The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras has enabled a crowdsourcing method to track waterlogging in Chennai through WhatsApp: +1 (415) 523-8886 and the website- chennaiwaterlogging.org to enable the residents to share information and photographs of affected areas, the institute said on Thursday.
The institute, which is collaborating with Greater Chennai Corporation, Public Works Department, and other government departments on the initiative, said this year, the faculty of IIT Madras and its students have enabled the update to be shared in English and Tamil through WhatsApp.
Users or the public could report the flooded location and water depth, as well as add photos of inundated sites with a description across the Chennai region as frequently as possible.
Professor Balaji Narasimhan, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Madras, who leads the team of faculty and students from IIT-M Centre For Innovation in implementing this project, said the initiative is aimed at developing a repository of flooding or waterlogging information from as much extent of the drainage basins of Chennai as possible and as frequently as possible from the same area.
