In Kerala village, ‘living lab’ provides local weather forecast, landslide alert

The living lab approach is an ecosystem that integrates real-world settings with research and innovation to create and test solutions. First developed in the Netherlands, the approach is marked by the involvement of several stakeholders — including government, experts, private agencies and civic society — to find real-world solutions.

For the village, which saw three people being killed and 36 hectares of farmland being destroyed in a series of landslides in 2022, this has come as a relief.

“Every day, we get data on rains and wind from an automatic weather station installed at the village,” 55-year-old Anil says. “When there’s heavy rain, there are frequent alerts and updates about the situation.”

The village currently has one automatic weather station to provide local weather data in the landslide-prone panchayat, with authorities now planning a dozen more in the panchayat’s 13 wards.

Another highlight is that the panchayat will have an early landslide warning system installed by IIT-Roorkee.

An automatic weather station installed to provide local weather data in the landslide-prone area. (Express Photo)

This is the only place in Kerala where KSDMA has opened a resilience centre and appointed a resilience officer, who is engaged in strengthening the disaster preparedness and social resilience of the people. The panchayat has made ready a 60-member emergency response team, with each person given a specific task.

This is the first time in the country that the concept is being implemented with landslide as the focal theme. “The Netherlands was first to use the living lab approach to find solutions for urban issues. The concept is new in India, and Kerala is the first to take landslides as a theme for this approach,” SDMA member secretary Sekhar Kuriakose says.

After the landslides of 2022, KSDMA conducted investigations in the region at the request of the panchayat. Subsequently, the government directed the KSDMA to set up a living lab.

“Developing a living lab in a hilly region has figured in the 14th five-year plan (2022-27) on disaster management,” the SDMA member secretary says. “Local people’s engagement is very important in disaster preparedness since it’s a win-win for both them and us. They get the service of experts on disaster preparedness and climate while policy makers come to know the reality on the ground…Weather is only one part of this approach — and what’s most important is disaster risk reduction,” he said.

The focus, according to the panchayat’s Resilience Officer Nithin, is “disaster preparedness and response”. For this, various sections – from school students to hospitals – have been given disaster response training.

“Apart from the emergency response team, we have trained 60 school students on disaster response with focus on landslides. They have been made aware of how to respond to a warning, take part in rescue etc. All hospitals, schools and tribal settlements have their own disaster management plan. Everyone in the response team has been made aware of what each one of them should do,” he says.

All the households are provided with a link to collect the weather data — mainly on rainfall, speed of the wind and temperature. People who check the data share the information with others through ward-level WhatsApp groups.

The living lab approach has made the people familiar with standard operating procedures, emergency support system, exit routes, along with vulnerabilities. Hyper localisation means that alerts – and responses – are tailored to suit the needs of the place.

“Until the automatic weather station came up here, we did not get the real picture of the rainfall in the region due to regional variation in the climate. The station provides what actually happens in our own village’s climate,” says panchayat president Antony Sebastian.

He adds: “In the past, alerts were based on weather data in faraway stations. Now, we are going to install 12 more such stations (in all wards of the panchayat) to ensure every area gets its micro-weather conditions and make the data more hyper. The upkeep of such stations will be handed over to people residing nearby thus increasing their participation in disaster management”.

A ‘heat action’ plan – aimed at issuing advisories during heat waves — is also in the pipeline. The panchayat will also soon have an early landslide warning system. Developed by IIT-Roorkee in association with the CSIR-Central Building Research Institute (Roorkee) and slated to be installed next month, the system will have indigenously developed sensors to gather input from the ground and an Artificial Intelligence/Machine Language model for the landslide early warning system.

The living lab has made lives easier, says village resident Shojet C.

“People are alerted about the real time situation. In the past, many families had to move out of the hills during the monsoon. This time, they had confidence about the local weather alert about the emerging scenario,” he says.