Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh has informed that the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is carrying out the following pilot projects in the Himalayan region on experimental basis to develop methodology for enabling forewarning of natural disasters.
- (i) Heavy Rainfall/ cloud burst alerts for western Himalaya: Space Applications Centre (SAC) of ISRO has developed a model, for heavy rainfall / cloud burst alerts, which is being experimentally carried out for Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh regions. The information is made available on ISRO’s MOSDAC (Meteorological & Oceanographic Satellite Data Archival Centre) website.
- (ii) Rainfall triggered landslide alerts for the Uttarakhand Region: An experimental early warning system for rainfall triggered landslides is developed for use along the pilgrimage route corridors leading to Gangotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath as well as along the Pithoragarh-Malpa route in Uttarakhand. The forewarning is generated based on the statistical relation between the terrain (geological, morphological) and temporal (primarily long term rainfall events) factors.
(iii)Flood Early Warning System for Assam State: The North Eastern Space Applications Centre (NESAC) of ISRO has developed the Flood Early Warning System (FLEWS) as a Research & Development (R&D) project in Assam State in association with Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA). FLEWS, is a terrain-specific model, which employs satellite based inputs, in-situ data on rainfall and river discharge data at critical locations to provide advance information on flood events as an input to disaster preparedness. The FLEWS model is being used in all 25 flood prone districts of Assam.
- (iv) Snow-melt run-off: ISRO has developed snow melt runoff models for Alaknanda, Bhagirathi, Yamuna, Sutlej, Beas and Chenab basins to provide information on short-term (16 day) snow melt runoff during summer months i.e. April to June.