Towards Democratized Flood Risk Management: An Advanced AI Assistant Enabled by GPT-4 for Enhanced Interpretability and Public Engagement

Abstract

Real-time flood forecasting is vital for effective emergency responses, but bridging the gap between complex numerical models and practical decision-making remains challenging. Decision-makers often rely on experts, while the public struggles to interpret flood risk information. To address this, we developed a customized AI Assistant powered by GPT-4. This tool enhances communication between decision-makers, the public, and forecasters, requiring no specialized knowledge. The framework leverages GPT-4's advanced natural language capabilities to search flood alerts, answer inquiries, and integrate real-time warnings with flood maps and social vulnerability data. It simplifies complex flood zone information into actionable advice. The prototype was evaluated on relevance, error resilience, and contextual understanding, with performance compared across different GPT models. This research advances flood risk management by making critical information more accessible and engaging, demonstrating the potential of AI tools like GPT-4 in addressing social and environmental challenges.