Low-Cost Flood Sensors: Performance Analysis

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services (CMSWS) authored this report under a partnership with DHS S&T. This report details the installation and operation of 93 “alpha” prototype low-cost flood sensors (LCS) in Mecklenburg County during the second year of the partnership. CMSWS deployed the LCS at sites previously identified during the site-selection analysis, with two of the sites co-located with an existing U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) stream gauge for quality assurance and quality control purposes.  CMSWS also initiated an operation and maintenance (O&M) protocol that monitored performance and corrected equipment issues that allowed for LCS data to integrate into the existing Flood Information and Notification System (FINS) to expand the warning and alert capabilities to additional sites.