Disaster management strategy for Kozhikode on the anvil

Rebuild Kozhikode aims at developing a comprehensive plan to mitigate damage

The Town Planning Department and the Indian Institute of Architects will jointly execute the Rebuild Kozhikode project.

The Town Planning Department and the Indian Institute of Architects (IIA) have joined hands to execute a project — Rebuild Kozhikode — aimed at preparing a comprehensive disaster management strategy for the district.

About 250 volunteers drawn from the Licensed Engineers and Supervisors Federation (Lensfed) and the Registered Engineers and Supervisors Federation (Rensfed) will be imparted a one-day training to assess the damage caused by the recent floods and work out a strategy to rebuild the lives of the affected. “Three verticals have been planned for the purpose including chalking out measures to lessen the damage during such disasters,” Regional Town Planner K.V. Abdul Malik told The Hindu here on Monday.

He said that the first stage involved district-level data collection so that an accurate mapping of flood planes could be carried out in a region. A socio-economic survey on various flood clusters and a study of the affected public infrastructure and amenities would be conducted. And finally, a study on relief camps and facilities that could function as potential relief camps during a crisis.

A preliminary study of the floods showed that 41,565 persons belonging to 13,011 families were displaced and had to be sheltered at 297 relief camps. The resurgent monsoon affected 543 clusters in 118 villages in the district, Dr. Malik said.

A smartphone app — ODK Collect — would be used for data collection. The questionnaire to be filled up by volunteers on field would be installed on the app prior to the beginning of the survey. However, the survey of the camps would be carried out separately, he added.

Each surveying team would be given a cluster to extract information at the grassroots level. The help of elected representatives of local bodies would be sought for data collection in villages, he said. Dr. Malik said that geo-referenced cadastral maps of the district would be prepared after installing the Geographic Information System (GIS) on a dedicated server. Other physical and social infrastructure would also be analysed. Only after completing the questionnaire for the purpose, the software would be updated and linked to the server for carrying out a trial run.