UI professor awarded $1.2 million to create online flood warning system

Humberto Vergara’s project is part of the U.N’s larger Early Warnings For All, a global initiative aiming to provide warning systems to every country on earth by the end of 2027.

Jacob Calvin, News Reporter

May 4, 2026

Sal Yang

Professor Humberto Vergara of The University of Iowa’s Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, poses for a portrait in front of Iowa River in Iowa City, Iowa, on Friday, May 1, 2026. Professor Humberto and his team is creating a information system that alerts people for floods. (Sal Yang/The Daily Iowan)

A University of Iowa professor is using a $1.2 million grant to improve flash flood warning systems in Comoros, Haiti, Barbados, Guatemala, and Antigua and Barbuda.

Humberto Vergara, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering and the recipient of the grant, said the funds are being provided from the U.S. Department of State and granted by the World Meteorological Organization. This U.N. agency serves as the global authority on weather.

The project is a part of the U.N.’s Early Warnings For All, a global initiative aiming to provide warning systems to every country on earth by the end of 2027.

The five countries Vergara is collaborating with have asked the World Meteorological Organization for assistance in improving their flash flooding warning systems.

Announced by the UI in February, the grant builds off of a previous $162,000 project run by Vergara to provide data for West Africa and Cuba.

“Some of these countries do have radar systems, but the majority of countries out there don’t,” Vergara said. “Some of these countries might have other sensors on the ground, like rain gauges, but the majority won’t. So, satellite is the main tool that we use to address the rainfall observation challenge.”

Vergara, a UI IIHR-Hydroscience and Engineering research engineer, said the digital flash flood warning system he is building for the five countries will be an online platform similar to the Iowa Flood Information System, a website launched by the UI that displays flood alerts, forecasts, flood maps, and weather conditions.

Vergara’s warning system uses satellite imaging to create models on weather, rainfall, and river flow to estimate where flooding could occur. The system also includes a component that combines those forecasts with information about people, infrastructure, and vulnerable areas to assess potential impacts and severity, giving local officials the ability to view forecasts and risk levels nearly in real time.

“We’re hoping to improve their abilities and their capacity to address the needs of the general public for better warnings,” Vergara said. “This system is going to provide not only the capacity for the new information, but also the capacity to improve the system itself or come up with new protocols for their decision-making.”

Vergara said while the team does not have the resources to build radar systems in each country, they can use data from satellites to build the digital warning system.

He said radar gathers information from the ground, while satellites can only get information at the top of clouds. Despite radar being a better prediction system, Vergara said their satellite method can still help save lives.

“We really need to know the future rainfall, we’re talking about the next 12 hours, the next 24 hours,” he said. “Decision makers need as much lead time as these systems can provide. With satellites, this is the best we have. And so we are trying to use and leverage the available data tools.”

Vanessa Robledo, one of Vergara’s doctoral students working on the project, said she started her Ph.D. under Vergara in 2023. She was excited to hear Vergara is leading a project worth over $1 million.

“We are not just doing science, but we are also trying to solve real problems for people that really need forecasting solutions,” Robledo said.

Robledo received a $130,000 grant of her own from NASA, using NASA tools for the next two and a half years to predict precipitation that causes flash floods.

“I have to be more focused on the science than on the real problems, as in this $1.2 million World Meteorological Organization, which is shorter,” she said. “But the topic is the same. At the end of the day, we want to improve flash flood forecasting.”

Robledo said the World Meteorological Organization grant uses five UI students to assist in planning and designing the digital warning system.

“We are a huge team, and we are all learning from this process,” she said. “I think that’s also something important, that it is not just what we are doing for them in the Caribbean region but also what we are gaining here.”

Larry Weber, director of UI’s IIHR—Hydroscience and Engineering laboratory, said although Vergara has only been with the UI for three years, he already has a significant impact in expanding the university’s international collaboration.

“Floods are not just an Iowa-centered program, but we do work internationally, around the world, and across the country,” he said. “Professor Vergara, in his work with WMO, is just continuing that hundred years of excellence that we have here at IIHR.”

Weber said Vergara’s mission to improve the flash flood warning systems of other countries reflects the mission of UI IIHR, bringing together experts from all over the world to advance the field of hydroscience and engineering.

He said UI’s IIHR lab has hired several international staff members in recent years, from Colombia, Turkey, Canada, and China.

“All of them saw IIHR and the university as a destination accomplishment,” he said. “Sometimes we think about schools like Princeton, MIT, Berkeley as being destination locations for faculty, but IIHR, the field of hydraulics and hydrology, is that destination for many people.”

Vergara’s team also includes scientists Rutgers, Columbia and non-profit organization Tethys Geoscience Foundation.