I have a high degree of confidence with Dr. Chandan Mahanta of
IIT-G( can anyone do otherwise with someone with a name like that
:-)?). Even though I do not know the rest of his colleagues, I am sure
they too are of similar caliber and dedicated to Assam's welfare. I
wish them well.
Chandan Mahanta ( the other one that is :-))
At 3:05 AM +0100 9/22/06, Buljit Buragohain wrote:
Digital Brahmaputra is IIT teachers dream
By a Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, Sept 21: In a path-breaking exercise in the country, five professors of Civil Engineering Department, IIT, Guwahati have come up with the project of developing a Hydrological Information Infrastructure (HII) for the Brahmaputra River System as a step towards their larger aim of creating a Digital Brahmaputra. An HII is the combination of hardware, software and policies which provide a unified framework for mapping the area from micro-watershed to basin level, quantitative assessment of water and quality in space and time through modelling and local participation.
But why is this idea, and how will it help the common people? Up-to-date water hazards and meteorological information are critical at all levels of planning. As a timely, accurate and cost-effective source of centralized information, spatial and attribute database in digital domain can play an important role in development planning.
The primary idea is to support decision making for different purposes. The activities to be undertaken will not remain confined within technical matters like data, technologies, standards and delivery mechanisms etc. Institutional matters relating to developmental responsibilities and policies will also be there. The infrastructure will have a major impact even in the day-to day livelihood of people of the north-eastern region with a range of direct and indirect benefits to individuals like farmers, fishermen and tourism professionals and others.
Professors Nayanjyoti Pathak, Pranjan Goswami, Chandan Mahanta, U Dutta and B Choudhuri from the Civil Engineering Department have designed this project which has been planned to be initiated after ascertaining stakeholders needs in an inception workshop.
Due to the nature of the project, it would require collaboration with a large number of organizations and agencies such as the NEC, the Brahmaputra Board, water resources departments of the north-eastern states etc, both in terms of data sharing and with respect to accruing the benefits of the output of the project.
Various aspects of life in this region are linked with vast water resources. Paradoxically, there is a complete lack of dependable knowledge base for harnessing this resource in a sustainable manner. So, the major objective of the proposed project is to provide both spatial and attribute data and information service on key aspects (precipitation, flow, utilizable volume, current and future use, irrigation potential, environmental flow requirement and livelihood options).
The large-scale digital river system currently provides database, real-time transmission and processing of information and support for scientific decision-making. The system is divided into five sub-systems for the work of taming the river including flood control command, water resource coordination, soil and water conservation supervision and control, office automation and a river website.
Among other things, if the project turns into work, prediction and forecasting of mega-hazards and disaster avoidance with overall resource planning and development will be facilitated. Reduction of environmental resource vulnerability would also be possible. Implementation of plans and projects among agencies/institutions can be achieved since these will be based upon a uniform database. It will help develop sound spatial water quality monitoring and mitigation strategies and actions at local levels. Everything will become true if the Prototype Brahmaputra becomes a Digital one.
Besides secondary data sources, selected key parameters, for which existing data is not available or scarce, will be generated through on-line field sensors and analysts in the laboratory.
It is also true that if the whole projects turns to a reality, then this can be extended to cover another main component of the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna system i,.e. the Barak (called Meghna in Bangladesh) river in south. This may lead finally to the creation of digitised versions of all the major rivers of the country for their epitomized management towards maximum benefit to all stakeholders.
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