News
29 – Floods to space flights: government challenging start-ups to solve intractable problems
- 3 November 2018
- Posted by: Helen Nicol
- Category: Resources
No Comments

This case study was presented at the 2018 PSTA State of Transformation conference. You can read more about the conference (and download a copy of the full report) elsewhere on this website.
29 – Floods to space flights: government challenging start-ups to solve intractable problems
Summary:
- When a flood hits, how can authorities reach the people who desperately need to know? The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) realised it faced exactly this problem.
- SEPA collects a lot of information about flooding, but aimed at a specialist audience of first responders; unable to get alerts to many smaller communities.
- small company RiverTrack uses an array of low-cost sensors positioned over waterways which can broadcast real-time data on water levels to community centres, businesses or even individual homes