Integrated Flood Early-Warning and Dynamic Evacuation Routing Platform for Rural Districts

Objective: Develop a digital system to provide real-time flood alerts and optimized evacuation routes for at-risk communities in flood-prone Indian districts.

Frequent and severe flooding affects millions in India's low-lying and riverine districts, disrupting lives, damaging property, and causing loss of life, especially among rural and vulnerable populations. Current warning systems are fragmented, often failing to deliver timely, actionable information to local residents and first responders. This problem directly impacts the Ministry of Home Affairs’ disaster management mandate and aligns with SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions) by strengthening public safety and crisis resilience.

The proposed solution is an integrated digital platform that leverages open government flood data, weather forecasts, and real-time sensor feeds to issue hyperlocal flood alerts and recommend dynamically updated evacuation routes. The system will deliver alerts and route guidance via SMS, IVR, and a mobile/web dashboard, accessible to both citizens and local authorities, ensuring inclusion of those without smartphones.

Key features of the prototype include: integration with public weather and river gauge APIs (e.g., IMD, CWC), an AI/ML-based flood-risk model for early detection, GIS-based routing over OpenStreetMap data considering road closures, and a multilingual interface. The deliverable is a working prototype tested in one high-risk district, with simulated or historical flood scenarios and feedback from local stakeholders.

Impact is measured by reduced alert latency, improved evacuation time estimates, and user feedback on accessibility and trust. The solution is scalable for deployment by district disaster management authorities nationwide, with open-source components to enable adaptation to different local needs.