# NYC Flooding (FloodNet) AI Agent Connect > NYC Flooding (FloodNet) MCP provides direct access to New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) records. Your agent can pull specific street-flooding events, sensor installation metadata, and historical flood depths recorded since 2020. It works without needing an API key, making it easy to connect to Claude, Cursor, or Windsurf. ## Overview - **Category:** climate - **Price:** Free - **Endpoint:** https://edge.vinkius.com/vk_preview_lwY5j736vnhWB1WVYBNjw4QlyHI7wYpsy3W1CK0T/ai-agent-connect - **Tags:** new-york, nyc, flood, floodnet, dep, sensors, resilience, durations ## Description You can query the NYC DEP FloodNet sensor network to analyze how streets flood across the five boroughs. This MCP gives your AI client the ability to pull precise data on street-flooding events, including how deep the water got and how long it took to drain. You can look up any of the roughly 500 installed sensors to find its exact location, installation date, and tidal influence. If you need to identify high-risk areas, you can pull a ranked list of sensors that record the most frequent flooding events. The data includes specific metrics like onset duration and the amount of time water stays above certain inch thresholds. It is a direct way to bring granular, city-managed environmental data into your agent's context for research or planning. ## Tools ### flood_events_by_sensor This tool retrieves all recorded flooding events for a specific sensor ID. It also returns the total event count and the deepest flood recorded at that location. ### list_flood_sensors Use this to get a list of the approximately 500 installed FloodNet sensors. You can filter the results by borough, NTA, or ZIP code. ### lookup_flood_sensor This tool pulls the full installation record for a specific sensor ID. It provides the street name, borough, coordinates, and tidal influence data. ### search_flood_events This tool searches the historical database of street-flooding events since 2020. You can filter by sensor name or specific date ranges. ### top_flood_sensors This tool identifies the most flood-prone locations by ranking sensors based on their recorded event counts. ## Prompt Examples **Prompt:** ``` Which NYC locations have had the most recorded street floods? ``` **Response:** ``` The top sensors by event count are: 1. BK-richardson-st-n-11th-st-1x59w1, 2. MN-2nd-ave-e-74th-st-1x2v3z, 3. Q-beach-84-st-1x9p4r. ``` **Prompt:** ``` How deep did the flood get at the Ditmars St / Hunter Ave sensor? ``` **Response:** ``` The deepest recorded flood at the Ditmars St / Hunter Ave sensor was 14 inches, with a total duration of 3 hours. ``` **Prompt:** ``` Show me the most recent street-flooding events citywide. ``` **Response:** ``` The most recent events include: 1. Queens, Beach 84 St (12 inches), 2. Brooklyn, Richardson St (8 inches), 3. Manhattan, 2nd Ave (5 inches). ``` ## Capabilities ### Event Analysis Your agent uses this to calculate flood durations and depths from historical records. ### Sensor Mapping Your agent uses this to find the exact street and borough for any specific sensor ID. ### Risk Identification Your agent uses this to rank locations by the frequency of flooding events. ### Spatial Filtering Your agent uses this to narrow down sensor lists by ZIP code or borough. ## Use Cases ### Urban Risk Assessment Compare flood frequencies across different boroughs to prioritize city investments. ### Infrastructure Modeling Use sensor depth data to test how new drainage systems might handle specific flood levels. ### Real-time Reporting Query recent flooding events to provide context for weather-related news stories. ### Site Selection Check the tidal influence and historical flood levels of a specific street before development. ## Benefits - Access DEP data without managing API keys. - Get precise water depth and duration metrics for specific streets. - Filter hundreds of sensors by borough or ZIP code instantly. - Identify flood-prone hotspots using event frequency rankings. ## How It Works Connect your AI client to Vinkius to start querying NYC flood data immediately. 1. Connect your MCP-compatible client to the Vinkius platform. 2. Ask your agent to find specific sensors or flood events. 3. The agent calls the FloodNet MCP tools to fetch data from the DEP. 4. Your agent processes the raw sensor metrics into a readable format. ## Frequently Asked Questions **Do I need an API key to use this NYC flooding data?** No. This MCP provides keyless access to the DEP FloodNet records. **What kind of flood data is available?** You can access start and end times, maximum depths in inches, and the duration water stays above 4, 12, and 24 inches. **How many sensors are in the network?** There are approximately 500 installed sensors across New York City. **How far back does the flooding data go?** The recorded street-flooding events in this dataset go back to 2020. **Can I filter sensors by location?** Yes, you can filter the sensor list by borough, NTA, or ZIP code. **Do I need an API key?** No. NYC Open Data serves all public datasets anonymously over its SODA API (data.cityofnewyork.us). This MCP defines no credentials and needs nothing configured. **How many FloodNet sensors are installed?** About 500 sensors are installed citywide and the table of flood events has a few thousand rows recorded since November 2020. list_flood_sensors shows the installed sensors and their IDs; top_flood_sensors ranks them by event count. **What does a FloodNet sensor ID look like?** Sensor IDs are slugs of the form "BK-richardson-st-n-11th-st-1x59w1" (borough letter, street intersection and a random suffix). lookup_flood_sensor and flood_events_by_sensor take the full slug; list_flood_sensors shows the installed IDs alongside the human-readable sensor names.