Florida Flood Hub Partnerships: Center for Ocean Mapping and Innovative Technologies (COMIT)
Equipped with new technologies to map the seafloor, researchers from the Florida Flood Hub and USF will help forecast storm surge and other flooding events for coastal communities.
By: Amanda Barroso, Scientific Liaison
February 17, 2026 at 4:08 PM UTC
329 min read
Collaboration is at the heart of the Florida Flood Hub for Applied Research and Innovation. Partnerships between scientists and stakeholders help ensure the best available data guides improvements to infrastructure and these improvements serve the real needs of communities across Florida.
For example, the Flood Hub recently partnered with the College of Marine Science’s Center for Ocean Mapping and Innovative Technologies (COMIT) at the University of South Florida to invest in equipment to study underwater terrain, known as bathymetry. The device is an uncrewed vehicle called EMMET (Enhanced Mobile Mapping with Emerging Technologies), a mostly autonomous system that can be controlled manually via Wi-Fi or cellular connections.
Enhanced Mobile Mapping with Emerging Technologies (EMMET), equipment that surveys bathymetry.
To map the seafloor, EMMET sends pulses of sound to the bottom and measures the time it takes them to return to the vehicle. Similar to topographic data that document elevations above sea level, bathymetric data are used to create maps that show features such as ridges and canyons below sea level. Such data can even help researchers map natural habitats and human-made objects, such as sunken vessels. This information is used to track boating hazards, inform storm surge models, and forecast potential flooding.
One of EMMET’s key advantages is that it can measure the seafloor in less than a foot of water, reaching areas along the coast that are inaccessible to larger vessels. Working in tandem with larger mapping vessels, EMMET can provide a more complete map of the seafloor.
“Our stakeholders can request data as their needs arise,” said Matthew Hommeyer, technical operations manager at COMIT. “We will then figure out how to best collect those data.”
Storm surge models and flooding forecasts are only as good as the data that drives them. Supported by EMMET’s nearshore data, maps of Tampa Bay’s seafloor will be more thorough and accurate, improving our ability to forecast water levels and associated impacts to critical infrastructure.
Thanks to the Flood Hub’s partnership with COMIT, Florida’s coastal communities are becoming better prepared for flooding.