Management requires measurement: Reducing flood damage by improving response time

Soumya Balasubramanya, Yann Chemin, Lahiru Wijesinghe, Farah Ahmed, Mohamed Aheeyar, David Wiberg

Pilot project in Nachchaduwa

• Objective: To assist the Irrigation Department of Anuradhapura in reducing damages from flooding.

• Challenge: managing competing constraints– Tank needs to be maintained at FSL for irrigation

– Many flashfloods in recent times

– Rainfall information available once a day, as daily average

Pilot project aims

1. Construct IWMI-developed weather stations

2. Install weather stations to address ID’s information needs

3. Document costs of assembling, installing, activating, using, and maintaining mobile stations

4. Understand the cost-effectiveness of using such mobile stations

1. Highlight opportunities and constraints for scaling this solution to the entire country

1. Construct IWMI-developed weather stations

http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/resources/mobile-weather-stations/

2. Install weather stations to address ID’s needs

• Programmed to send SMS when rainfall >10mm/hr; requested by ID-Nachchaduwa

2. Install weather stations to address ID’s needs

• Weather stations installed in upper catchment of reservoir

• Improves response time to calculate peak runoff

• Can calculate expected inflow into reservoir; create storage space to accommodate runoff

• Can reduce damages caused from reservoir spilling

3. Document costs of mobile stations

Price/Unit(USD) Unit Cost

F08079SerialLogChipOpenSourceDataLoggerModule* 9.50 1 9.50

JSTSHJumper6Wire(GPS)* 2.95 1 2.95

GPSreceiver* 39.95 1 39.95

Weathermeter[1] 76.95 1 76.95

WeatherShieldforArduino* 39.95 1 39.95

RJ11(x2),6pinconnectorforWeatherShield* 1.25 1 1.25

Arduinostackableheaderkit-R3* 1.50 1 1.50

8GbMemoryCard* 6.85 1 6.85

ArduinoMega-CircuitBoards* 8.22 1 8.22

5ASolarControllor* 9.59 1 9.59

SolarPanels* 27.39 1 27.39

MotorbikeBattery* 26.70 1 26.70

Parts* 20.54 1 20.54

Steelstandstructure* 47.93 1 47.93

GSMModule* 30.00 1 30.00

Total[2] 349.25 1 349.25

[1]TobereplacedeverythreeyearsinSL

[2]Entireweatherstationtobereplacedevery10years(recommended)

Equipment

4. Understand cost-effectiveness

• Conservative estimate; assume intense rainfall occurs once every 5 years; assume weather stations replaced every 3 years

• Post-disaster rehabilitation expenditures by government (financial value of damages)

• Run scenarios—with reduction of 10% in post-disaster expenditures due to better management CER =2

• If economic value of damages is considered; then even more cost-effective

Next steps

• Monitor hardware/software to ensure systems are functioning before NE monsoon commences

• Follow up with ID-Nachchaduwa to understand how text messages were used

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Next steps

Thank you!