Delft-FEWS import of Google Flood Hub forecasts

Delft-FEWS is Deltares' platform for real-time water forecasting, used mostly for flood forecasting and in nearly seventy countries. Since version 2026.02 it can import Google Flood Hub data directly: flood status, river forecast hydrographs and their timing, retrieved from the Google Flood Forecasting API. Flood Hub is Google Research's public flood service, with riverine forecasts up to seven days ahead, updated daily, covering river basins in more than 150 countries.

The point is to put Google's forecasts in the displays a forecasting centre already uses, next to local observations, local model results and other forecasts. Deltares' Erik Pelgrim led the implementation; an earlier prototype by the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (Jakub Krejčí and Jan Daňhelka) showed it could be done. The announcement shows flood status for the Netherlands on 4 September 2026 and the Ganges on 9 September 2026.

Running it needs a Delft-FEWS 2026.02 installation and a Flood Forecasting API key from Google's key programme, which Deltares says can take about two weeks to obtain.

Status: released; announced 5 October 2026 by Jan Verkade of Deltares, with a presentation planned for the Delft-FEWS User Days in November 2026. Deltares is also working on a model adapter to run Google's open-sourced hydrological model inside Delft-FEWS.