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Tech News: Before leaving home during the rainy season, people check the weather through weather apps, but there is a village where people do not get weather updates through these apps but through the automatic weather station installed in the village. Kerala resident Anil TR also takes information about the weather before leaving for work every day, but he does not get this information from any far-off weather station or any weather update app. Rather, an automatic weather station has been installed in his village, which gives weather information to the people living in the village.
This is the first village panchayat village in India where the living lab approach has been adopted. The living lab approach is an ecosystem that finds solutions to problems in people's lives through research and innovation. This approach was developed for the first time in the Netherlands; this approach works to find solutions in the real world.
After the death of three people and destruction of 36 hectares of agricultural land in a landslide in 2022, now the people of the village have got a lot of relief due to the installation of this system. Anil, 55, a resident of the village, says that every day, we get information about rain and wind from this automatic weather station installed in the village; if there is going to be heavy rain, then we get constant alerts and updates about this situation.
At present, an automatic weather station has been installed in this village, which gives information about local weather data. This system is giving correct information to the people, due to which now a plan is being made to install more than a dozen automatic weather stations in 13 wards of the panchayat.
Another special thing is that a warning system has also been installed in the panchayat for pre-landslide warning by IIT-Roorkee. After the landslide in 2022, the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA) started an investigation in the area at the request of the panchayat. After this, the government directed KSDMA to set up a living lab.
All the households in the village are provided with a link to weather information, which gives people important information like rainfall, wind speed, and temperature. Those who get the weather information then share the information with others through the ward's WhatsApp group. The living lab approach has familiarized people with standard operating procedures, emergency help systems, and exit routes.
Panchayat president Antony Sebastian said that until the automatic weather station was installed, we were not able to get the actual rainfall in the area. This station provides information according to the climate of the village. He said that earlier the weather alert was based on the meteorological data of a far-flung center.
Now, 12 more such stations will be installed in all the wards of the panchayat to ensure that every area gets accurate weather information. The maintenance of this automatic weather station is entrusted to the people living nearby, which increases their participation in disaster management.
The aim of the Heat Action Plan is to issue heat wave warnings in summer; this plan is also in the pipeline at present. Apart from this, an early warning system for landslides will also be set up in the Panchayat soon; this system, developed by IIT-Roorkee in collaboration with the CSIR-Central Building Research Institute (Roorkee), will be set up next month. In this system, indigenously designed sensors will be used to collect information from the ground, and artificial intelligence/machine language models will be used for the early warning system of landslides.
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