The administration of Jammu and Kashmir has joined hands with the United Kingdom Space Agency’s program for a collaborative project on “Impact Based Flood Forecasting using Earth Observation (EO) based Information”.
The programme will focus on putting an impact-based flood forecasting mechanism in place, claimed the government. Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha termed it as the next step of flood forecasting services.
The National Space Innovation Programme (NSIP) is a new programme established by the UK Space Agency which supports collaborative projects between UK organisations and international partners. The project will be undertaken by HR Wallingford in collaboration with Oxford University, Sayers & Partners (SPL), and D-Orbit (UK).
“Having impact-based forecasts of flood risk will be useful for efficient, effective contingency planning and swift evaluation of severity for necessary response”, the Lt Governor remarked.
The Lt Governor observed that the international collaboration adds specific value in helping to analyze past flood events and identifying relationships between predicted floods and their impact.
“The mechanism will predict impacts to people, their houses, crops, livestock, and transport routes, thereby mitigating many of the challenges people face during flood events,” he added.
A recent report has put India among the ten most disaster prone countries in the world and ranked floods as a climate related hazard posing the greatest risk to the people. India has numerous flood forecasting systems that provide predictions of water levels and flows but not their impact in terms of loss of life, damage to buildings, critical infrastructure and agriculture.
In J-K, there is no effective impact based flood forecasting mechanism in place as such. “The UT Government will not have to bear any expenses on the project,” a statement read.
