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Srishti-2022   >>  Article - English   >>  How to use modern technology in re building Kerala

How to use modern technology in re building Kerala

How to use modern technology in re building Kerala

This is a relevant topic in before me that being engineer, I should fulfill my duty towards my country by giving the technological measures to re build Kerala.
The recent flood is the most devastated disaster that ever happened in the history of Kerala. This was Kerala’s worst flooding. To the enormous shock of the people, luck ran out of God’s Own Country. Now the people will have to pick up the pieces: of their broken psyches, their social and economic devastation, the environmental damage and try to rise up like the Phoenix. 
More than 40000 hectares of farming land were submerged under water, 83,000 km of roads were damaged. Crops lost in 54,000 hectares.   Over three lakh farmers affected. As many as 221 bridges were damaged. The flood-ravaged state has to embark on a massive reconstruction exercise—economic, social and political—to restore the status of God’s Own Country.  Technology can play a vital role in the quick and effective recovery of the state.
Kerala was known as a consumer state rather than a producing state. Since the vast majority of our crop fields have wanted out during flood, we are forced to start from scratch in terms of our agriculture is concerned. Less area and low interest for the people in agriculture were the factors that limitedKerala to a consumer state.
For this problem, the vertical farming technologies can be adopted. The countries like Japan has already adopted this kind of agriculture practices and Kerala should learn from them.
Vertical farming is the practice of producing food and medicine in vertically stacked layers, vertically inclined surfaces and/or integrated in otherstructures. The modern ideas of vertical farming use indoor farming techniques and controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) technology. Hydroponic systems can be lit by LEDs that mimic sunlight. Software can ensure that all the plants get the same amount of light, water and nutrients. So in all means, vertical farming is a very good option for Kerala to meet itsagricultural demands. Also Proper managements means that no herbicides or pesticides are required, that a healthy generation can be made by this method.
With the flood came a large quantity of debris from the water bodies, which include mainly the plastics, and also other materials. There needs to be a plan to recycle the debris, so here also the technological advance can be made use by the government.  The recent technology have advanced machines that can recycle the plastics in an advanced way. So instead of throwing it back to the water, government can look for these alternative ways.
Dams are blamed as the main cause of the floor, so emphasis should be given for an integrated dam management system using advanced systems. There should be flood monitoring stations with sufficient software support inevery junctions of rivers that contribute to dams. Also these systems should be interconnected that it should have the functionality to communicate each other. An alert should be given in every mosque, temples and all nearby crowded areas at the time of flood. The speakers in the pilgrimage sites should be used for this purpose. For finding additional funds, government should sell the excess sands deposited in the floors of dams. The sand deposited has also been a reason for the increased impact of flood that these deposits have lowered the capacity of dams.
Flood mapping should be implemented using digital mapping and datacollection. Flood Hazard Mapping is a vital component for appropriate land use planning in flood-prone areas.
One of the largest disaster in the recent flood was that of the landslide atMalappuram, which took the lives of two whole families. Adequate steps should be given to measure the humidity rate inside the soil. Each type of soil has some particular water holding capacity, landslides mainly occur when the soil has more water moisture rates than the rate it can hold. So by using soil moisture measuring sensors, we could predict the landslides during ratings and this can reduce casualties.
The above mentioned steps are adequate for avoiding such a situation of flood ever in the future. But since now we are in the affected state, we have to do the steps to mitigate the effects of flood. The government is now faced by a lots of challenges to bring Kerala back on her track. The great challenge for the government to face after the flood is to estimate the loss occurred during the flood. 
In order to calculate the loss occurred during the food, the scientific tools or technologies that are used in geography can be used. Geographic information system (GIS) is a good tool for that purpose. It helps in gathering, managing, and analyzing data that analyses spatial location and organizeslayers of information into visualizations using 3D maps and this it completelyapt for the situation.
GIS applications are tools that allow users to create interactive queries (user-created searches), analyze spatial information, edit data in maps, and present the results of all these operations.
GIS can refer to a number of different technologies, processes, and methods. It is attached to many operations and has many applications related to engineering, planning, management, transport/logistics, insurance, telecommunications, and business. For that reason, GIS and location intelligence applications can be the foundation for many location-enabled services that rely on analysis and visualization.
Satellite images of high resolution can be used for accurate analysis of the land parcels affected due to the floods and landslides, the land especially the road network and the inundated areas alongside the river banks. The difference in the images between the pre and post-flood maps would result in precise change detection as well as ground truth verification of the static as well as the dynamic attributes of land cover. 
The application of remote sensing technology, as well as image processing, can determine the exact length and breadth of roads that have been affected, the land that had been submerged or inundated, the green cover that has been lost and the extent of soil erosion. As for the loss of houses, the re-survey records can form the base layer and the geo-referenced cadastral map can become another layer and satellite imageries as another layer in a GIS environment.  For documenting the loss, an attribute table with the survey/re-survey number, the building number assigned by LSGDs, the name of the land owner, and other attributes in the department registers have to be entered.   

As an aftermath of the flood, many are have become unsuitable for living. The soil in these regions have become so less quality, that any construction on these areas would bring landslides. So it is essential to classify the flood hit areas as habitable, semi habitable and not habitable based on itscondition and the level of flood affectively.
For this purpose, the satellite images can be used. ISRO can provide the satellite images, or else Satellite imaging companies sell images by licensing them to governments and businesses such as Apple Maps and Google Maps, so government can make use of it Based on the image results, theNon habitable areas should be moved to safer places and fair compensation should be given to them.
By using connected technologies, the Government can accurately and scientifically assess damages occurred to life and property, without themanipulation from any of the stake-holders including politicians and officials. The estimation of losses will be completely scientific and it helps to build a high degree of authenticity. The geo data published in internet would render the whole process transparent; eliminate nepotism by bureaucrats and would serve a model for others.
Kerala has full potential and resources to overcome all its current difficulties. The government and people should work shoulder to shoulder to rebuild Kerala and may Kerala rise up like the Phoenix from the ashes and set an example to the world. 
With these I am concluding my article and thank you for giving me an opportunity.