Technology will provide real-time warning of places with the greatest risk of flooding

Developed in partnership with EMBRAPII, low-cost meteorological stations distributed throughout the country will offer more assertive and timely forecasts for issuing alerts to the population

The month of February 2020 was the wettest month in the city of São Paulo since the beginning of the historical series of the National Institute of Meteorology (Inmet) in 1943, and with the rains also come floods, flooding points and landslides . To avoid such tragedies, startup Pluvi.On and EMBRAPII (Brazilian Company for Industrial Research and Innovation) have developed a low-cost weather station capable of issuing punctual alerts warning of how much rain is forecast for a given point in the city.

The technology monitors weather conditions in real time. The equipment has sensors for measuring the volume and intensity of rain, temperature, air humidity, wind direction and speed. The station has several built-in sensors (of different types) and connectivity features for transmitting the collected data to the cloud where it will be processed. And, with the addition of intelligence, it gives more precision to information related to weather forecast and the possibility to issue alerts about possible floods, landslides and environmental disasters.

Currently, the startup has 300 stations in 10 states across the country, 40 of them in the city of São Paulo. The idea is to spread the units and expand the database to improve the quality of information and make it more accurate. With this, in the future it will be possible to distribute alerts free of charge to people, through platforms installed on smartphones.

"Last year, due to our data, we issued an alert of heavy rain that was expected to hit a highway in São Paulo. With that, they (the concessionaire) decided to close the lane. On the scheduled day, two landslides occurred that could have affected family, if the measure had not been taken", says Diogo Tolezano, CEO of startup Pluvi.On. "We are also with a pilot project in communities of high social vulnerability in the region of São Miguel and Itaim Paulista, on the east side of the capital, neighborhoods frequently affected by floods."

The innovation was developed in partnership with researchers from the EMBRAPII CPqD Unit, in Campinas and Icatel, the Telecommunications industry in São Paulo. Among the sectors that have already shown interest in acquiring the new weather stations, agribusiness, electricity distributors, transport and engineering companies stand out.

Innovation in startups and small businesses

This and several other projects are the result of a partnership between EMBRAPII and Sebrae that aims to finance innovative ideas from small entrepreneurs seeking to enhance the competitiveness of their companies in the market.

In the conventional model of EMBRAPII, up to 1/3 of the value of innovative projects in the Brazilian industry is financed with non-reimbursable resources, in addition to making available for their development the EMBRAPII Units, renowned research centers accredited by the institution. In the specific model that includes Sebrae, entrepreneurs receive the complement of their financial compensation in the projects, sharing the risks and contributing to their viability.