Can AI help coastal cities prepare for rising seas and extreme events?

The novel AI model can accurately predict extreme storm surges, which is crucial for understanding future climate conditions.
The efficiency of AI models allows for rapid generation of predictions compared to physics-based models, enabling exploration of more future scenarios.
Traditional physics-based models and AI can complement each other, leveraging physical realism for simulations and efficiency for scenario exploration.
AI models, when trained on detailed physics-based simulations, have shown high accuracy in predicting extreme storm surges, even under future climate scenarios.
The AI emulator was tested on the New York City coastal area, demonstrating its effectiveness on a densely populated and economically significant region prone to storm surges.
Future steps involve testing the AI tool against a range of climate scenarios and integrating it into operational risk assessment frameworks and climate services.
AI models still need to improve their transferability across future climate conditions and represent uncertainties rigorously to support effective decision-making.