Hydrological digital instruments will be installed along the Otteri Nullah canal and sub-basin by this month-end to measure rainfall as part of the pilot project to study inundation in the city.
The study has been initiated by the National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee, under Hydrology project II along with the State Water Resources Department. The instruments will be used to get accurate rainfall measurements and flood pattern to arrive at suitable solutions for flood mitigation.
According to Y.R. Satyaji Rao, Head of Deltaic Regional Centre of NIT in Kakinada, hydrological instruments such as water level gauges and velocity meters would be installed to study fluctuations and speed of flow in the canal.
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“We also plan to fix manual gauges to cross validate measurements. It is important to measure rainfall every five minutes to ascertain the intensity. We have collected data on hourly basis from the Meteorological Department here,” he said.
The Otteri Nullah canal was chosen for the study as the waterway flows within the city limits and had a sub-basin of 30 sq. km. While water level gauges would be fixed in three places, tipping bucket rain gauges that record rainfall every minute would be installed in five places, he Mr. Rao said.
Officials of the Water Resources Department said the project was being carried out with assistance from the WRD and the Chennai Corporation, which provided details about stormwater drains. The places chosen for the project include bridges at Otteri and Basin Bridge.
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The project worth nearly Rs.1 crore was being funded by the Union government and expected to be completed in one year. The study would be replicated in other waterways based on the findings. Training programmes were also being conducted for officials of various agencies for better stormwater management, an official said.