By next monsoon, Bengalureans will be able to avoid inundated roads and streets, as an app might be ready to tell you which route to take by giving real-time information on flooded areas in the city.
A mobile app is in the making by the joint efforts of the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) and the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), which will put all the information related to street flooding at your fingertips in real-time.
A source in the KSNDMC told TNM that although the process of building the app has started, it may not roll out for the public until next monsoon.
“We are already working on it. It may take a few more months from now. For this monsoon season, we can't release it,” the source said.
The KSNDMC already keeps track of the city’s drainage systems and alerts the BBMP of flood situations zone-wise.
The alerts are issued based on a mix of real-time and assumed condition of storm water drains coupled with rainfall thresholds of each flood prone area.
“Accordingly, with the available rain forecast, we automate the flood forecast system, through which we issue early warnings and alert,” the source added.
In addition, there are dynamic alerts based on the amount of rainfall.
This is part of the ‘Pilot Project’ taken up by KSNDMC on monitoring and mitigating the risk of Urban Flood in Bengaluru City along with Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru.
For this, KSNDMC has installed 100 GPRS-enabled Telemetric Rain Gauges and eight Weather Stations spread over 800 sq. km of the city and its outskirts.
In recent years, there have been instances of “flash floods” in Bengaluru thanks to the rampant encroachment of the city’s lakes, storm water drains and tampering of the city’s natural topography.