Search

The increased seismic activity observed in the Himalayas, coupled with the expanding urbanization of the surrounding areas in northern India, poses significant risks to both human lives and property. Developing an earthquake early warning system in the region could help in alleviating these risks, especially benefiting cities and towns in mountainous and foothill regions close to potential earthquake epicenters. To address this concern, the government and the science and engineering community collaborated to establish the Uttarakhand State Earthquake Early Warning System (UEEWS). The government of Uttarakhand successfully launched this full-fledged operational system to the public on 4 August 2021. The UEEWS includes an array of 170 accelerometers installed in the seismogenic areas of the Uttarakhand. Ground motion data from these sensors are transmitted to the central server through the dedicated private telecommunication network 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This system is designed to issue warnings for moderate to high-magnitude earthquakes via a mobile app freely available for smartphone users and by blowing sirens units installed in the buildings earmarked by the government. The UEEWS has successfully issued alerts for light earthquakes that have occurred in the instrumented region and warnings for moderate earthquakes that have triggered in the vicinity of the instrumented area. This paper provides an overview of the design of the UEEWS, details of instrumentation, adaptation of attributes and their relation to earthquake parameters, operational flow of the system, and information about dissemination of warnings to the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smartphones are one of the most affordable and familiar devices available to people that are used for many scientific applications. Thus, implementing a dedicated mobile app for earthquake early warning (EEW) systems is one of the best options to save money and time to achieve dissemination of earthquake warnings to the public at large. This paper describes the development of a Warning Dissemination System comprising field sirens and mobile apps and presents details of developing a smartphone app for Android and iOS operating systems. The app is designed for the EEW system currently operational in the Northwest Himalayan State of Uttarakhand in India. The app named "Uttarakhand Bhookamp Alert" is freely available on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store and has already been downloaded more than 10,000 times. This app uses Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) service for sending earthquake early warnings to the users. The user's basic information and FCM token are saved at the warning server in a database during the user registration process. The information will be shared with the disaster response authorities after a damaging earthquake to rescue affected users requiring help. This app also provides online earthquake safety recommendations and guidance, including how to prepare yourself, find a safe hiding place, and do's and don'ts during an earthquake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Part of North-Western Himalaya particularly Uttarakhand has been identified by several eminent seismologists as gap area where large size earthquake (greater than magnitude 7) is expected. The region has witnessed two earthquakes having a magnitude greater than 6 in last 25 years (March 28, 1999 Chamoli earthquake and October 20, 1991 Uttarkashi earthquake) both having an epicenter in Gharwal region of Uttarakhand. Several studies have shown that a future large earthquake in central Himalayas can generate severe ground motion in the National capital region of Delhi, which is about 300 km from this expected source. Several densely populated cities and villages having total population of several millions are located between Delhi and Uttarakhand. These towns/cities will be severely affected by a large earthquake having an epicenter in this region. Using advancements in communication technology and real-time seismology, a project to have an earthquake early warning system for Northern India is under progress at Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. In this project, a dense network of 84 accelerometers has been installed covering an area of about 100 × 40 km in Garhwal region. This network has an average station to station distance of less than 10 km and all the sensors are streaming data, which is being processed in real time at central server stationed at Roorkee. This paper describes details of the network, sensors, present status of development, performance of instrumentation during recent events, and processing details. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]