Groundwater monitoring is going hi-tech in the State with the State Groundwater Department all set to introduce Digital Water Level Recorders (DWLR) at its observatories and MODFLOW, a U.S. software widely used for groundwater flow modelling, for the job.
With the new system in place, the department would have access to real-time data on groundwater flow in various parts of the State, Justin Mohan, director, State Groundwater Department, said.
The initiative is part of the National Hydrology Project (NHP), a World Bank-funded programme of the Union Ministry of Water Resources.
756 in all
The Groundwater Department has 756 observatories across the State that keep an eye on groundwater levels. At present, data are collected manually on a monthly basis.
Once the DWLRs were deployed, manual recording of the data could be avoided, Mr. Mohan said.
“We will be introducing DWLRs at 100 observatories by February. Based on their performance, the remaining 656 also will be equipped in due course. The flow modelling using data from them will be carried out using the MODFLOW software,” he said.
With the new software, the department will have advance warning for flood and drought situations.
Centralised
Everything will be linked on a real-time basis with a centralised mechanism in Thiruvananthapuram. “Sitting in Thiruvananthapuram, we can monitor the data in all the districts,” he said.
For introducing its senior-level officers to MODFLOW, the department will begin a five-day customised training programme led by the National Institute of Hydrology (NIH), Roorkee, at IIITM-K, Technopark, on Monday.
