Beyond static maps: How IIT Gandhinagar’s tech platform aims to make Ahmedabad flood-free

Ahmedabad's flood-prone areas are not static points on a map. On July 23, heavy rainfall in Indraprastha Complex, located near Drive-in Road, caused nearly 40 shops to flood for days. This was the first time in over two decades that such flooding occurred in the area. City officials face a challenging task in responding to these incidents, as various factors such as blocked inlets, altered road levels, new construction sites, drainage bottlenecks, intense short-duration rainfall, and backwater conditions at outfalls can contribute to flooding in different years.

The Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITG) has developed the 'Rain2Resilience' platform for Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) to bring together fragmented information about flood risk. The platform aims to provide end-to-end urban flood monitoring and decision-support to help city teams understand emerging flood risks and test response options before committing resources.

The platform combines various data sources, including rainfall forecasts, drainage networks, satellite information, and field evidence, to provide timely warnings and help city officials make informed decisions. Residents can also contribute to the system by reporting flood incidents through a mobile app. The data from these reports, combined with other information, can help identify emerging flood hotspots and guide field response.

The system utilizes high-performance computing, such as the FloodAstra-GPU model, to process city-scale flood scenarios quickly and efficiently. A key feature of the platform is the 'Scenario Lab,' which allows city teams to test potential interventions, such as improving drainage connections or deploying temporary pumping, before making significant investments.

The long-term goal is to develop a living flood-intelligence system that continuously learns from monsoon data and field observations to improve flood management in Ahmedabad.