UC Santa Cruz Leverages NVIDIA Tech for Coastal Flood Mapping
UC Santa Cruz is pioneering advanced coastal flood mapping using NVIDIA's GPU technology. The initiative, led by Professor Michael Beck, focuses on modeling natural barriers like coral reefs and mangroves to mitigate flood risks. Climate change has elevated the threat, with a 26% chance of coastal flooding over the next three decades.
The university employs Nvidia CUDA-X software, including cuPyNumeric and nvfortran, to slash simulation times from six hours to 40 minutes. Funded by an NVIDIA Academic Grant, the project aims to influence governments, NGOs, and financial institutions to adopt nature-based solutions. Global expansion of the flood mapping program is now underway.