Flood Forecast and Warning System in the country will be enhanced as Bhutan gets access to the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development’s (ICIMOD) SERVIR project which contains the necessary information for flood prediction.
ICIMOD is conducting a workshop to familiarize the stakeholders with the project. SERVIR is a project that connects space to village by helping developing countries use satellite data to address challenges in weather and climate, natural disasters and food security among others.
The project is focused on flood forecasting and early warning, water resource management and disaster risk reduction. As Bhutan gets access to the project, the National Centre for Hydrology and Meteorology (NCHM) will be able to predict the possibility of flood 10 to 15 days ahead of time.
“We know about real-time situations. We have a lot of monitoring stations. But what may come in the next four days or 10 days or 15 days- our prediction products actually goes up to 15 days. So it provides the users, countries what the flood prediction would be like in the next 10 to 15 days. That actually provides people, the users with information and to actually prepare for a response,” said Karma Tshering, a Sr. Geo-information Specialist at ICIMOD.
In the current scenario, flood prediction is based on weather forecast which predicts weather up to three days in advance.
“So if the weather forecasts intense rainfall then we also predict the streamflow accordingly. Suppose there is a possibility GLOF, we have automatic water level stations upstream to detect the level of water. If the water level exceeds the alarm threshold we actually put on the siren towers. In this project, they have a few applications which are actually useful for Bhutan. In case of HIWAT-High Impact Weather Assessment Tool streamflow prediction, they give flow predictions for the next 10 days. So through that, we can actually use that information to predict streamflow,” added Jamyang Zangpo, an Engineer at the NCHM.
During the course of the workshop, the stakeholders will be discussing ways to customize the project in the country to apply in the context of decision making and strategizing activities.
Phub Gyem
