Mapping natural disasters

BANGALORE: Karnataka may have a realtime natural disaster monitoring system via satellite links, with weather maps in the public domain upgraded every hour. This is a dream project in the pipeline for the state — a unique Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (NDMC).
NDMC will be set up by upgrading the existing Drought Monitoring Cell (DMC) to monitor other natural disasters like flood, earthquake, coastal erosion, landslides and aquifer salinity and provide early warnings in case of natural disasters.
“It will monitor indicators of disasters, identify and map vulnerable areas, and identify measures for ‘being prepared’. There are many agencies involved in the disaster response system; but in monitoring and preparedness a lot needs to be done. But putting together the entire network will take time, maybe even five years, as there is no precedent to go by,’’ says Dr V.S. Prakash, Director, DMC. Only last week, the University of Agricultural Sciences decided to allot 10 acres of land to the NDMC to build up infrastructure — the first step in setting up the Centre.
The State’s Department of Science and Technology has constituted a high-powered committee to finalise the proposal for the NDMC. The NDMC is hoping to seek funds from the Central and state governments, national and international scientific agencies.
The DMC is presently working on a proposal to have America’s International Research Institute for Climate Prediction to do a pilot project on a forecasting model for the monsoon in Karnataka. If the new model instils confidence with its accuracy in forecasting, there may be further tie-ups. Modalities for interconnectivity with other scientific agencies, state governments and the centre are also being worked out.
The CSIR Centre for Mathematical Modelling and Computer Simulation (C-MMACS) has agreed to create an information portal to work on the earthquake risk reduction component, renowned seismologist V.K. Gaur had said earlier.
The DMC plans to establish permanent seismograph stations at Bangalore, Mysore, Bellary, Gulbarga and other sites to feed data continuously into a central computer processing unit.