Tech-enabled BMC caught napping in the rain

MUMBAI, INDIA: Although the technology is in place, the disaster recovery (DR) cell of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the richest municipalities in India, has been caught napping.

Heavy rainfall, once again brought Mumbai and its spirited Mumbaiikars to a standstill. All the tall claims the BMC made about being monsoon prepared fell flat.

To its credit, the BMC has invested significant amount of money into DR. Let’s take a look at what they have done.

Rain gauges analysis application:

Pune-based Sellcraft has deployed the rain gauge analysis application to help BMC combat the disaster caused by rains and water level accumulation.

Sellcraft has deployed rain gauges in 50 locations to measure the water levels and transmit the same continuously through the PCs to the DR data center. This information is processed to build graphs and monitor the levels in real time and give alert on danger levels.

The data can be accessed via multiple monitoring stations via WAN links. This project creates a multi-tier rain gauge analysis application that involves the following:

•    User authentication

•    Data collection (retrieval)

•    Data processing (transformation and logging)

•    Data analysis (calculation of data levels and other parameters)

•    Report generation ( hourly bar and 24-hour line graphs)

•    Visual alarm triggering (based on threshold values defined)

The data can be visualized in the form of graphs from the monitoring stations. The monitoring stations access the rain gauge server through a Web interface.

This system is designed based on the leading edge J2EE spring/hibernate framework.

The Spring framework decouples the application code from the choice of the J2EE server and also provides best practices and design patterns to improve the overall quality of the code.

The hibernate framework allows a clean mapping of Java objects into relational tables, and provides a layer of abstraction to allow the code to be database independent.

Rainfall gauge data is transferred to the analysis server via a suitable protocol such as FTP. This data will be parsed by the server and then persisted.

Various Java bean classes are created for each database table, e.g. Region, Zone, Location etc. These beans will be persisted and loaded using Hibernate. JSP (Java Server Pages) technology will be used for the presentation layer.

Satellite technology:

One of the most critical technologies needed in every stage from assessment to recovery is remote sensing—gathering data about an object without physical contact. Here is where the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite program comes in.

IRS’ nine satellites make up the largest remote sensing constellation for civilian use anywhere in the world. Following the Mumbai terror attacks of November 2008, India launched the Risat-2, a spy satellite with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) that allowed for very fine spatial resolution in images, in April 2009.

So how do these satellites help with disaster preparedness?

One way is through hazard zoning—mapping areas that are at risk. Cartosat 2B can image the geology of flood-prone terrains and human settlements in them.

This, in combination with other data like demographics and a history of flooding, can help in creating rescue plans.

Modern weather vanes:

Remote sensing is supplemented by multiple other instruments that can detect changes in weather phenomena. Tsunami buoys, for example, can detect changes in water pressure, which could indicate an incoming tsunami. BMC’s disaster management cell had commissioned the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai to study peak-ground acceleration (PGA)—a measure of how hard the ground shakes in an earthquake.

Prior to the July 2005 floods, Mumbai had only two automated weather systems, a situation that the MCGM remedied after the experience.

Today, it has 35 weather stations in 29 catchments. It has software that warns the DR when the rainfall touches 15mm in 10 minutes or 20mm in 15 minutes, etc., and the workers work on the assumption that the city will now receive more than 40mm in one hour or 50 in one hour.

24×7 free helpline numbers:

BMC launched two helpline numbers, 108 and 1916 to citizens to dial-in during problems and emergencies. These include monsoon flood and water logging.

How this works:

Whenever a citizen dials 108, he is connected to the BMC control room of the affected area in 2 rings. The ward office then alerts the staff and the help is underway to help stuck citizens.

Wireless communication:

The July 26, 2005 floods that created havoc in the city was a wake-up call for the BMC. Back then it was not equipped to tackle emergencies and even the communication lines had tripped leaving it literally incommunicado.

BMC learnt its lesson. It has now deployed networks for wireless equipments and ham radio devices to communicate in case such situation occurs again.

In addition, the corporation is actively co-operating with the Navy and Fire Brigades, along with other 6 regional command centers to get faster help for disaster relief activities.

For sure, July 2005 acted as a wake-up call for the BMC. The corporation has all the requisite technologies in place. The fault lies in implementation and execution.

Today would go as one more dark day in the history of the cash-rich, tech savvy BMC.

Also Read:Meanwhile, netizens have a field day in the rains