GUWAHATI: Guwahati is set to strengthen its flood preparedness with the planned operationalisation of the LODESTAR dashboard, a multi-hazard early warning system aimed at providing real-time flood information and advance forecasts for the city.
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Assam Chief Secretary held a meeting with Prof. Anamika Barua and Prof. Debanga Raj Neog, Principal Investigators at IIT Guwahati, and members of the LODESTAR team to review the roadmap for operationalising the dashboard in Guwahati over the coming year.
Senior officials from the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA), Water Resources Department and other concerned departments also attended the meeting.
Developed under the bilateral India-Netherlands initiative, LODESTAR is designed as a low-cost, multi-hazard early warning system that combines artificial intelligence and machine learning, process-based modelling, real-time sensors, computer vision and community participation.
For Guwahati, the proposed system will focus on identifying areas where flooding is occurring in real time and forecasting areas likely to be affected over one-, three- and six-hour periods. The information is expected to support government agencies and field teams in taking timely preparedness and response measures.
As part of the roadmap, the LODESTAR team will work with government departments to integrate existing datasets and infrastructure on a common platform. These will include government CCTV networks, rainfall and weather information, upstream hydrometeorological data and other relevant sources.
The platform is also expected to combine real-time sensor observations, rainfall forecasts, hydrological and hydraulic models, CCTV feeds and citizen-generated information to provide a more comprehensive picture of changing flood conditions in Guwahati.
The initiative will also explore expanding the system to cover other urban hazards, including landslide risks, with the broader objective of developing a multi-hazard decision-support system for the city.