UTA, Rice University creating real-time flood warning system for Texas Hill Country

Researchers hope to have some version of the system ready by the end of this summer.

Following the July 4, 2025, flooding event in Texas Hill Country that claimed more than 130 lives, the University of Texas at Arlington has been awarded $4 million in grant money to develop a real-time early flood warning system to alert emergency responders much earlier than sirens or text alerts.

Dr. Nick Fang at UTA’s Water Engineering Research Center (WERC) is collaborating with Dr. Philip Bedient, director of Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disasters (SSPEED) Center at Rice University.

The two are combining expertise in storm prediction, flood modeling and emergency response planning to deploy a high-resolution, Texas-focused weather monitoring and modeling network to deliver faster, more precise flood warnings in flood-prone areas along the upper Guadalupe basin.

Experts have documented alarming statistics about the flood that swept over Camp Mystic in the early morning hours of July 4, including 9.5 inches of rain falling in 12 hours; seven inches in just three hours. The catastrophic flash flood led to a 20-foot ‘flood wave’ rushing down the valley toward the campsite located in a flood-prone area.

Some of the victims were swept away in the floodwaters while others died in their cabins.

The web-based dashboard system, currently in the development phase, is expected to provide residents and emergency managers critical extra time to respond as conditions rapidly change by compiling real-time data showing radar rainfall, rainfall gauge data, soil data, stream measurements and more to provide authorities a one to three hour window to act.

“And it’s that lead time that’s critical for people to make important decisions about evacuating or leaving the area or moving to higher ground,” said Bedient during a virtual press conference Tuesday afternoon. “The other thing that's important with this system is it's very, very easy to use. It's color-coded. It's easy to understand by a normal citizen that's being impacted by a flood in the area.”

The team will also be developing an app, but will first focus on creating a website where emergency responders from the Texas Division of Emergency Management and local river authorities

“There needs to be a very strong training program to emergency managers, to the general public, to others that are in charge out there,” said Bedient. “Compared to what happened, let's say, during the flood of July 2025, there was a complete misinformation, and it just did not work very well. We want to fix that.”

Bedient says the team will be collaborating with the university in the area to help train emergency managers.

As far as when the system will be launched, Fang hopes to have ‘some version’ of the system by the end of this summer.