CHENNAI: Appearing to have learnt lessons from the natural disasters that struck the State, including the nightmarish 2015 deluge in Chennai, the Tamil Nadu government has proposed to employ unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to map water courses and river basins to chalk out a comprehensive flood control mechanism.
The government has earmarked Rs7.01 crore for unmanned vehicle aerial photogrammetry for topographical mapping of waterbodies, particularly rivers and their courses, to find flood-causing factors and initiate rectification measures.
Making the announcement in the Assembly at the end of a debate on demand for grants to his department on Monday, Revenue Minister R B Udhayakumar said, “Unmanned vehicle aerial photogrammetry will be done to map waterbodies and their courses in order to prevent/mitigate disaster woes.”
The initiative will help bring down the flood damage in places which had suffered the natural disaster in the past.
Explaining the project, K Satyagopal, Commissioner for Revenue Administration and Relief Commissioner, said that mapping would be done on the entire river basins to find out the points that caused floods during monsoon.“The unmanned vehicle aerial photogrammetry will help find out factors that trigger floods, to map drain canals to flush out water, link canals to divert water so that the damage could be minimised,” he told Express.
Aerial photogrammetry mapping would also be utilised for proper maintenance of the waterbodies, accurate mapping of water courses, choosing new dam sites, to find out origin of canals and inter-linking water courses.The Revenue department has decided to strengthen the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) by roping in experts in various types of natural disasters for better management of natural calamities.The Revenue Minister declared that a long-term disaster mitigation fund would be created to carry out disaster prevention and mitigation activities in places that were identified as vulnerable.
SDMA to rope in disaster experts
Revenue department has decided to strengthen the SDMA by roping in experts of disasters for better management of natural calamities. State Drought Monitoring Centre and District Drought Monitoring Centres would be set up.