Technology offers alternative to foil floods<\/p>\n
Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Considering that experts say that Jakarta will never be free from
\nflooding, no matter how many canals were built, widened or
\ndeepened, Baginda Patar Sitorus, a cloud-seedling specialist at
\nthe Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology
\n(BPPT), is offering the city "weather modification technology"
\n(TMC) to prevent flooding.<\/p>\n
He claims that the technology can reduce the intensity of
\nrainfall, either by dispersing heavy clouds, stimulating clouds
\nto produce rain before they develop into heavy clouds, or moving
\nclouds to other locations.<\/p>\n
Baginda said that BPPT carried out TMC for the first time last
\nyear, on Feb. 15 through Feb.19, but halted the exercise due to
\ncomplaints and concern from the public.<\/p>\n
"At that time, the public and a number of weather experts
\ndoubted the reliability of TMC. There was also growing concern
\nfrom residents in Sukabumi, West Java, who feared that heavy rain
\nwould pour on their area instead of Jakarta and cause flooding,"
\nBaginda said.<\/p>\n
He added that his TMC team had made some calculations and
\ndeveloped techniques to prevent such misjudgements from
\noccurring. "Suppose we saw heavy clouds forming over Sukabumi, we
\nwould stimulate them to develop into rain before they could do
\nmuch damage, then disperse the clouds that form over Jakarta and
\nmove them elsewhere," he said.<\/p>\n
Besides that, however, TMC is also facing financial problems.<\/p>\n
"The government, at that time, said that the cost of the
\noperation was too high. However, I think it was nothing compared
\nwith the financial losses caused by the floods," he said.<\/p>\n
Baginda said the cost of one hour of TMC operation was about
\nRp 1 million (about US$112) to 1.2 million. Since a one-day
\noperation takes at least six sorties of 80 minutes each, the cost
\nof one day of operating would be at least Rp 8 million. He
\nestimated that the total cost of a 30-day TMC operation would be
\nabout Rp 2 billion.<\/p>\n
"But we could reduce the cost if we had a more reliable
\nweather forecast," he said.<\/p>\n
BPPT and the Department of Geophysics and Meteorology of the
\nBandung Institute of Technology (ITB), meanwhile, introduced the
\nAdaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) forecast method in
\nDecember last year.<\/p>\n
"Our evaluation has shown that the accuracy of ANFIS was 90
\npercent on average," he said. "If we used this method, we
\nwouldn't have to run a TMC operation every day. We could make
\nflights only on days with heavy clouds as forecast by the ANFIS
\nmethod," he said.<\/p>\n
Baginda guarantees that TMC operation will be "highly
\nreliable," as proved, he says, by a report from an independent
\nteam including representatives from the Meteorology and
\nGeophysics Agency (BMG) and the Jakarta city administration.<\/p>\n
"The government stopped our operation due to public concern
\nand also skepticism from some experts, even while evaluation of
\nthe TMC operation last year showed that the rainfall in the five
\ndays that we operated was significantly reduced," he said. He
\nadded that, despite public fears, Sukabumi was not hit by floods.<\/p>\n
TMC could be used either as an alternative technology or to
\ncomplement conventional methods, Baginda said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/technology-offers-alternative-to-foil-floods-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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