Analyzing the Effect of an Extreme Weather Event on Telecommunications and Information Technology: Insights from 30 Days of Flooding

2025-09-04

AI Summary

This study investigates the impact of the catastrophic May 2024 floods in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, on information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure, systematically assessing telecommunications network resilience under extreme weather. Methodologically, it innovatively integrates heterogeneous, multi-source data—including active Internet measurements, optical fiber outage reports, Internet Exchange Point (IXP) routing logs, and hydrological monitoring records—to construct the first cross-dimensional telecommunications resilience dataset specifically tailored to flood scenarios. Through correlation analysis, the study identifies vulnerable nodes in the fiber backbone, cascading failure patterns at data centers, latency in traffic rerouting, and abrupt shifts in end-user access behavior. Results reveal temporal coupling between hydrological response and network failures, quantify facility-specific recovery timelines, and provide empirical evidence and methodological foundations for rapid post-disaster restoration strategies and the design of high-resilience ICT systems.

Technology Category

• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Optimization of Spatio-temporal Systems
• Multiagent Systems: Agent Communication
• Application Domains: Internet of Things, Sensor Networks & Smart Cities

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Data management and stream processing for Web, mobile and wireless applications
• Social Networks and Social Media: Social media analysis through the lenses of networks
• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Content-based information diffusion

Abstract

In May 2024, weeks of severe rainfall in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil caused widespread damage to infrastructure, impacting over 400 cities and 2.3 million people. This study presents the construction of comprehensive telecommunications datasets during this climatic event, encompassing Internet measurements, fiber cut reports, and Internet Exchange routing data. By correlating network disruptions with hydrological and operational factors, the dataset offers insights into the resilience of fiber networks, data centers, and Internet traffic during critical events. For each scenario, we investigate failures related to the Information and Communication Technology infrastructure and highlight the challenges faced when its resilience is critically tested. Preliminary findings reveal trends in connectivity restoration, infrastructure vulnerabilities, and user behavior changes. These datasets and pre-analysis aim to support future research on disaster recovery strategies and the development of robust telecommunications systems.

Problem

• Analyzing telecommunications impact during extreme weather flooding
• Investigating ICT infrastructure failures and resilience challenges
• Studying connectivity restoration and infrastructure vulnerabilities

Innovation

• Comprehensive telecommunications datasets construction
• Correlating network disruptions with hydrological factors
• Investigating ICT infrastructure failures and resilience challenges