A Smartphone-based Warning System for Guerilla Rain

摘要

Currently, localized heavy rains impact society by causing disasters such as flash floods and landslides, which in turn causes severe damage to properties and human deaths. This type of rain events are however, difficult to detect using existing weather forecasting systems because it suddenly occurs in a small area, and then detection methods currently being developed are high-cost and has low scalability. So, in this paper, we discuss the possibility of a low-cost and scalable warning system using smartphone measurements of 3G and Wi-Fi signal strengths as well as pressure, humidity, and temperature. A small network of smartphones in an area of less than a kilometer would be able to describe the current weather condition by monitoring the environment, and then provide appropriate warnings in the event of a heavy rain.