Flood Early Warning System developed by NESAC

SHILLONG: The satellite-based Flood Early Warning Systems (FLEWS) developed by North Eastern Space Applications Centre (NESAC) have successfully predicted nearly 85 per cent of major floods in Assam and other North East states - Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya, scientists said today.

The effectiveness of the Flood Early Warning Systems developed by NESAC at Umiam near here has increased from a modest 25 per cent in 2009 when it was launched to nearly 85 per cent last year, they said.

"The percentage of successful and useful flood early warnings have been increased from a mere 25 per cent in 2009 to 84 per cent last year," NESAC director Dr S Sudhakar told PTI.

He said the system has generated over 70 per cent successful warnings this year even as it generated 80 per cent useful warnings on flood in 2012, 75 per cent in 2011 and 60 per cent in 2010, a year after it was adopted.

The early warnings issued by NESAC provides information about the revenue circles and the probable villages that may be affected due to flood enabling the administrative machinery to prepare and response to the likelihood of the flood.

FLEWS which covered 15 flood prone districts in Assam, has added seven more district prone to flood while another five districts including Kamrup were partially covered under the system, the NESAC official said.

The Centre has also added 24 river catchment areas covering as many as 68 rivers and streams in the FLEWS forecasting book, he said.

The Centre launched the system in line with the recommendation of the National Flood Commission which reported that 40 million hectares in India is prone to flood bringing with it risks to human, livestock and agriculture.

Synoptic rainfall advisory is also part of the system in which high definition satellite images of the cloud formation, motions and qualitative precipitation estimation which also helps in identifying the affected areas, one of the scientists working on FLEWS, he said.

Other projects undertaken by NESAC also included forest fire alerts. Under this project, the centre said 33,072 forest fires took place between 2001 and 2014 in the region.

The study was undertaken by the centre under the North Eastern Regional node for Disaster Risk Reduction which was well received by respective forest departments, Dr Sudhakar said.