Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir government has commissioned two consultancy assignments to increase the disaster resilience of J&K and Ladakh and increase the capacity of the UTs to respond promptly and effectively to any crisis or emergency. The initiative is being handled by Jhelum and Tawi Flood Recovery Project (JTFRP).
Officials said that the Multi Hazard Risk Assessment (MHRA) project carried out detailed hazard and risk estimations for J&K and Ladakh recently. Moreover, two applications have also been developed under this assignment, being the first of their kind in the two UTs, the officials said.
“Only Uttarakhand State in India has carried out a similar exercise,” said an official.
The second consultancy assignment involves the commissioning of a Decision Support System (DSS) for emergency management. “RMSI Private Limited, an India-based global consulting firm, was engaged to carry out these two consultancy assignments”, Chief Executive Officer, JKERA/JTFRP, Dr Syed Abid Rasheed Shah said.
It may be mentioned that the MHRA has two key outcomes in terms of new applications called DRDB (Digital Risk Database) and IOFS (Integrated Operational Forecasting System).
The DRDB is a web-GIS tool, which provides district and tehsil-level hazard and risk information that can be readily used for district level preparedness planning. “DRDB can generate district risk profile reports based on existing hazards and exposure and can guide risk resilient development planning,” Shah said.
IOFS (Integrated Operational Forecasting System) is the second tool developed under MHRA. The tool provides warning advisories for hydro-meteorological hazards – flood, flash flood, avalanche, and drought, the official said. “IOFS is a fully automated solution capable of generating bulletins and SMS alerts on a periodic basis that are sent out to registered users. It works on IMD weather forecasts and provides up to 3-day warning” the official informed.
He said the Flood Module of the IOFS provides a quick view of the status and trends of water levels in the river gauges and also provides trends of rainfall in the river catchments, thus aiding flood and flash flood early warnings. As a part of the project, DSS for emergency response will be hosted at the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) and the District Emergency Operation Centres (DEOCs). All the emergency service function departments have access to selected modules of DSS. The DSS will help the UT in effective coordination among line departments during emergency situations, for preparedness and mitigation planning, and for hazard monitoring and damage assessment, in case of any big incidents.
