On June 12 2020, The Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray and Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare, Science & Technology, Earth Sciences, Dr Harsh Vardhan jointly launched the state-of-the-art Integrated Flood Warning System (I-FLOWS) in Mumbai with an aim to alleviate and monitor the flood activities by providing early warning in the city during high rainfall and cyclone events.Mumbai got the India’s 2nd Integrated flood warning system after Chennai(Chennai gets India’s first integrated flood warning system last year).
The system can estimate floods up to 3 days in advance, It was developed by India Meteorological Department (IMD) and Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) functioning under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES).
Note: The system also provides 3 hours – 6 hours nowcast i.e immediate weather updates and in low lying areas forecasts up to 12 hours in advance.
Key People Present at the e-launch were M Rajeevan, Secretary (MoES), Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, Director-general, IMD, KS Hosalikar, Deputy-director General of Meteorology (DDGM), IMD Mumbai and Ravi Nanjundiah, Director, IITM, Pune.
Background
Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) was approached by the Govt of Maharashtra to develop an Integrated Flood Warning System for Mumbai – ‘IFLOWS-Mumbai’.The development of I-FLOWS-Mumbai was initiated in July 2019 by the MoES with the expertise available within the Ministry of Earth Sciences and coordination with the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai(MCGM) (formerly the BMC /Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation).
Features of I-FLOWS
i.I-FLOWS is built on a modular structure and comprises of seven modules,
- Data Assimilation module
- Flood module
- Inundation module
- Vulnerability module
- Risk module
- Dissemination Module
- Decision Support System module
ii.The system incorporates weather models from National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), IMD, field data from the rain gauge network stations set up by IITM, MCGM and IMD, thematic layers on land use, infrastructure etc provided by MCGM.
iii.There are provisions to capture the urban water drainage within the city and predict the areas of flooding.
With these features, early Flood Warnings to the city can be provided.
Working of I-FLOWS
i.Based on inputs from weather models, Hydrologic models are used to transform rainfall into runoff and provides inflow inputs into the river systems.
ii.Hydraulic models are used to solve equations of fluid motion to replicate the movement of water to assess flooding in the study area.
Note: As Mumbai is an Island city, hydrodynamic models and storm surge models are used to calculate the tide and storm impacts on the city. Other Initiatives such as Doppler radars are to be set up in the city.
About MoES
Union Minister- Harsh Vardhan
Secretary- M Rajeevan
About NCMRWF
Chief Scientist (head)- Dr E. N. Rajagopal
HeadQuarter-Noida, Uttar Pradesh (UP).
About IMD
Director-general-Mrutyunjay Mohapatra
HeadQuarter-New Delhi
About IITM
Director- Ravi Nanjundiah
HeadQuarter-Pune, Maharashtra
