Home Minister Reviews Flood Management Preparedness & Mitigation Strategies Ahead of the Monsoon | Current Affairs | Vision IAS
News Today Logo

Home Minister Reviews Flood Management Preparedness & Mitigation Strategies Ahead of the Monsoon

Posted 11 Jun 2025

2 min read

The Minister emphasized India's Zero Casualty Approach in disaster management and the need for space technology in flood control.

Key directives towards Flood Management

  • Uniform Road Designs: Ensured drainage integration in road designs, particularly for state and district highways.
  • Forest Expansion in River Basins: Increasing Forest cover in Narmada River basin for basin revival, soil erosion reduction, etc.

About Flood Management

  • Flood Definition: It is defined as, “High-water stages in which water over flows its natural or artificial banks onto normally dry land, such as a river inundating its floodplain.”
  • Constitutional Provisions: Primary responsibility for flood control lies with the states Entry 17 of List II.
  • Flood Management Architecture: Broadly Classified as-
    • Structural Measure:
      • Reservoirs mitigate floods by storing excess water (e.g., DVC dams in Damodar Basin).
      • Embankments, in flood-prone states, provide effective flood protection. E.g., Over 37,000 km built under the Flood Management Programme.
      • Detention Basins/ Wet Lands: Detention basins are usually formed by utilizing natural depressions/ swamps and lakes. E.g., Mokama Tal (Bihar).
    • Non-Structural Measures
      • Flood Plain Zoning: Aims to manage flood plains by demarcating flood-prone areas for restricted development.
      • Flood forecasting: Managed by the Central Water Commission (CWC), is a cost-effective measure for flood management.
        • Flood forecasting has been extended from 3 to 7 days.

Application of Space Technology in Flood Management

  • Real-Time Flood Monitoring & Mapping: E.g., ISRO’s National Remote Sensing Centre provides flood inundation maps during Kerala (2018) & Assam floods (2022).
  • Early Warning Systems: Automated flood early warning systems under National Hydrology Project (NHP)
    • Integrates satellite data with IMD & CWC inputs for predictive alerts.
  • Flood Hazard Zoning & Planning: State-level Flood Hazard Atlases (e.g., Assam, Bihar, Odisha) using historic satellite data
    • E.g., Bihar’s atlas aids in relocating vulnerable settlements
  • Satellite communication (SATCOM) ensures connectivity during floods for disaster response
    • Web-based platforms (e.g., NRSC’s BHUVAN) disseminate flood data to NDMA/SDMAs
  • Tags :
  • Central Water Commission (CWC)
  • flood control
  • Mokama Tal
  • BHUVAN
Watch News Today
Subscribe for Premium Features