GUWAHATI, May 25 � The Centre of Excellence for Integrated Landuse Planning and Water Resources Management (CoE-ILPWRM) of the IIT, Guwahati Civil Engineering Department has recently concluded a detailed study seeking solutions to the ever increasing flash flood and other rainy season hazards of Guwahati. It has also developed an experimental watershed on the IIT campus for studying the flash flood and other storm water-related problems of the city. The centre was set up in 2009.
Besides, the Centre has constituted a technical core committee comprising 11 State Government Departments to study the above problems of the city through a pilot project.
The committee has identified a watershed located behind the National Games Village area for developing the pilot project with State Government support.
Disclosing this, Prof Arup Sarma, Head of the Department of Civil Engineering, IIT, Guwahati and the Principal Investigator of the CoE-ILPWRM said after studying ten degraded areas of the city, this watershed was identified by the technical committee.
The CoE-ILPWRM has carried out a detailed topographic survey at this location and a conceptual DPR for implementing the pilot project has been prepared. Efficacies of the different ecological management practices (EMPs), including the vegetative measures, perforated pavement blocks etc were studied in the experimental watershed.
Based on the findings of this study, suitable EMPs for different locations of the pilot watershed were identified by the centre. Moreover, it has designed the shapes, size, slopes, step suits etc of the drains after hydrological study to suit the specific conditions of the respective watershed areas.
Considering the fact that many city areas are facing population load beyond their carrying capacities, which is one of the major factors responsible for the natural hazards faced by the city, the centre has developed a method of determining the carrying capacity of the watershed areas.
The method is named Sustainable Accommodation through Feedback Evaluation (SAFE).
The centre has also developed one optimization model that can determine the least cost EMP to achieve the desired goal, Prof Sarma said.
It needs mention here that a study carried out by Prof Sarma in 2005-06 in the Hatigarh Watershed area, revealed that rooftop rainwater harvesting can also reduce the flood peak by around 20 per cent.
Meanwhile, efforts are on to implement the pilot project through a project implementation committee, being constituted by the State Government, involving all Government departments concerned, said Prof Sarma.
