Thread by @Jikkuvarghese

#Thread As Kerala is recovering from the devastating floods, a Kasargodu native is heading India's first comprehensive flood monitoring system in Kolkata funded by Asian Development Bank. Follow the thread for more about the project which will be functional from next month.(1/n)

Gopalakrishna Bhatt, A hydro geologist from Badiyaduka is the technical consultant of the project. It has been designed to
provide forecasts as well as real-time updates from sensor
nodes installed in key points throughout the city. Read Here:manoramaonline.com/news/latest-ne… (2/n)

The system includes: weather forecasts; flood models for
various intensities of rainfall; real-time information on
pump status, sump and canal water levels, actual rainfall, inundation levels,; and messaging system to
provide warnings to officials
and citizens. (3/n)

It's funded by ADB’s Urban Climate Change Resilience Trust Fund (UCCRTF) under the Urban Financing Partnership
Facility. A consortium comprising TARU
Leading Edge Pvt. Ltd., PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Antea
Group is assisting KMC to implement the system. (4/n)

How the system works: 5 types of ultrasonic sensors fixed in various points will send realtime data to a cloud based dashboard. The input will be automatically analysed with GIS data of Kolkata city. There after warnings are send to the mobile phones (5/n)

Here are the ultrasonic sensors fixed at various points of the city. Single Sensor costs around Rs.25,000. All are IOT based and non contact to water. (6/n)

The system helps
increase participatory
planning and community
engagement by allowing
small enterprises to install shop-front
sensors, thus getting
environmental and
inundation data at the shop or building-level. (7/n)

Various cost-effective
sensors enable
high-density coverage, increasing granularity of
real-time data across
the city. The data can
be validated using available high-quality, low- density monitoring system. (8/n)

This can be used to validate flood models, heat stress, air quality,
and urban heat island effect. These data sets help inform storm water
drainage design and
support the city in learning from past
events and
emergencies. (9/n)

Project @inasafe is another initiative developed by Indonesia to analyse the depth of the calamity by giving input data like GIS (10/n) #Manorama

The system is people-centered.
Stakeholders were consulted to identify the best places for monitoring. Predictive modeling,
historical flood assessment from remote sensing, and
consultation with citizens and engineers helped
identify locations for data collection. (11/n)

The information will be
provided through a hierarchical access control system or need-to-know basis to reduce possibility of misinformation
and rumors. The control room of KMC will also prepare and communicate warnings through radio, TV, and social media. (12/n)

A user registration system will be used to ensure that risk
information is provided to citizens. Warning messages will be sent in simple language and will
focus on actions need to take to ensure their safety and plan their daily activities, such as commuting. (13/n)

Here are the key take-aways of this project for various stake holders. Hope this will be a model project for other states including Kerala. ADB has got 35 layers GIS data of Kolkata. (14/n)

Here's the take away from GK Bhatt: People should have ready access to data without having to go only for government data. If they are able to generate data and see it in public domain, their decsion making will be risk-informed.(15/n)

They are building maps for the whole of Kolkata. Have identified over 300 points where waterlogging occurs. This will help them in installing sensors and manage floods and flood-induced  traffic jams better. (16/n)

They have done a similar project in Surat marking flood levels on telephone poles. Surat has every ward level map of flood risk for different scenarios of flow from Ukai dam. Telephone pole with green yellow and red colored bands showing risk for various outflows. (17/n)