What will sea level look like in Rhode Island. This truck will tell us.

PROVIDENCE – If you’re driving along the Rhode Island coast in the next few days, you may notice a one-of-a-kind truck on the road with a lot of sophisticated-looking equipment attached to its roof.

It’s FloodRover II, a Ford Lightning truck that’s collecting video, laser and elevation data all along the shoreline to create visual simulations of the impacts of sea level rise and storm surge.

Think of it as Google Street View in the age of climate change.

Showing the street-level impacts of flooding

The truck is owned by Climate Central, a nonprofit working to communicate the data and science behind the changes driven by the warming of the Earth. It’s at the beginning of a six-month trip through coastal communities from Maine to Texas to help staff at Climate Central start generating images using a computer tool they’re calling FloodVision.

Max Grater, the field producer for the project, drove FloodRover II into India Point Park in Providence earlier this week to explain what he’s doing and meet with local people working on climate issues.

“Part of this is to gather the data,” Grater said. “Part of it is to spread the word.”

Grater showed off the four cameras, the LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) sensor and the GPS device that are collecting all the information that will be combined with the help of AI to create photorealistic simulations of flooding.

Within a few weeks, Climate Central will be able to create images that depict different scenarios for storms and sea level rise. The idea is that local officials will be able to use them to plan for emergencies and how to mitigate their effects.

While other groups have created maps showing flood risk, there aren’t any comparable visualizations that use street-level images. In Rhode Island, the closest are simulations created by the Coastal Resources Management Council and the University of Rhode Island of a handful of the most vulnerable parts of the coastline.

“It’s a great way for people to understand the risk in a more tangible way,” said Michele Jalbert, executive director of the Providence Resilience Partnership, a group helping to coordinate efforts to protect Rhode Island’s capital from climate impacts.

Truck set to start work in Rhode Island on Friday

Over the past three weeks, Grater has driven through Maine, New Hampshire and most of Massachusetts. He plans to start data collection in Rhode Island on Friday – his first stop will be Tiverton – and he thinks it will take two to three days to complete.

The trip is taking longer than a typical drive because he has to limit his speed to 30 miles per hour, even on the highway, to ensure he gets clear images. That wasn’t a problem in Maine and New Hampshire, but Massachusetts was a different story.

“Some truck drivers behind me got a little frustrated,” he laughed.

Meredith Pearson, preparedness coordinator with the Providence Emergency Management Agency, urged Grater to expand his route in Rhode Island to include places vulnerable to inland flooding. Heavier rains caused by climate change are causing areas, such as the Woonasquatucket River watershed, to be inundated with rainwater more frequently.

“And if you’re getting a storm surge at the same time, there’s no good place for the rivers to drain,” Pearson said.

Jalbert said she hopes the images created by FloodVision could help lead to improvements to stormwater infrastructure and other actions.

“It’s about galvanizing people about the problems and being creative about the solutions,” she said.