New App To Help Farmers Act Against Flooding
By John Hart, agricultural writer
Extension Agricultural Agent Andrea Gibbs inspects flood monitoring equipment at Middle Creek Farms. Farm owner Dawson Pugh of Hyde County is to her right.
A new web-based app is in the works that will help farmers take action to protect crops, livestock and farm machinery when a storm or flooding event is forecasted.
Flooding can destroy crops, endanger livestock and damage expensive farm equipment, and soil salinity and saltwater intrusion can render farmland unusable. A new web-based app is in the works that will allow North Carolina farmers take action.
The project is a collaborative effort between NC State University, its N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative, East Carolina University and SAS. The new flood prediction tool should first be available to farmers in flood-prone Hyde and Washington counties later this year with the goal to eventually cover all 100 North Carolina counties.
Researchers involved in the pilot project say the new tool demonstrates the power of collaboration between universities, N.C. Cooperative Extension, farmers, and industry. The sensors measure water depth, soil moisture and salinity in real time, and the app sends a notice to farmers if flooding is imminent so they can take steps to either immediately harvest threatened crops, protect livestock or remove equipment from the field.
Brad Lewis, the program manager for the N.C. Ag Analytics Platform, is spearheading the collaborative research effort in cooperation with Ciprian “Chip” Popoviciu, director of the Center for IoT Engineering and Innovation at East Carolina University; Andrea Gibbs, an agricultural agent with N.C. Cooperative Extension’s Hyde County Center; and Hyde County farmer Dawson Pugh.
The IoT flood prediction team members include (from left), Gibbs; Lewis; David Oh, NC State assistant professor of graphic and experience design; Dev Kakde, senior statistician and IoT innovator with SAS; and Spectrum News meterologist Tom Meiners.
A Problem on the Coast — and Beyond
Popoviciu was already working with Gibbs on an earlier sensor project designed to mitigate the never-ending risk of flooding in coastal Hyde County, where saltwater intrusion is a serious threat to farmland.
We will use any data source that can paint a picture on flooding across North Carolina. Our plan is to go to all 100 counties.
Lewis said data gathered by Popoviciu and Gibbs on salinity and saltwater intrusion in Hyde County serves as an indicator of where flooding could be in the future. The goal of the project is to use both existing sensors and new sensors along with partner sensors and data from agencies such as the North Carolina Department of Transportation, U.S. Geological Survey and National Weather Service, along with the NASA Satellite feed measuring soil moisture.
“We will use any data source that can paint a picture on flooding across North Carolina. Our plan is to go to all 100 counties. This is not just a coastal project,” Lewis said. “The sensors will be targeted to farmland near river basins prone to flooding.”
The solution being developed is designed to provide flood prediction data within a six-hour rolling window during a storm event so farmers can take steps to protect crops, livestock and property.
Focused on Agricultural Land
Because of the project’s specific parameters, the app will be fine-tuned to farmers’ needs.
“We are focused on agricultural land, not urban or populated areas,” Lewis said. “This reduces a whole set of equations when you’re not dealing with impermeable surfaces like parking lots, rooftops, storm sewers and manmade drainage. We are only looking at ag land.”
Lewis is partnering with NC State’s College of Design to create a user interface for both a web-based tool and mobile application. The goal is to make the app both user friendly and inexpensive.
The action a farmer takes is up to them. They can move equipment or livestock. … If you’re far enough along in the growing season, you can make the decision to harvest your crop … as much as possible. Some crop is better than no crop.
“A farmer can go in the app, register their land with the boundaries where the sensors are located and ask the app to send them an alert when flooding is predicted. We have triggers based on severe weather events. The sensors start polling every 10 minutes,” Lewis said. “We can see in real time what is happening with the water level. When the sensors show that water is going to rise on the land, the app will send farmers an alert that, within this six-hour window, this is when your land is going to be underwater.
“The action a farmer takes is up to them,” he said. “They can move equipment or livestock. That’s the easiest thing to do. If you’re far enough along in the growing season, you can make the decision to harvest your crop before a hurricane and harvest as much as possible. Some crop is better than no crop.
“The other option, especially in coastal areas like Hyde and Washington counties, is that you can change the flow of your canals, open the gates and activate pumps, all with an app being created by a team at ECU led by Chip,” Lewis added.
Affordable, User-Friendly Technology
Popoviciu said the technology is designed to be affordable and user-friendly for farmers. This app will enable farmers to monitor their canals and act all from their phones.
“We build infrastructure that enables sensors to communicate in real time,” Popoviciu said. “We manage all that data collection through our Platform for IoT Open Networks (PITON), and then on the back end, we use AI with an app, which is like a helper or a virtual agent. We created an AI agent where a farmer can say, ‘How is my water level in my canals?’ The AI agent is going to come back and say: ‘Right now, everything is good, it is within normal parameters. But there is a weather front coming in, and you might want to keep an eye on that and check more regularly.”
Right now, the project is in a proof-of-concept stage on Dawson Pugh’s farm. But Popoviciu said a phased approach will expand the sensors to more farms in Hyde and Washington counties. The same PITON infrastructure supports the instrumentation needed by the flood alerting tool being developed under Lewis’ leadership.
The Threat Posed by Saltwater Intrusion
Gibbs and Pugh examine his young corn crop in spring. Pugh says the unproductive sandy soil behind him has been degraded by saltwater intrusion.
Both Hyde County farmer Pugh and Hyde County Extension Agent Gibbs say that saltwater intrusion is becoming a worsening problem for farmers in the Tidewater region of North Carolina due to proximity to the Pamlico Sound. They say it is an existential threat to agriculture, causing irreversible land loss and economic hardship.
Prevention through dikes, tide gates and other water control structures remains the primary management strategy, but reversing the damage once salt is in the soil has been extremely difficult.
Pugh said prevention is the only strategy to deal with saltwater intrusion.
“You got to stop it before you can start getting rid of it,” he said. “You stop it by putting the water control structures in, putting a dike around it. We’re holding fresh water in the wintertime to help push the salt out of the land. We are trying to find some cover crops or any kind of crop that’ll grow in the high-salinity soil.”
Pugh’s greatest fear is a hurricane that will bring more saltwater into his land to a point where the ground can’t produce anything. Already, parts of his land are no longer productive due to high-salinity soils.
We’re holding fresh water in the wintertime to help push the salt out of the land. We are trying to find some cover crops or any kind of crop that’ll grow in the high-salinity soil.
Gibbs’ goal is to have affordable sensors tied to an app readily available to all Hyde County farmers in two years. The plan is to have farmers tell Extension what sensors they want, and Extension will send the package to them.
Gibbs said the sensors and app are easy to install and operate.
“All the farmers I have talked to about the project have been super excited,” she said. “They are all champing at the bit over it. It’s really exciting for me as an Extension agent to be able to help them with something that can provide them with a good solution. We have to do research to make sure the sensors are working correctly. As long as they do, you will be able to provide something that can give them an instant recommendation.
“I think Extension needs to be doing these kinds of projects (to) stay educated and in the loop with technology,” Gibbs added. “This is a good opportunity to help farmers with technology that is very simple.”
© 2026 Alliance Partner | Agricultural Innovation & IoT Solutions
Leave a Reply