressing missing and corrupted data from the sensor network. Our team worked out robust data quality frameworks that leveraged statistical analysis and time-series techniques to identify and mitigate these issues. By implementing automated data validation checks and custom anomaly detection algorithms, one can maintain the integrity of the data and ensure accurate predictions, even in the face of sensor failures or environmental disruptions.

Advanced Time-Series Analysis and Prediction

To achieve the desired prediction accuracy, we proposed a suite of cutting-edge time-series analysis and forecasting techniques. Our models incorporated elements like SARIMA for seasonal patterns, LSTM and GRU networks for complex non-linear dependencies, and XGBoost for feature-driven predictions. By experimenting with these various approaches, we were able to uncover hidden patterns and relationships within the data, leading to significant improvements in flood forecasting accuracy.

*Above image is sourced from Hohonu’s website for explanation purpose only.

Seamless Integration and Scalability

The solution’s cloud-native architecture, built on Google Cloud – Google collab notebooks connected with the live data sources, ensured seamless collaboration and integration with Hohonu’s existing systems . This could also aid effortless scalability as their sensor network expanded. 

Key Outcomes

1. Technical Achievements:
   • Successfully processed data from multiple at varying intervals like every 6 minutes or 12 minutes
   • optimized data processing latency with SOTA data loading tools
   • Implemented automated data quality check modules 
   • In-depth comparative analysis of NOAA and Hohonu data guiding data and ML model decisions
   • Uncovering hidden time-series behaviors and patterns 
   • Verify performance consistency of Hohonu sensors and work out mitigation strategies for missing data, anomalies
   • Improved ML model accuracy against NOAA forecast benchmarks
2. Business Impact:
   • Statistical validation of sensor accuracy against NOAA standards
   • Enhanced prediction accuracy compared to traditional methods
   • Real-time decision making for coastal communities
3. Stakeholder Benefits:
   • Improved flood prediction lead times
   • Enhanced data accessibility for government stakeholders
   • Automated reporting and compliance documentation
   • Real-time alerting capabilities

Testimonial

Why Choose TotemXLabs

TotemXLabs’ ability to quickly understand complex requirements, deliver customized solutions, and handle the unique challenges of environmental sensor data sets us apart. Our team’s expertise in advanced time-series analysis, coupled with our experience in building scalable, cloud-native systems, enabled us to create a transformative solution for Hohonu.

By leveraging the collaborative nature of Google Collab and our agile delivery approach, we were able to provide Hohonu with a cost-effective and rapidly deployable solution that met their ambitious goals. Our commitment to innovation, combined with a deep understanding of environmental monitoring systems, makes TotemXLabs the ideal partner for tackling complex data challenges in the water resource management sector.