Ask a Scientist: How Can Researchers Use AI to Predict a Flood?
Google, Tuesday, August 18th, 2026
A Google research scientist explains how Flood Hub and Groundsource use AI to forecast river and urban flash floods.
Google published an interview with a senior staff research scientist on how the company has used AI to evolve its flood forecasting over the past decade.
Google uses artificial intelligence to predict river floods and urban flash floods, providing early warnings to more than 2 billion people across 150 countries.
The piece explains how Flood Hub and Groundsource work and what each contributes to a forecast.
It covers what makes flood prediction difficult, particularly in regions with sparse gauge data. The format is part of Google's Ask a Scientist series aimed at general readers.