Centre Utilises Space Applications To Identify Wetlands In Assam

The identified wetlands will be utilised for channelising excess water from different rivers, including Brahmaputra. The perennial flood problem in Assam hits the state and its people every year. As per government data, as many as 880 people have lost their lives in Assam due to floods in the last five years.

New Delhi:To mitigate the perennial flood problem of Assam, the North Eastern Space Applications Centre (NESAC) has identified 271 wetlands in the state, which can be utilised for channelising excess water from rivers, including Brahmaputra.

The Flood Early Warning System (FLEWS) developed by NESAC for the Brahmaputra basin in Assam sounds like a significant advancement in flood management. By combining numerical rainfall prediction with a physics-based distributed hydrological model in the GIS domain, this system can enhance the accuracy of flood forecasts and potentially improve response strategies. It could provide critical information for mitigating the impacts of flooding in a region that frequently experiences severe flood events.

Using the system, alerts are provided to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) with a lead time of 24 to 36 hours.

The NESAC was established as a joint initiative of the Department of Space (DOS) and the North Eastern Council (NEC) and came into existence on September 5, 2000.

“The National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) prepared a state-level flood hazard zonation atlas for Assam using satellite data of 1998-2023. This serves as non-structural resources for flood hazard management, for development planning,” said Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai while replying over the impact of flood in Assam in Parliament recently.

Aware of the flood menace in Assam, Home Minister Amit Shah has also recently suggested to the authorities to create at least 50 large ponds in the northeast to divert water of the Brahmaputra to help tackle floods and develop agriculture, irrigation and tourism.

It is worth mentioning that NESAC under the Department of Space (DOS) has generated a River Atlas consisting of a geospatial database of the Brahmaputra River in Assam, including river & drainage network, embankment locations, river gauge locations and road/rail network at 1:5000 scale.

This database is helpful for the planning and management of water resources. Significantly, the Central Water Commission (CWC) issues flood forecasts as a non-structural measure of flood management, to State governments concerned at identified locations.

“CWC also issues inflow forecasts to identified reservoirs for proper reservoir regulation. CWC prepares seven-day advisory flood forecasts through basin-specific mathematical models using India Meteorological Department (IMD) weather forecast products and near real-time satellite rainfall estimates,” Rai further said.

The CWC has 67 hydrological observation sites in the Barak basin and 173 hydrological observation sites in the Brahmaputra basin.

As the flood hits Assam every year, data indicates that 880 people have lost their lives in the State in the last five years. According to the government statistics, 157 people died in 2019 due to flood, followed by 190 in 2020, 73 in 2021, 278 in 2022, 65 in 2023 and 117 till July 25 this year. Ironically, floods in Assam this year have affected 17 lakh people in 26 districts.