Project Title: TideWatch – Real-Time Coastal Flood Monitoring & Early Warning System Competition: Gaiathon Africa 2025 Team: Team TideWatch Team Lead: [Prince Philips Adorboe] Members: [Nkansah Tabi], [Thelma Akuffo], [Luqman]

TideWatch is a low-cost, solar-powered, smart buoy system designed to monitor critical coastal environmental conditions and provide real-time alerts for potential flooding. It is engineered to serve vulnerable coastal communities in Africa with limited access to high-tech flood detection infrastructure.

The system collects data via sensors on a buoy, transmits it via LoRa or GSM, processes it through a FastAPI backend, stores it in Firebase, and visualizes it through a modern, mobile-responsive dashboard built in Next.js.

Coastal communities in Ghana and across Africa face increasing threats from rising sea levels, storm surges, and unpredictable flooding. Most regions lack localized, real-time monitoring tools to issue early warnings and prevent loss of life and property.

• Real-time environmental monitoring via smart buoy sensors
• Data metrics: Wave height, water level, wind speed & direction, temperature, humidity, air pressure, rainfall
• Secure data transmission over LoRa or GSM
• Backend API with JWT authentication
• Data storage using Firebase Realtime Database
• Interactive web dashboard with charts, status indicators, and logs
• Timeframe toggle (24h, 7d, 30d) with % change analytics
• Mobile responsive and dark mode ready

• Frontend: Next.js, TypeScript, TailwindCSS, Recharts, Zustand, React Query
• Backend: FastAPI, Python, Firebase Admin SDK
• Data Flow: MQTT, LoRa/GSM modules, JSON APIs
• Auth: JWT-based secured API routes(currently not employed)
• Database: PostgreSQL DB
• Hardware: ESP32, waterproof pressure transducer, DHT11, LoRa module, solar panel and a Raspberry Pi Microprocessor.

├── frontend/                  # Next.js client app
│   ├── pages/
│   ├── components/
│   ├── hooks/
│   ├── store/
│   └── public/
├── backend/                  # FastAPI backend
│   ├── main.py
│   ├── auth.py
│   └──  routes/

• Node.js v18+
• Python 3.9+
• PostgreSql account & credentials

cd frontend
npm install
npm run dev

cd backend
```activate virtual environment ```
uvicorn main:app --reload

Create .env files in both frontend/ and backend/ using the .env.example templates.

POST /api/ingest         # Store sensor data
GET  /api/metrics?timeframe=24h   # Get metric history
GET  /api/logs           # Recent threshold breach logs

{
  "name": "Wave Height",
  "unit": "cm",
  "value": 142,
  "status": "warning",
  "change": 9.8,
  "history": [
    { "timestamp": "2024-05-28T12:00:00Z", "value": 130 },
    { "timestamp": "2024-05-28T13:00:00Z", "value": 140 },
    { "timestamp": "2024-05-28T14:00:00Z", "value": 142 }
  ]
}

# frontend/.env.local
NEXT_PUBLIC_API_KEY=your_public_token

# backend/.env

PostgreSql Database= coastal_db
PostgreSql password= ******

• Provides real-time flood warnings for vulnerable coastal populations
• Can be locally assembled using low-cost materials
• Adaptable for disaster response, climate research, education

• Add real-time MQTT → WebSocket pipeline
• Integrate machine learning for flood prediction (future implementation)
• Scale deployments to additional West African countries
• Offline-first Web app for remote field authorised access.

• University Of Ghana, Legon
• School of Engineering Sciences, UG
• Computer Engineering Department @SES, UG
• Gaiathon Africa Competitions
• Open source libraries and community contributors & pROJECT sUPERVISORS
• Ghana’s coastal communities for inspiring this project

Coming soon*

Team Lead: [Prince Phil] – [princephil403@gmail.com] GitHub Repo: (https://github.com/themannnphil/coastal)

“We’re building the low-cost, real-time early warning system Africa needs to stay ahead of the tide.” 🌊