WIDE ANGLE | RAIN MISERY
Since 2018-19 at the start of the project, the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Management Centre (KSNDMC) has installed 132 water level sensors in many highly vulnerable and vulnerable areas prone to flooding in the city. These sensors issue a warning in real-time when the water level in the storm-water drains reaches the danger mark.
Of the 132 sensors, 105 were installed in November last at a cost of ₹1.03 crore. Around 27 sensors were installed on a pilot basis earlier to monitor the fluctuations in the water levels in the drains.
The sensors are part of the Urban Flood Modelling project of the KSNDMC and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) taken up in 2018-19 towards finding a technology-driven solution to urban flooding. Under the initiative, KSNDMC had also installed 100 telemetric rain gauges, 12 telemetric weather stations across the city for monitoring rainfall and weather parameters.
Manoj Rajan, director of KSNDMC, said that it was necessary to take the project beyond the pilot and install more sensors to not just strengthen the existing monitoring network, but also improve the accuracy of flood alerts for the BBMP area and disseminate flood alerts to citizens, especially to those living near the 201 flood-prone areas.
“The data obtained from the sensors, rain gauges and stations is being used to generate the flood alerts for the BBMP area through a hydrological model developed under this project. Location-specific dynamic alert and early warning about the rainfall and resultant rising water levels in the storm-water drains is one of the critical information required for the civic authorities to take necessary measures to reduce the impact of floods in the city,” he said.
After processing the information collected from the sensors, alerts are generated and disseminated through reports, WhatsApp groups, social media platforms, apart from being uploaded on the www.bengaluruvarunamitra.info website and made available on the Bengaluru Megha Sandesh mobile application.
