Important Facts For Prelims
IFLOWS-Mumbai: Flood Warning System
- 12 Jun 2020
- 3 min read
Why in News
Recently, an integrated flood warning system - known as IFLOWS-Mumbai was launched making Mumbai the second city in India after Chennai to have such a system.
Key Points
- Developed by: It is developed by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), in coordination with the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM).
- Working/Features: The IFLOWS-Mumbai comprises seven modules, namely data assimilation, flood, inundation, vulnerability, risk, dissemination and decision support system.
- It incorporates weather models from National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), India Meteorological Department (IMD) and field data from the rain gauge network stations.
- This Geographic Information System (GIS)- based decision support system has all relevant details - such as land topography, land use, infrastructure, population, lakes, creeks and data on river bathymetry (study of the beds or floors of water bodies) of all rivers namely Mithi, Dahisar, Oshiwara, Poisar and Ulhas.
- The system has provisions to capture the urban drainage within the city and predict the areas of flooding in advance so that the civic body can issue alerts in advance.
- Benefits: This will boost the city’s resilience by providing early warning for flooding specially during high rainfall events and cyclones. Bengaluru and Kolkata may also get such a system by 2021.
- Need
- Mumbai has the history of flooding during extreme rainfall events. It had faced massive floods in July 2005, and recently in 2017.
- Rise in extreme rainfall events in India that are driven by warming temperatures and changes in the monsoon due to climate change.
- According to the Global Report on Internal Displacement 2020, nearly five million people were displaced in India in 2019 because of disasters related to Southwest Monsoon and Cyclones.
- According to the ‘State of India's Environment 2020 in Figures' the internal displacements in India caused by disasters and extreme weather conditions were the highest in the world in 2019.
