UTA leads $4M effort to build Hill Country flood warning system
After catastrophic flooding claimed more than 130 lives in Central Texas, The University of Texas at Arlington has received a $4 million grant from the Office of Governor Greg Abbott to create a real-time flood warning system designed to help prevent future loss of life.
“The number one priority of our state is the safety of our fellow Texans,” Gov. Abbott said. "This grant will provide critical funding to enhance emergency alert systems. I thank UT-Arlington for working to implement improved weather monitoring systems to provide Texans with accurate emergency warnings. Together, we will work to protect Texans and deliver a safer future for all."
Through UTA’s Water Engineering Research Center (WERC), the University will deploy a high-resolution, Texas-focused weather monitoring and modeling network to deliver faster, more precise flood warnings in flood-prone areas of the Texas Hill Country. The system is expected to give residents and emergency managers critical extra time to respond as conditions rapidly change.
“This investment allows us to move from research to real-time action,” said Nick Fang, the Robert S. Gooch Endowed Professor and director of WERC. “By combining advanced forecasting, high-resolution weather monitoring, and proven flood modeling techniques, we can provide communities with faster, more accurate warnings that help protect lives and property.”
To help bring the system to life, Dr. Fang will partner the Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disasters (SSPEED) Center at Rice University, where he is a founding researcher. The collaboration with Philip Bedient, director of the SSPEED Center, brings together expertise in storm prediction, flood modeling, and emergency response planning.
“Texas faces some of the most complex and fast-moving flood risks in the nation,” Fang said. “By combining local monitoring with advanced modeling, we can reduce uncertainty and deliver actionable information to decision-makers when every minute counts.”
WERC and Rice University’s SSPEED Center have advanced storm surge and flood modeling in Houston and along the Gulf Coast for decades. Together, they will help develop the computer modeling system and comprehensive floodplain map library that underpin the operational warning platform.
While flood warnings are often associated with sirens or text alerts, the new system begins much earlier—using radar-derived rainfall data fed into advanced hydrologic and hydraulic models to forecast flood water depths at specific locations. The system delivers actionable predictions to emergency officials before waters reach critical thresholds.
The approach builds on more than 20 years of experience protecting high-risk areas such as Houston’s Texas Medical Center, where SSPEED’s radar-based Flood Information and Response System (FIRST) provides real-time flood mapping for hospitals and other essential facilities.
Dr. Fang developed the floodplain map library concept at Rice University along with the first flood warning system for the Texas Medical Center. In the Hill Country, WERC will oversee the development of the new early warning system that integrates with radar data and stream gauge information in a real-time framework supported by SSPEED, improving accuracy during fast-moving storm events.
“Early warning doesn’t start with a siren—it starts with science,” said Dr. Bedient. “By combining radar rainfall, stream measurements and predictive modeling, we can forecast how deep the water will be and where it will go, giving communities the lead time they need to make life-saving decisions.”
The project also will strengthen collaboration among state agencies, regional water authorities, and local communities—a critical step in ensuring that the technology translates into coordinated, life-saving emergency response strategies. In addition to deploying equipment, researchers will work with stakeholders to refine communication protocols so warnings are clear, accessible, and easy to act on.
“It is critical to use precise weather data in flood modeling and warning to provide reliable predictions for emergency operations,” said Dr. Daniel Li, an assistant professor of research at WERC. “Equally important is how we communicate risk,” said Matt Lepinski, assistant program director for WERC. “Our goal is to ensure every warning is timely, clear and immediately actionable for the communities we serve.”
Funded through the Governor’s Office as part of a broader effort to enhance disaster preparedness, the initiative builds on UTA’s leadership in water engineering research and disaster resilience. WERC has led numerous projects focused on urban flooding, stormwater infrastructure, and weather adaptation, positioning the University as a key partner in helping Texas communities prepare for and respond to extreme weather. Most recently, WERC and Dallas Fort Worth International Airport expanded a multi-year partnership to improve stormwater management, environmental protection and long-term operational resilience at one of the world’s busiest airports.
“This is about giving communities the tools they need to stay ahead of the next storm,” Fang said. “With the right science and the right partnerships, we can make Texas more resilient.”
About The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA)
The University of Texas at Arlington is a growing public research university in the heart of Dallas-Fort Worth. With a student body of over 42,700, UTA is the second-largest institution in the University of Texas System, offering more than 180 undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Recognized as a Carnegie R-1 university, UTA stands among the nation’s top 5% of institutions for research activity. UTA and its 280,000 alumni generate an annual economic impact of $28.8 billion for the state. The University has received the Innovation and Economic Prosperity designation from the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities and has earned recognition for its focus on student access and success, considered key drivers to economic growth and social progress for North Texas and beyond.
About Rice University
Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Texas, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of architecture, business, continuing studies, engineering and computing, humanities, music, natural sciences and social sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy and Kinder Institute for Urban Research. Internationally, the university maintains the Rice Global Paris Center, a hub for innovative collaboration, research and inspired teaching located in the heart of Paris, and Rice Global India in Bengaluru, India. With 4,776 undergraduates and 4,104 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 7 for best-run colleges by the Princeton Review.