Introduction:
The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has joined hands with a UK-based space agency for a collaborative project on impact-based flood forecasting.
Highlights:
- The National Space Innovation Programme (NSIP), undertaken by HR Wallingford in collaboration with Oxford University, Sayers & Partners (SPL) and D-Orbit, is an initiative that supports collaborative projects between UK-based organisations and international partners.
- NSIP is supporting the project.
- This will help to predict fluvial flood risks in terms of expected loss to life, injuries to people, building collapse, infrastructure disruption and economic damage.
- Currently there is no such effective impact-based flood forecasting mechanism in Jammu and Kashmir.
- The international collaboration adds specific value in helping analyse past flood events.
- The mechanism will predict the impact on people, their houses, crops, livestock, and transport routes, thereby mitigating many of the challenges people face during flood events, he added.
- “Having impact-based forecasts of flood risk will be useful for efficient and effective contingency planning and swift evaluation of severity for necessary response.
- The framework, using earth observation (EO) based information, will be capable of being linked to any existing or future flood flow forecasting system.
- The UT administration will not have to bear any expenses on the project.
Flood forecasting
- Flood forecasting means the use of forecasted precipitation and streamflow data during the rainfall-runoff and streamflow.
- The mechanism is used to forecast the flow rates and water levels.
- It can forecast the details from a few hours to few days on the basis of the size of the watershed or river basin.
- It is an important component of flood warning.