A flood warning system, built to mitigate rain related suffering of Chennaites will be put to test during the upcoming monsoon season in the city. The Chennai Flood Early Warning System (CFLOWS) has been built to predict flood inundation scenarios for Chennai, based on a hydrodynamic model with help of forecast and observed rainfall, reservoir and river levels and other parameters from various agencies. The system has been developed by National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR), IIT-Mumbai, IIT-Madras and Institute of Remote Sensing-Anna University.

The system can predict locations at risk of flooding and depth of flooding based on the best forecast products of India Meteorological Department and National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, reported the New Indian Express.

CFLOWS will be issuing the alert 5 days in advance and this will be communicated to communicated to the revenue officials through TNSMART, an application for flood mitigation measures yet to be launched.