Early flood warning system to be tested this monsoon in Chennai

CHENNAI : A comprehensive decision-support system, aimed at mitigating rain-related suffering of Chennai residents, will be put to test during the upcoming monsoon season in the city. The Chennai Flood Early Warning System (CFLOWS), predicting flood inundation scenarios for Chennai, based on a hydrodynamic model with help of forecast and observed rainfall, reservoir and river levels and other parameters from various agencies, has been developed by National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR), IIT-Mumbai, IIT-Madras and Institute of Remote Sensing-Anna University.

An MoU was signed by Revenue Administration Commissioner K Satyagopal and NCCR director R A Ramana Murthy on Wednesday in State Minister for Revenue and Disaster Management RB Udhayakumar’s presence. 

CFLOWS would be able to predict locations at risk of flooding and depth of flooding based on the best forecast products of India Meteorological Department and National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting.

It will disseminate alerts five days in advance. It will be integrated with TNSMART, an application for flood mitigation measures yet to be launched, before being tested this monsoon. “The early warning information generated via CFLOWS will be communicated to revenue officials through TNSMART. Feedback will be received to evaluate alerts through same channel,” Satyagopal said.