The Uttarakhand Space Application Centre (USAC) along with the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), Hyderabad, has started monitoring the lakes in the mountainous parts of Uttarakhand. Apart from this, the USAC, along with Indian Space Research Organisation and other organisations, is also working on the advance warning system for landslides.
This system is to be tested this year after statistics from the recent disaster are incorporated in the mathematical models used in the system. It is expected that once this system starts working effectively, it would help to substantially mitigate damage from landslides by issuing an alert about two to three hours before the expected time of landslide, giving precious time to take measures for reducing or preventing loss of life and property.
USAC director Dr MM Kimothi told The Pioneer that the centre, along with NRSC, had started monitoring the level of water in mountain lakes and checking for newly formed water bodies. Data on these facets is expected to be compiled in a couple of days. Checking these factors can prove useful for raising alerts on lake bursts and flash floods. Apart from this, the various aspects of the latest disaster in Uttarakhand are being incorporated into models for calculating threshold values to be used in the landslide alert system.
The centre and ISRO (Ahmedabad) had last year signed a memorandum of understanding to work on building this system with the Ministry of Earty Sciences and the Ministry of Water Resources also becoming involved in this project. Though this project is expected to take two years to complete, its testing is slated to start this year. Automatic weather stations which will relay relevant data to the authority concerned are also slated to be installed in a year. Models for the early warning system are being prepared with data on various aspects like the quantity and intensity of rainfall, land gradient, soil constitution and land-use among other factors.