The sun is beating down on Sölvegatan as a barefooted Professor Petter Pilesjö opens the door to the GIS Centre. It has not rained in Skåne for weeks, but a wave of flooding has washed over southern Europe, hitting Italy and other countries hard. After researching water flow for many years, Petter Pilesjö and his colleagues Abdulghani Hassan and Andreas Persson had the idea of developing an algorithm that shows how water moves in floods. After receiving support from LU Innovation, LU Holding and Sandberg Development, the trio set to work on their product PluvioFlow, which will be launched onto the market during autumn 2024.
“Changes to the climate mean that the risk of flooding is increasing. That is why it is of the utmost importance for various stakeholders in society to know how the water moves, how fast it flows and where it ends up,” says Petter Pilesjö.
”I don't think of myself as a money-grabber”
In terms of the company’s potential customers, Pilesjö expects to see interest from municipalities, regional governments and authorities all over Sweden. Farmers, banks and insurance companies are also expected to show interest.
“When 200 millimetres of rain falls in two hours, reliable models are needed,” he says.
The notion that researchers in the sciences often shun entrepreneurship is something Petter Pilesjö can vouch for. After a long career in research, he has encountered many colleagues who think it is wrong to be a commercially-minded businessman.
“There have been times when I’ve been criticised for being an entrepreneur over the past 30 years. My colleagues and I have built up the GIS Centre and our international programmes. I don’t think of myself as a money-grabber, more of an idea-driven visionary,” he says with a smile.
