The namesake of the district is peacefully babbling along on this day, with greenery and flowers blooming in the sunshine all around. An idyllic scene. But the video on their phones shows a different picture: brown masses of water sweeping everything away—the disaster from the previous year. And that is exactly what the over 20 students from Israel, Germany, and the USA want to prevent. They aim to ensure another flood does not have such devastating consequences. As part of a Bavarian-Israeli innovation program, this international group is working to find digital solutions using drones and AI.
The “Bavaria Israel Partnership Accelerator” (BIPA) brings together the Munich University of Applied Sciences and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The program typically focuses on innovative start-ups, but in the Günzburg district, the focus is entirely on disaster protection. State Parliament Member Jenny Schack set the ball rolling. “The mission is to save lives,” she explains. “We may only be a small district, but we are bringing in the best talent from around the world.”
The Günzburg district is acting as a pilot region, providing real data and local expertise, while the Free State of Bavaria is funding the project. “And when it comes to rapid crisis management, Israel is the right partner to have,” Schack states. The students will work on the project for two months. The final result will be an open-source program that other districts can also use. “The AI trained here won’t just protect against floods,” the parliament member adds. “It can also be deployed for forest fires.”
To see the situation on the ground, the ten-member Israeli delegation flew to Bavaria for a week. Before the visit to the dike in Höselhurst, Daniel Kramer provided a briefing. The IT expert from the district office stood before a group of young people, most with laptops open in front of them. The atmosphere was reminiscent of a university seminar, and the official language was English. The questions started almost immediately: “How long before the flood did the system sound the alarm? Who alerts whom?” “How do the authorities measure the water volume?” “When do the fire departments deploy?” “Was the disaster caused by snowmelt, heavy rain, or mismanagement?” The question-and-answer session proved one thing: these are no ordinary students.
The group will focus on three ambitious challenges over the next two months. The first task is intelligent resource planning in an emergency. A system is being designed to calculate within seconds where sandbags are needed and where mobile flood protection barriers, so-called boxwalls, can stop the floodwaters. The software will also optimize the deployment of personnel: Which volunteers can assist here, and which units need to be dispatched elsewhere? Instead of manual estimates, the AI will provide precise numbers, aiming to save precious minutes in a crisis.
The second challenge relies on drones and AI. A new drone technology will scan the forest floor to locate potential water retention areas for flood control. Until now, this has failed because drones could not see beneath the tree canopy. Furthermore, this technology identifies where the ground is level enough for a boxwall, as the plastic walls only hold on smooth surfaces; even a bumpy meadow can render them useless.
The third task focuses on optimized evacuation planning. A tool, fed with anonymized resident data, will show in real-time which residents are in danger during a flood and how many people live in the buildings. It links population data with infrastructure and hazard zones. “This way, we can avoid situations where firefighters have to evacuate people by boat,” Schack explains.
or the district, these innovations offer a chance to curb coordination chaos in a future emergency. For the students, the project means they can test and validate their digital solutions. But it also means working in an international team, as Jenny John emphasizes. The bachelor’s student is studying International Industrial Engineering in Landshut. “It’s fantastic to get to know so many cultures and to collaborate with brilliant minds who all share the same vision: to make the world a little bit better.”
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