Real-time flood awareness, even when the grid is down.
FLOOD-Mesh is a low-cost, off-grid network of solar-powered sensors that measures flood levels and road conditions across the Gold Coast. Using long-range LoRa radios and the Reticulum mesh stack, data travels through the network until it reaches a central server for live maps and alerts—no existing infrastructure required.
What is it?
A city-wide fabric of compact sensor nodes—each with a small solar panel, battery, microcontroller and flood sensors (level, temperature, soil moisture). Nodes mount to existing infrastructure or poles and report conditions continuously.
How it works
Nodes use LoRa for ultra-low-power, long-range links and the Reticulum stack to intelligently and efficiently relay sensor data through the network to a gateway. A central server turns this into live situation maps and predictive road-closure alerts. If a node fails, the mesh re-routes.
Who benefits
Residents, first responders and city planners get timely, ground-truth visibility of road and water conditions—helping our community make safer decisions and accelerating recovery after severe weather.
Resilient by nature
The network’s mesh-like design keeps communication flowing during power and cellular outages that are common during severe weather events. Data can be sent in both directions, providing an extra layer of emergency communication.
Built to scale
At roughly one-tenth the cost of traditional river stations, FLOOD-Mesh is designed for mass deployment across the Gold Coast—not just a handful of sites.
Open & flexible
Data collected is non-proprietary and can be integrated into a wide range of software, allowing council to use sensor data as needed—without hoops or extra approvals.