Real time warning system for landslides

A state-of-the-art system that is capable of warning people before landslides occur will be installed in the Himalayan region.

The ranked India's 8th best university-Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham-is in charge of realizing the project. When functioning, the system will provide safe evacuation before disaster strikes. The project is funded by the university and by the Ministry of Earth Sciences of India. The first installation has been completed in Kerala's Western Ghats while the next location is Sikkim, a region vulnerable to rainfall-induced landslides in the Sikkim-Darjeeling belt. It is also a densely populated area which has seen landslides in the past, the first one being reported in 1997. Maneesha Sudheer, director of the Centre of Wireless Networks and Application, said: "The data has started flowing in from the project site to the control room. There are 200 sensors that go as deep as 13 meters underground and reading of the various data for analysis getting transmitted. It is almost three years since we started the journey."

The system operates by continuously collecting real-time data from the sensors. It also performs basic analysis at the Field Management Center and relays it to the Data Management Center (DMC) at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham university. The researchers utilize the data to characterize the geological and hydrological aspect of a slope considering the real-time meteorological variations to develop the Landslide Early Warning Model for the area. The procedure includes a three-level analysis. First, the rainfall threshold is monitored and if the limit is exceeded, the system is ready to issue alerts. In the 2^nd level, the system generates the Factor of Safety for various points in the slope based on moisture and pore water pressure sensor data from the field. Finally, displacements data are used to issue detection warning.

The systems consists a significant initiative especially in countries like India where landslide events are common and often cause casualties.