NYU FloodSense street sign mounted distance sensor

Ultrasonic distance data in mm from a sensor mounted on a street sign post at the corner of 5th Street and Hoyt, Brooklyn, NY (40.676640, -73.994595). The sensor is designed to detect flood water that fills the street and blocks vehicle and pedestrian traffic, as well as depositing micro-organisms on the street.

The sensor transmits its data via LoRaWAN and is equipped with a solar panel for continuous operation.

Data is collected at ~5min intervals. Time fields are in local time (New York).

Two types of erroneous data has been observed:

• Large spikes in distance that always manifest at 5000mm - can be excluded
• There are ~1% rises in distance measures on days with sun which suggests that the distance sensor is affected by direct sunlight

This data is prelimary and is for prototyping purposes. Not to be used as a reliable data source as it is.

This dataset will be updated when more data is collected.

Please see our github org for sensor information and build instructions: github.com/floodsense