Written by Amritraj Lamba
The images of the flooded roads, flooded sewers in Indian cities, as well as the catastrophic flood or sewage disasters that impact so many people, all prompted me to create two very inexpensive systems that can save lives. FloodShield, an AI based network for predicting flash floods, and SewageSuraksha, a gas sensor based sewage system cover. Within two years I was able to create these products by utilising very basic electronic components and field-testing these products using open source software and field-testing. The hardware consisted of basic camera modules, microcontroller and gas sensors and I created these products in a manner that city authorities can integrate into their existing infrastructure. Together both of these products address two major urban risks: the flooding that restricts the movement of people and the risk to sanitation workers who are not able to see the toxic gases that are present in sewage.
The increase in extreme weather events, such as heavy rain and flash flooding, in most of Northern India, demonstrates the growing reality of these storm related hazards and how they are potential to cause the death of thousands of individuals, especially those who do not have access to timely assistance. With the need to manage these risks, many urban cities are looking for technology based solutions to mitigate these risks and assist with the management of urban flooding. With FloodShield, a cost effective Urban Flood Monitoring System, I am looking for a way to assist India in providing its citizens with the capability to detect extreme weather conditions. In my opinion the most significant benefit of using this type of technology will be that it will allow emergency responders to quickly identify potential flash flood locations and communicate those areas much more quickly than they are currently able to do.FloodShield employs compact computer systems in conjunction with cameras located on traffic lights or on the poles of the street, to gather enough data to provide an indication of potential flooding. FloodShield uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to assess the shape and quantity of the water in each frame of the video stream and these assessments are then assigned a simple severity score, based on research into urban flood trends across the country, to generate a cloud-based web map of known flood-prone areas in real time.
In practice, this type of predictive flood detection will allow Traffic Enforcement Officers to recognize high-risk locations much sooner than they do today, and reroute traffic using far less disruption and inconvenience to drivers, before the alternate routes have been cut off or significantly degraded by floodwaters.
FloodShield also provides immediate guidance to direct traffic pumps and emergency personnel, to precisely the locations of the greatest need. Over time, by increasing the volume of historical weather-related flood data collected from the video footage and utilizing it to develop predictive flood models for urban areas, FloodShield will be able to assist municipalities in enhancing the design and operation of urban drainage systems and roadways.
Because the infrastructure is affordable and designed to integrate with current systems, the technology is well suited not only to metropolitan cities but also to Tier 2 and Tier 3 urban regions that have fewer resources yet face the same flood-monitoring problems. NDMA has recognised this approach as a scalable example of technology-driven flood monitoring that can be integrated into city control centres and smart-city platforms.
While floods are visible to urban populations, I also became aware that many citizens—especially sanitation workers—are exposed to hazardous sewage gases that are difficult to detect. When workers enter sewage manholes, they may face high levels of hydrogen sulphide, methane, ammonia, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, often without warning and with little or no personal protective equipment (PPE).
In response, I created SewageSuraksha, a retrofit sewage lid gas detection system that notifies manhole workers of dangerous gasses before they enter a manhole. The retrofit lid features several different gas sensors that work together to continuously monitor the air inside the manhole, and LED indicators that visually alert manhole workers to unsafe levels of gasses when they exceed the allowable level of exposure. They can quickly and easily determine the safety of a manhole by checking the colour of the indicators instead of relying on smell or prior experience.
I designed the electronics to be housed in a rugged enclosure that can attach to existing manhole lids, allowing the system to be retrofitted onto existing infrastructure without requiring the entire manhole to be replaced. When I reviewed field testing results from 17 sewers, the data indicate that multiple manholes would have been deadly for workers if they had entered the manhole based solely on surface observation because of the high level of invisible dangerous gasses within the manhole. Using field-testing results and conservative modelling, NDMA has determined that installing SewageSuraksha lids could save the lives of an estimated 40 sanitation workers every year, and would significantly reduce the incidence of chronic respiratory disease among hundreds of thousands of workers when coupled with appropriate training, PPE and standard operating procedures (SOPs).
NDMA views SewageSuraksha as a cost-effective and quickly delivered approach to achieve national safety and disaster management objectives. To me, both FloodShield and SewageSuraksha are based on the same philosophy: to provide affordable, modular, retrofit hardware components that can be easily added onto existing infrastructure and convert the raw data generated by the sensor into usable, real-time alerts that can easily be acted upon by city officials and frontline responders.
With NDMA’s support and the potential for partnerships between state disaster management authorities and local municipalities, I believe both technologies represent a tangible opportunity to reduce flood risk in urban areas, protect sanitation workers from dangerous gases, and help create more resilient, data-driven Indian cities.
About the author:
Amritraj Lamba is a student at Heritage International Xperiential School, Gurgaon, and the innovator behind FloodShield and SewageSuraksha, two low-cost, technology-driven systems addressing urban flood risks and sanitation worker safety. His work focuses on integrating AI and sensor-based solutions into existing city infrastructure to build safer, more resilient Indian cities.