New Delhi, Dec 10: The Central government will set up hundred flood forecasting stations in the country. In the current five year plan, 40 flood forecasting stations will be set up for the first time in the states of three in Arunachal Pradesh, one in Himachal Pradesh, two in Kerala, twelve in Rajasthan, eight in Sikkim, and fourteen in Tamil Nadu, said an official statement.
In addition to this 60 more flood forecasting stations will be set up in other States already having flood forecasting stations to cover their uncovered areas.
These stations will be set up by the Central Water Commission under Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.
Presently, flood forecasts are issued for 176 stations (148 level forecast and 28 inflow forecast) using hydrological data from its own network and Quantitative Precipitation Forecast (QPF) received from Flood Metrological Organization (FMO) of India Metrological Department (IMD).
The existing flood forecasting network of CWC covers 19 states, 10 major river basins and 72 sub-basins.
So far, 445 stations have been modernized with automatic data collection and transmission systems. Mathematical models on rivers Jhelum, Alaknanda, Bhagirathi, Ganga, Brahmaputra, Yamuna, Chambal, Baitarani, Vamsadhara, Subarnarekha, Mahanadi, Tapi, Godavari and Krishna have been developed. The forecast is disseminated using the email, SMS and website facilities.
The modernization of network includes installation of automatic sensor based data collection and satellite based data transmission systems for near real time flood forecasting and development of medium range hydrologic and hydraulic models with a warning time of upto 72 hours using one dimensional mathematical modeling tools, for effective flood forecasting.
The Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation had launched new flood forecasting website e-Surface Water Information System (“e-SWIS”) during the flood season of 2014, which has facilitated timely forecast dissemination through email/SMS.
