Centeres for flood management studies

In order to deal with the specific hydrological problems of different regions of the country and for providing effective interaction with the States, the Institute has established following two Centre for Flood Management Studies and four Regional Centres:

1.       Centre for Flood Management Studies, Patna

The Ganga Plains North Regional Centre (GPNRC) was established in May, 1991. Realizing the importance of Flood Management Studies for Ganga Basin, the Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India restructured the GPNRC as “NIH Centre for Flood Management Studies” in June 2001. The Centre is now mainly concentrating on flood related studies of the region covering eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. Important rivers in the region originate mainly from different mountain ranges of the Himalayas. These rivers carry enormous silts as they travel through the hilly terrain and later on these silts get deposited in the river courses and over the plain lands. Shifting of river courses are reported to be a common phenomena in most of the rivers of Himalayan origin. Apart from causing floods, formation of chaurs is another problem of the region. Problems of water logging and drainage congestion in most of the river basins are also of grave concern. Problems of water pollution in the river system are also aggravating the situation. Problems of surface water pollution endangering the ecological front of the river are also in the lime light.

          As decided in the RCC meeting, Centre’s research activities are presently concentrating on the following aspects:

• Flood estimation,
• Flood routing,
• Structural and non-structural measures of flood management,
• Application of remote sensing and geographical information system (GIS) in flood studies,
• Waterlogging and drainage congestion,
• Integrated watershed management,
• Development of hydrological database,
• Tal problems and its management,
• Field and laboratory based studies on soil properties and water quality,
• Technology transfer activities.

2.      Centre for Flood Management Studies, Guwahati

The North Eastern Regional Centre (NERC), Guwahati catering for the seven N-E states, Sikkim and parts of West Bengal (Teestha basin) was established in August 1988 at Guwahati and was working for various water resources problems of the region. Since its inception, the centre has been actively interacting with the various water resources organizations in the states covered under the region while carrying out its studies and research within the framework of recommendations of the Regional Coordination Committee in the areas of representative basin studies, remote sensing application, water quality studies, floods, watershed management etc.

Considering flood as the major problem in the region, Ministry of Water Resources, Govt. of India decided to focus the activities of the centre towards the problem of floods in the Brahmaputra Basin and renamed it as NIH Centre for Flood Management Studies for the Brahmaputra Basin (NIH-CFMS). The centre was formally opened/ inaugurated on Sept. 27, 2001 by hon’ble Minister of State for Water Resources, Govt. of India and Secretary, Govt. of India, Water Resources. As per the action plan the centre has to work in the following thrust areas of research:

• Flood estimation and routing,
• Structural/non structural measures for flood management,
• Integrated watershed management for flood control,
• Hydrological data base management system,
• Drainage congestion and erosion problems,
• Water quality problems,
• Socio-economic aspect of flood disaster, and
• Technology transfer.