Friday, February 22, 2019

FLOOD PROTECTION

Non structural measures to keep people away from flood waters. It contemplated the use of flood plains judiciously, simultaneously permitting vacating of the same for use by the river whenever the situation demands. This technique allows the use of flood plains by reducing the disaster dimension, while retaining its beneficial effects. Flood hazard and vulnerability to floods tend to increase over many areas. due to adverse changes of climatic, terrestrial, hydrological, and socio-economic systems. Therefore increasing attention is being paid to upgrading flood protection systems. As sufficient flood protection cannot be reached in many vulnerable areas with the help of structural means only, further flood risk reduction via non-structural measures is often indispensable. 

FLOOD PLAIN ZONING


It is natural for a river to overflow its banks in the event of heavy rainfall in its upper catchments and spill into the flood plains, which are it domain,. Extensive and often unplanned use of flood plains by man disregarding the basic fact that it is part of the river leads to damage this is one of the main factors responsible for the flood damage reported from different parts of the country in spite of substantial investment in the flood sector in the past. The basic concept of flood plain zoning is to regulate land use in the flood plains in order to restrict the damage due to floods, while deriving maximum benefits form the same.

FLOOD PROOFING

Flood proofing measures help greatly in the mitigation of distress and provide immediate relief to the population in flood prone areas. It is essentially a combination of structural change and emergency action, not involving any evacuation.   The techniques adopted consists of providing raised platform for flood shelter for men and cattle raising the public utility installation especially the platforms for drinking water hand pumps and bore wells above flood level, promoting construction of double storey building wherein the first floor can be used for taking shelter during floods.

FLOOD WARNING

These are issued for different area mostly by the Central  water Commission/Meteorological  department and by the State Irrigation/Flood Department. However, an effective Warning System is one that can release warning in advance, i.e. 72  hours, 48 hours and 24 hours. It can change the existing scenario substantially and render informed decision making in adopting proper measures towards disaster preparedness, mitigation, control, planning and management. This kind of advance warning can help the authorities for better flood preparedness and also effective flood mitigation. Therefore, initiatives have to be taken to modernize the operation of Flood Forecasting & Warning by adopting the state of art technology and integrating it into the forecast and warning dissemination process.

REMOTE SENSING MONITORING

One of the most effective methods of monitoring flood plains is through remote sensing. Of the various techniques available Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS) is perhaps the most versatile. IRS and Land sat satellites are  used to map, inventory and monitor earth features. The major sensing instrument in IRS is a multi-spectral scanning system that produces images of the earth in blue, green, red, and infrared wavelengths of spectrum. The products are black-and-white images, false color composites and images in digital form that can be processed by computers.


PUBLIC AWARENESS PROGRAMME

To make floodplain occupants and or owner aware of identified flood hazards. To encourage individuals to take actions such as flood proofing and developing escape plans, to mitigate their flood potential. To make individuals aware of the existence and operation of flood warning plains. To encourage individuals to keep drainage ways clean and to report potential maintenance problems.


RESPONSE SYSTEM

Management and control of the adverse consequences of floods will require coordinated and effective response systems at all level national,. state, district, local and community, Many of the components of response initiatives will remain the same for different types of disasters. These systems need to be developed considering the multi-hazard scenario of the region to optimally utilize available resources.


EVACUATION PLAN

Evacuation of human population and livestock is the only prescribed means to save them from the fury of floods. Evacuation of flood affected communities can be one of the most difficult response operations, especially, when it involves large population, Evacuation needs to be carried   out as a precautionary measures based on warning indicators, prior to impact, on order to protect flood threatened persons from the full effects of the disasters. Evacuation may also be  necessary after the area has been flooded in order to move persons from a flood affected area to safer and better surroundings,. For carrying out successful evacuation, the threat perception on the part of DM officials is essential. Continuous dialogue with stakeholders such as, early warning providers, transportation authorities, health care authorities/ personnel, food and essential commodity suppliers, civil societies, NGOs and last but not the least, the carrying out successful evacuation.


EMERGENCY RELIEF


Trained community level teams will assist in planning and setting up emergency shelters, distributing relief among the affected people, identifying missing people, and addressing the needs of education, health care, water supply and sanitation, food etc. of the affected community. Members of these teams will be made aware of the specific requirement of the disaster affected communities. It will be ensured by the concerned authorities that the stockpiling of the essential commodities has been carried out.


RELIEF CAMPS


The setting up of relief camps for the people whose houses have been damaged by floods and the provision of basic amnesties in such camp involves. complex logistics of mobilizing relief supplies, tents, water supply and sanitation systems, transport and communication systems, and medical supplies.  The panchayat  building in the villages in flood prone areas will be made flood proof as by raising their plinth level at least 0.6 m above the drainage/flood submergence line and making them at least double storey or constructing ring  bunds around them.

MEDICAL PREPAREDNESS

Floods as a natural disaster have a high potential of precipitation the incidence of mass casualties. There is the risk of drowning and physical trauma along with the threat of diseases associated with contamination of water and the creation of mosquito breeding sites. Direct health effects of a flood may include drowning injuries like cuts sprains fractures electric shocks diarrhea vector and rodent borne disease like malaria leptospirosis skin and eye infections and psychological stress, The indirect health consequences of floods are usually due to  damage caused to health care infrastructure damage to crops and disruption of food supplies destruction of property causing lack of shelter that may lead to increased exposure disease vectors.


Non-Structural measures are more flexible than the structural measures. Hence, they are  particularly useful in global adaptation strategies. Since uncertainty in assessment of impact of climate change is high, a high degree of flexibility of adaptation strategies is important and advantageous.

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