Greater Chennai Corporation is considering incorporating flood damage assessment technology developed by Anna University for its smart city project in T Nagar.
The local body is seeking to expand on a hydrodynamic model developed by Institute of Remote Sensing (IRS) that will help accurately assess inundation levels in T Nagar. "In the event of flooding, such a mechanism would help us channel our rescue and relief efforts towards the severely affected areas," said an official.
The model, developed by IRS as an experiment, involves flood data acquisition in real time made possible by flood flow measurement sensors and water level recorders fitted along the banks of rivers. "Water discharged into the rivers will be picked up by the sensor and relayed through a GPRS arrangement to a flood control centre situated at Ripon Buildings," said the director of Centre for Disaster Mitigation and Management, IRS, D Thirumalaivasan.
The control centre will host state-of-the-art communication system, including web-based GIS and decision support system with data processing and hydro-modelling tools. The IRS uses a version of the hydro model named MIKE 21 developed by DHI, a Danish software and engineering consultancy firm. "The hydrodynamic model, which is essentially a software, then processes the telemetric information received from sensors along with the rainfall data to calculate the inundation damage to be suffered by neighbourhoods close to the rivers," said a senior corporation official. This will enable the corporation to issue flood warning to hot spots.
"The sensors could be tuned to relay information at a gap of 10 minutes and more. It will also give a foresight on how much of a flood that body has and thereby predict cushion the specific water body has and thereby predict the impact," Thirumalaivasan said.
Incidentally, the IRS helped the corporation identify heavily inundated spots following last year's monsoon. "We used satellite imagery to mark the spots. However, to understand the actual extent of inundation, we sent our researchers who measured the level (of flooding)," said Thirumalaivasan. Subsequently , the corporation stated that 306 spots in the city had serious drainage issues.
The project came about after an inspection of the Anna University premises by a World Bank team. It was suggested that the IRS take up a study to determine the impact of storm water drain project implementation in Chennai and neighbouring urban local bodies. Subsequently , Tamilnadu Urban Infrastructure Financial Services got on board as funding agency and the study turned out into a project to set up real-time flood monitoring mechanism.
Anna University officials said the project will be set up in the next two years and will be implemented in Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts. The IRS will operate the control centre for three years. "We will train the corporation's personnel during this time frame before we hand over the project," said an Anna University official.
The local body is seeking to expand on a hydrodynamic model developed by Institute of Remote Sensing (IRS) that will help accurately assess inundation levels in T Nagar. "In the event of flooding, such a mechanism would help us channel our rescue and relief efforts towards the severely affected areas," said an official.
The model, developed by IRS as an experiment, involves flood data acquisition in real time made possible by flood flow measurement sensors and water level recorders fitted along the banks of rivers. "Water discharged into the rivers will be picked up by the sensor and relayed through a GPRS arrangement to a flood control centre situated at Ripon Buildings," said the director of Centre for Disaster Mitigation and Management, IRS, D Thirumalaivasan.
The control centre will host state-of-the-art communication system, including web-based GIS and decision support system with data processing and hydro-modelling tools. The IRS uses a version of the hydro model named MIKE 21 developed by DHI, a Danish software and engineering consultancy firm. "The hydrodynamic model, which is essentially a software, then processes the telemetric information received from sensors along with the rainfall data to calculate the inundation damage to be suffered by neighbourhoods close to the rivers," said a senior corporation official. This will enable the corporation to issue flood warning to hot spots.
"The sensors could be tuned to relay information at a gap of 10 minutes and more. It will also give a foresight on how much of a flood that body has and thereby predict cushion the specific water body has and thereby predict the impact," Thirumalaivasan said.
Incidentally, the IRS helped the corporation identify heavily inundated spots following last year's monsoon. "We used satellite imagery to mark the spots. However, to understand the actual extent of inundation, we sent our researchers who measured the level (of flooding)," said Thirumalaivasan. Subsequently , the corporation stated that 306 spots in the city had serious drainage issues.
The project came about after an inspection of the Anna University premises by a World Bank team. It was suggested that the IRS take up a study to determine the impact of storm water drain project implementation in Chennai and neighbouring urban local bodies. Subsequently , Tamilnadu Urban Infrastructure Financial Services got on board as funding agency and the study turned out into a project to set up real-time flood monitoring mechanism.
Anna University officials said the project will be set up in the next two years and will be implemented in Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts. The IRS will operate the control centre for three years. "We will train the corporation's personnel during this time frame before we hand over the project," said an Anna University official.