Vodafone and River Severn Partnership Trial Network-as-a-Sensor to Improve Rain Forecasting

Vodafone is joining forces with River Severn Partnership Advanced Wireless Innovation Region (RSPAWIR) and Wireless DNA to use its mobile network to provide more accurate rain nowcasting. Nowcasting is the short-term forecast of rainfall, typically over a timeframe ranging from a few minutes to a few hours ahead. The trial is across the River Severn catchment area to provide long-term resilience for communities and the environment. Communities along the River Severn have a long history of flooding. Significant floods in recent decades have caused extensive damage to homes and businesses, while impacting local infrastructure and disrupting travel. An estimated £230m per year is spent across the region to manage and mitigate damage to infrastructure brought by floods. The partnership will use Vodafone’s mobile network as an environmental sensor to monitor rainfall. Electromagnetic waves at certain frequencies are sensitive to precipitation, as water in the air affects the quality of the wireless link between masts. A microwave link can therefore function as a virtual rain gauge, providing pinpointed and precise precipitation data.

Wireless DNA will monitor all signal variations to identify those caused by precipitation and share this data with the River Severn Partnership to enhance early warning systems for flooding and improve flood defences for local residents. The additional data will provide insights to supplement conventional systems, like radar and rain gauges, with a dense layer of ground-level observations. Vodafone’s mobile network can work as an environmental sensor because the data offers greater accuracy than radar and more detail than weather stations, improving forecasts with localised insights.