This year marks a decade of significant achievements for the Hydroinformatics Institute (H2i). We’ve expanded our application of water technology solutions to address the increasing challenges posed by extreme weather and climate change. This includes finding broader and more innovative uses for our proprietary Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning products.

Key Milestones

Coastal-Inland Flood Model

One of our notable accomplishments is our collaboration with PUB and NUS to develop a Coastal-Inland Flood Model. This model will enable PUB to better assess both inland and coastal flood risks in Singapore, providing faster and more accurate water management insights to predict and mitigate the impact of climate change.

Opportunistic Rainfall Sensors

In a groundbreaking pilot project, we’re utilizing StarHub’s extensive network of mobile base stations as “opportunistic” rainfall sensors. This innovative approach was one of four winners in the PUB Global Innovative Challenge, recognized for its potential to enhance operational excellence and address Singapore’s future water needs through digital solutions and smart technologies.

CCTV- and X-Band Radar Enabled Rainfall Monitoring

Our CCTV-enabled rainfall monitoring pilot has expanded to an operational system deployed across approximately one-third of PUB cameras under the Living Lab (Water) Scheme, supported by Singapore’s National Research Foundation (NRF) and PUB. Additionally, our X-band radar system, initiated in 2018, now incorporates state-of-the-art machine learning techniques to further improve rainfall observation accuracy.

Pluvia.ai

A significant milestone this past year was the transition of our climate-tech product business to Pluvia.ai, a company spun out from H2i four years ago. Pluvia.ai is now the new owner of H2i’s climate-tech product business. This move allows H2i to concentrate on delivering a full suite of water-related digital software solutions to clients, including those focused on climate change and urban flood resilience. Pluvia’s own digital solutions will add substantial value to our client offerings.

In the words of Pluvia’s Chairman, Martin Lechner: “The streamlining of roles will allow H2i to sharpen its focus on developing and scaling the digital solutions it provides to both the private and public sectors and to continue leveraging advancements in data science, AI, and Machine Learning to enhance them.”

As of March 1, H2i is a stand-alone company, wholly owned by Pluvia.ai dedicated to digital products that utilize radar, street-level CCTV footage, microwave links, and digital climate resilience and other advanced technologies.

Since our inception ten years ago, our mission has been to generate better and more actionable insights to help countries and industries operate more safely. We continue to explore new avenues to achieve this goal. We extend our heartfelt thanks to the entire H2i community for their dedication and hard work in making these achievements possible. We appreciate our clients, partners, and friends for their continued support and collaboration.