NOAA RFI: Collaborative R&D on Social Data, Analytics, and Visualizations Related to Inland Flooding Applications

Notice ID: CR-196

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Weather Program Office (WPO) seek Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) partners that possess unique social data and expertise, capabilities, and experience with developing cloud tools for data analytics and visualizations that might be applied to inland floods and flooding events, while also providing data and tools for long term NOAA flood-related research, such as connected to the National Water Model developed by the Office of Water Prediction. Data could include, but is not limited to, traffic, mobility, cellphone, social media, retail, insurance, and other similar types of data.

The initial period of collaboration for this CRADA is expected to be from fiscal year 2024 through fiscal year 2026 (“2” years), with extensions possible if all parties agree.

The work of the Weather Program Office (WPO) is authorized under the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017. WPO was created to ensure alignment of office practices with the strategic goals of this law. Within the WPO, the Social Science Program is tasked with enhancing the “integration of social science knowledge into weather forecast and warning processes” (Section 105).  Recently, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) has provided funding for the establishment of the Societal Data Insights Initiative (SDII) to develop a data infrastructure for the integration of social data with weather and climate data to serve dual goals:

• Joint development of cutting-edge data management and analytical tools. These tools will merge social science data with pertinent weather data to explore key research questions and potential operational applications, with initial data projects focused on inland floods and flooding.
• Establishment of a centralized housing and archiving system for SBES datasets. This will mainly cater to NOAA-funded projects and select datasets from external contributors.
• The overall scope of the CRADA is to explore, develop, and refine methods collaboratively with SDII and affiliated partners to obtain unique social data and data analytic capabilities for integrating social and weather/climate data. Specific aspects to be investigated might include, but are not limited to:
• Identifying and monitoring societal responses to flood events, both in real-time and post-event,
• Evaluating the social impact of NOAA flood products, such as watches and warnings,
• Evaluating the economic impact of NOAA flood products and services, such as the National Water Model, and
• Better understanding public perceptions of and response to NOAA flood products and services, such as Flood Inundation Mapping…

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