Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday inaugurated the new integrated flood warning system (IFLOWS) developed for Mumbai, calling it a “boon” for the city. Thackeray said that some areas of Mumbai are below the sea level, due to which the sea water enters the city during the high tide.

Union Minister Harsh Vardhan said the system will help the people of Mumbai in a big way as it can predict floods. “Mumbai floods, especially that occurred in 2005 and 2017 are etched in everyone’s memory. This highly-advanced flood warning system will help the people of Mumbai in a big way. A similar system was already developed by MoES and is in operation at Chennai,” he said.

The ministry of earth sciences, using in-house expertise and in close coordination with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), has developed this system. 

How does the new system work?

IFLOWS-Mumbai has been developed as a state-of-the-art flood warning system for Mumbai to enhance the resilience of the city by providing early warning for flooding specially during high rainfall events and cyclones, an official statement said.

Using this, it will be possible to have an estimate of the flood inundation three days in advance, along with immediate weather updates.

The system uses rain gauge data and local data such as data on land use, land topography, drainage systems, water bodies in the city, tide levels, infrastructure and population, which has been provided by BMC. 

Using these as inputs, the prediction system models weather, rainfall, runoff and water movement, tide and storm surge impacts based on which early flood warnings for the city will be provided. 

It will address the flood inundation due to rainfall, river bank breach, storm surge, obstruction of flow due to roads, buildings, rail lines, high tides and sea level rise.

IFLOWS is built on a modular structure and comprises seven modules. The Data Assimilation Module gathers a variety of dynamic data including IMD weather forecasts and under-water depth of rivers and lakes across Mumbai city. The Inundation Module will use the data to forecast flood inundation three days in advance, while the Flood Module will predict how the water will move across areas expected to be flooded. The Vulnerability and Risk Modules, which together comprise the Decision Support System, enables the administration to take smart decisions to manage the situation based on a scientific and holistic assessment of flooding risks. The Dissemination Module makes information available to field officials through various communication channels, enabling them to take prompt and informed field action.

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