India’s First Weather Hazard and Vulnerability Atlas: IMD

Context: Recently, India Meteorological Department (IMD) developed India’s first climate hazards and vulnerability atlas.

About the Atlas

• Developed by: Climate Research and Services (CRS) office, India Meteorological Department (IMD), Pune.
• It is based on 14 extreme weather events and the risks they pose to the local population, livelihoods and economy of each district.
• There are 640 climate vulnerability maps in the atlas.

Uses

• It will act as a reference for impact-based warnings that IMD issue for various regions.
• The atlas will inform about the impact of certain extreme weather events in their region.
• It can be used to plan climate-resilient infrastructure.
• The atlas will provide crucial information on what kind of disasters are probable, during construction in a coastal area.

India Meteorological Department (IMD)

• IMD was established in 1875
• It is the nodal agency under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) for the weather-related services in the country.
• Headquarters: New Delhi.
• IMD is one of the six regional specialized meteorological centres of the World Meteorological Organisation.
• It forecast tropical cyclones in the Northern Indian Ocean region, including the Malacca Strait, Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf.

Major Activities

• Provide current weather and meteorological information for optimum operation of weather sensitive activities like agriculture, irrigation, shipping aviation, off-shore oil exploration etc.
• Warn against severe weather phenomena which affects life and property.
• To conduct and promote research in meteorology and allied disciplines
• Archive meteorological information for use in various activities.
• Detect and locate earthquakes and evaluate seismicity in different parts of country for development projects.