This story by Tim Calabro was first published in The Herald on Feb. 13
When Tropical Storm Irene tore through Vermont in 2011, Stephen Farrington found himself stranded. The floodwaters had transformed his Stockbridge neighborhood into an island, washing out roads, destroying homes and isolating entire communities.
Fourteen years later, Farrington and his Bethel-based company, Transcend Engineering, have launched RiverAware, a mobile app designed to provide real-time river monitoring and flood alerts. By simplifying complex government data and making it accessible to everyday users, the app aims to help people prepare for rising waters — before it’s too late.
RiverAware, now available on the Apple App Store, allows users to track water levels from U.S. Geological Survey stream gauges, receive personalized flood alerts, and share real-time data with others. The app’s development was driven by a belief that existing flood monitoring tools are difficult to use and that climate change is increasing the need for reliable, accessible water data.
“We built RiverAware because, in an emergency, people shouldn’t have to spend time deciphering complicated government websites,” said Emily Ellert, Transcend Engineering’s digital strategies manager. “They need clear, immediate information.”
Farrington founded Transcend Engineering in 2010, just a year before Irene, focusing initially on soil moisture sensors and hydrology research. Over time, the company expanded into environmental data analysis, collaborating with institutions like the University of Arizona and the U.S. Department of Energy, and has been working on finding novel ways to incorporate machine learning into sensor data analysis.
With RiverAware, Farrington hopes to empower people with better flood awareness, whether they’re in Vermont or anywhere else in the U.S. “Our business is built around two problems: too much water or too little water,” he said. “With RiverAware, we’re tackling the first one.”
The RiverAware app aggregates data from more than 13,000 USGS stream gauges across the country. Nearby, such gauges are found in the Ayers Brook in Randolph and in the White River at West Hartford.
Unlike existing flood monitoring services, which often require users to search government websites and interpret difficult-to-read graphs, RiverAware presents data in a clean, color-coded interface that indicates current water levels and gives context for that data, since water levels are unique at each location.
The app features an interactive map showing all of the nation’s stream gauges and the current conditions at those gauges. It also translates the raw data into flood risk indicators so users see whether a river is at a normal, minor, moderate, or major flood stage.
It also allows users to set alerts when water levels reach a dangerous height and also allows sharing of data with others. During Tropical Storm Irene, Farrington recalled, with just 15 minutes’ warning, people were able to move cars to higher ground or remove their most important possessions from danger. “With four or six hours, you have time to take even more precautions.”
One major challenge RiverAware aims to solve is the uneven availability of flood prediction services. While the National Weather Service (NWS) runs 13 regional flood prediction centers, it only provides forecasts for select locations, prioritizing high-population areas or critical infrastructure. That means thousands of smaller towns and rural communities — including in Vermont — lack real flood predictions.
“We looked at the data and saw that two-thirds of USGS stream gauges don’t have NWS flood levels assigned to them,” said Ellert. “That leaves a massive gap in public awareness.” To address this, Transcend Engineering is developing an AI-powered flood prediction system that would generate short-term forecasts for these underserved areas. The company recently applied for a $190,000 Small Business Innovation Research grant through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to support this initiative.
“This isn’t about predicting floods a week in advance — that’s what the big government models are for,” Farrington said. “Our goal is to provide localized, short-term warnings — two to 24 hours out — especially in places that don’t currently have predictions.” If funded, the project could bring AI-powered flood alerts to thousands of communities that currently lack them, with the feature integrated into RiverAware within a year.
Building the system
Developing a real-time flood monitoring app wasn’t without its obstacles.
Initially, RiverAware pulled data directly from USGS’s public interfaces, but the unpredictable reliability of these services forced Transcend Engineering to switch to a more stable third-party provider — Synoptic Data, a company that aggregates and quality-checks hydrology data. “We ran into situations where USGS would update their APIs with no warning, or the system would go down unexpectedly,” Farrington explained. “That’s not acceptable for an app people depend on in emergencies.”
Now, by partnering with Synoptic Data, RiverAware ensures continuous access to real-time river conditions, even when government databases experience outages. Since its quiet launch on the iOS App Store, RiverAware has already attracted over 100 users, despite no formal marketing.
The app follows a freemium model — free to download, with optional paid features on the horizon, like unlimited watchlist stations and alerts. “Our goal is to get this in as many hands as possible,” Ellert said. “Flooding is getting worse, and we want to give people the tools to be prepared.”
Though currently iPhone only, an Android version is planned for the future if there is demand for it. Looking ahead, Transcend Engineering hopes to expand RiverAware’s capabilities internationally, integrating data from Canada, Mexico, and the UK. “There’s a real opportunity to make river monitoring global,” Farrington said. “But for now, our focus is making sure people here in the U.S. have better tools to stay safe.”
For Farrington, RiverAware is more than just an app — it’s a culmination of years of expertise and a response to a deeply personal experience. “I’ve been fascinated by river flow data for years,” he said. “But when you see flooding firsthand, when you see how quickly things can change, you realize how much a few extra hours of warning can mean.” With RiverAware, he hopes to give others something he didn’t have during Irene: better tools, more time, and the ability to act before disaster strikes.
