Major Sandeep Unnikrishannan Double Road, Yelahanka
Near Tirumala Dhaba Bus stop, Attur Layout
Bengaluru 560064
Karnataka
India
Type
Government
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Telephone
08067355000
Fax
08067355198
Activities
Disaster Management heavily depends on inputs from Science and Technology. KSNDMC has been serving as a common platform to the various response players in the field of Natural Disaster Management by providing timely proactive Science and Technology inputs.
Karnataka has been subjected to various Natural Disasters, both Hydro-Meteorological and Geological successively every year. Devastating weather phenomena like successive Drought, Flood, Hailstorm and strong surface winds have been causing loss of life and property in the state.
Ø 80% of the Geographical area in the state is prone to Drought.
Ø 22% of the Geographical area in the state is prone to moderate earthquake risks with possibility of earthquakes with magnitude of 5 to 6.9.
Ø 24% of the Geographical area in the state is prone to cyclone and heavy winds.
Ø Land-slides affects the areas with slops of more than 30%.
Ø The 320 km coastal line is prone to sea-erosion and Tsunami threat.
Ø Hailstorms are experienced almost every year and causes damages to crops, human lives and livestock’s.
Ø All the 30 districts in the state are vulnerable to more than one natural hazard.
Ø Thunder storms, cloud burst and lightening causes considerable damages and loss to lives and properties.
Thus, to monitor and mitigate the impact of these Disasters, for the first time in the Country, Govt. of Karnataka installed an Institutional Mechanism in the form of “Drought Monitoring Cell” (DMC) in 1988. Subsequently, DMC was renamed as “Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre” (KSNDMC) with a mandate of Monitoring all the Natural Disasters in the State.
Since 2007, Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) has taken up pioneering and path breaking initiatives towards monitoring all the Natural Disasters. The Disaster monitoring mechanism, with a proactive approach, adopted by KSNDMC is a unique model in the Country which has enabled the Executives earmarking areas affected by Disasters and notifying them in time. This has greatly supported the activation of response system in planning and implementing mitigation measures in the State.
It is estimated that one rupee spent on early warning and preparedness helps in reducing the cost on rescue, relief and rehabilitation by 7-10 rupees. The investment made on early warning and preparedness has high cost-benefit ratio. It comprises installation of field monitoring sensors - Weather, Geological, Hydrological; collection of data on real time, transmission of the same to a central computational/analysis Centre; data processing; analysis; alert recognition; simulation through appropriate mathematical models, customized report generation; dissemination of the alerts/reports/advisories to the users.
1. Objectives & Activities of KSNDMC:
Disaster Management depends heavily upon the inputs from Science and Technology. KSNDMC is providing a formal common platform to achieve synergy in the field of Disaster Management in the State of Karnataka.
The main Objectives of KSNDMC may be classified as below:
1 Hazard mapping and Vulnerability Studies.
2 Strengthening of Information Technology for Natural Disasters Management.
3 Monitoring and impact assessment of Natural Hazards.
4 Human Resource Development mainly by imparting training.
5 Natural Disaster Early Warning System.
KSNDMC has Core activities which include maintaining & updating data base on drought and flood parameters, preparation and issuance of periodical reports on drought indicators and conducting integrated studies on Drought Management in the Drought prone districts of Karnataka. Along with the Core activities, the Peripheral activities of the centre are as below:
a) Satellite based Drought Monitoring as a collaborative study with National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), GoI, Hyderabad
b) Agro-Meteorological crop yield prediction model, as a collaborative study with Space Application Centre (SAC), GoI, Ahmadabad
c) Water Balance Studies
d) Crop Water Budgeting Studies – both crop wise and taluk wise
e) Impact Assessment of Watershed Development programmes
f) Flood Related Studies
g) Establishment of Telemetric Raingauges/Weather Stations in Grama Panchayats of the State and strengthening the Drought Monitoring System
h) Monitoring of Seismic Activity in Karnataka and adjoining States
i) Conducting Trainings / Workshops in the field of Natural Hazards
j) Preparation of District Handbooks on Rainfall and Agriculture for the districts of Tumkur, Koppal and Raichur districts
k) Providing scientific input to GoK for inter State Water Dispute
l) Interacting with line Departments of GoK on day to day basis and providing scientific information related to drought
m) Networking with other Organizations at State / National / International levels.
n) Rendering technical assistance to Watershed Development Programmes.
o) Developing “Drought Management Information System”.
KSNDMC has been
identified as a nodal agency by State level coordinating committee for crop
insurance to provide weather data to the weather based crop insurance program
in the State. The weather based crop insurance program prefers collection of
rainfall data through telemetric rain gauges and telemetric weather stations
and also to make the data available on web site in near real time for general public for other purposes.
2. Weather Monitoring Stations Network in Karnataka:
Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) has installed and maintaining a dense network of solar powered and GPRS enabled Weather Monitoring Stations at 926 Locations at Hoblis (~200 Sq. Km each) and Telemetric Rain Gauge Stations at all the 6,495 Locations at Gramapanchayaths (~25 Sq. Km each). The data on Temperature (°C), Relative Humidity (RH %), Wind Speed (m/s), Wind Direction (Degrees), Rainfall Intensity (mm/hr) and amount of Rainfall (mm) is being collected at every 15 minutes. The near-real time data thus collected through the network is being analysed, maps and reports generated at real time.
The observational weather data collected from these Stations is being used to develop the meso-scale Weather Forecast, at same spatial resolution as that of Weather Monitoring Stations Network in collaboration with Space Applications Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad and Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota. The Gramapanchayath level weather forecasts at 12 hrs formats for three days and 24 hrs format for next 10 days are being generated every day for Karnataka. Weekly cumulative rainfall outlook for 2 next weeks generated by National Centre for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) is also made available.
Further, the data thus collected through the monitoring network is also been used for identifying and mapping vulnerable areas for various Natural Disasters, Drought Monitoring & Impact Assessment, preparing contingency measures, plan and execute the mitigation measures at micro-level etc. The high resolution data and information has been used by the Executives of all the Line Departments of GoK to plan and implement various activities to help the Community.
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Sunil GAVASKAR
Jr. Scientific Officer