Bhubaneswar:29/6/18 :The Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (RIMES), an UN-registered agency, to strengthen early warning system for effective management of disasters.
OSDMA Managing Director Bishnupada Sethi on behalf of the state government signed the MoU with AR Subbiah of RIMES in the presence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
The aim of the MoU is to integrate new generation digital algorithm-based technologies and best practices from 48 RIMES member countries of Asia, Africa and the Pacific to OSDMA.
The MoU could bring a shift from “What Weather Will be “to What Weather Will do “Risk-Based Early Warning system into OSDMA’s operations. This MoU enables for development and pilot implementation of decision support systems that make seamless use of weather and climate information at 3 days, 10 days, 1 month, and 3 months into the future, sourced from India Meteorological Department (IMD) for automating risk assessment and advisory generation and dissemination.
These tools shall be built with open-source software platforms and public domain data sets, with full involvement of OSDMA and its line departments and collaborating agencies. These integration systems will be capable of crunching terabytes of national, regional and global data sets, in real-time, using state-of-the-art big data analytics to generate operational decision support derivatives to be rendered through user-friendly interfaces to end-of-line EOC managers to prepare and respond to hazards.
Initially, the agreement will be effective for five years with a cost involvement of about Rs 8 crores, sources said.