Rivers from our Veins

The Atelier Arth pilot project.

Mission

The Rivers from our Veins initiative, or RiVeins, aims to demonstrate a cross-disciplinary human-centred approach towards flood mitigation, intersecting the arts and space technologies.

It does not aim to prevent floods but instead reduce the negative impact of this annual natural phenomenon.

The motto: “Let’s save not just lives but also livelihoods”.

Brahmaputra by sunrise
(Original artwork @Priyanka Rajkakati, acrylic on card, 2023)

Overview

Assam is a biodiversity heaven in the northeast of India, nourished by the mighty Brahmaputra river, and home to 31.2 million people. It is not only known for its tea plantations, but also as one of the most flood-affected regions on Earth.

The key question: Why does an annual natural phenomenon spell such disaster for people’s lives and livelihoods, and how can we solve this?

The existing solution

There are many innovative technological solutions, such as the FLood Early Warning System (FLEWS). Developed since 2009 by the North Eastern Space Applications Centre (NESAC), FLEWS is an ingenious system that predicts floods and generates location-specific alerts.

Today, FLEWS covers all flood-prone districts of Assam and thus plays an important role in government flood management strategies and actions.

However, while FLEWS is able to generate flood alerts at the district and revenue circle level with an average actionable lead time of 24 to 48 hours, there is a lot of scope for improving its flood prediction success rate (currently 70-80%), and the dissemination of the alerts (currently it depends on the last-mile administrative structure).

Aerial view of a portion of the river Brahmaputra in Assam, highlighting the topographical scale in question. (Credits: Google Maps)

Two hypotheses for this research

The Rivers from our Veins (RiVeins) solution

The Rivers from our Veins initiative, the pilot project for Atelier Arth, would demonstrate the importance of the arts and human-centred design-thinking in bridging the gap between cutting-edge technology and society, and further foster Indo-French collaborations.

Here are the three bricks for the project:

Preliminary Research

ResearchGate: This white paper presents arguments on both the natural as well as anthropogenic factors behind why the floods in Assam cause such largescale devastation. 

It was published during the 73rd International Astronautical Congress in Paris in September 2022, presented during the technical session "Space Assets and Disaster Management".

Displaced communities along the riverbank.
(Source: Field visits, December 2022) 

IAC-22-E5-4-6_FINAL.pdf

Proposed Solution

Through the Rivers from our Veins initiative, a novel community-based flood alert and risk management system will be developed and implemented, using cutting-edge space technologies. 

Complementing the existing FLEWS warning, which would alert the community 1-2 days in advance to start preparing for a potential flood event, this community-based system will be capable of issuing highly reliable evacuation alerts within two hours of an incoming flood.

It will further consist of an efficient community-based preparedness structure, which will use an innovative artistic approach in order to address the sociocultural challenges of the rural end-user mentioned above.

Such a system does not exist today in Assam.

Work package (WP) diagram

The Role of Art and Culture

Any technical solution that is not adapted for the human, emotion-driven end-user is not using its full potential.

It is, therefore, quite important to bridge this gap in a sensitive manner, especially when the user is from the poorest communities, and often lacking any formal education.

A toolkit, infused with cultural narratives, would be developed for the community consisting of standard operating procedures, on how to prepare for a potential flood and even evacuation.

In order to effectively communicate about this novel system, local as well as international artists, e.g., theatre actors, local Ojapali tradition, musicians, dancers and visual artists, would also be brought together to work with the technical team.

This would be vital for externalizing social fears and misconceptions about floods and also bring about a change in thinking within the community.

Still floating
(Original artwork @Priyanka Rajkakati, ink on paper, 2022)


Partners & Advisors

The Rivers from our Veins initiative is blessed to be receiving support from a host of international organisations. It aims to create partnerships, not just within the space ecosystem but also within cultural circles and social impact organizations, towards:


The research team is based out of the Advanced Space Concepts Laboratory (SACLAB) at ISAE-Supaéro.


Get in touch if you would like to support this initiative.

Origin of the name: RiVeins

The profile of any river system looks remarkably similar to our vascular system, consisting of a main channel joined by smaller vessels/ tributaries. 

Thus, just like the wellbeing of our body depends on our blood health, any ecosystem – our human settlements included – needs its nourishing river system to be healthy, which in turn requires that all its subcomponents work together in harmony…

RiVeins
(Original artwork @Priyanka Rajkakati, processed satellite image, 2022)