The tragedy caused by the 26 January 2001 Mw 7.8 earthquake marked a turning point in the disaster awareness and preparedness in the state of Gujarat, northwest India. In a short time span after the disaster an institute fully dedicated to seismological research was perceived to enable sustaining accelerated development. To fulfill this requirement, the Government of Gujarat approved the establishment of the Institute of Seismological Research (ISR) in the year 2003 which later in 2006 was turned as a centre of excellence in modern seismological research. The ISR is unique in India being the only institute fully dedicated to Earthquake studies. The vision of the institute is to understand the science of earthquake occurrences in intraplate and other regions and use this knowledge to save lives and minimize damage due to earthquakes.
Earthquake monitoring in Gujarat is carried out by a dense network of 60 broadband seismographs that are connected through VSAT (online) which can detect earthquakes down to magnitude 2 occurring anywhere in the state or magnitude 4.5 anywhere in the world. This network is the densest in India. Earthquake parameters such as epicenter, magnitude and the affected areas with different intensities (damage potential) are informed within minutes through an auto-location program.
ISR has bagged the National e-Governance Award-Gold for the year 2013-14, under a new category of ‘Outstanding e-Governance Initiatives by Academic and Research Institutions’ on “Effective Seismological Monitoring Through e-Governance to Save Lives and Damage due to Earthquakes”. Through online functionality and auto location the earthquake parameters are disseminated within minutes to state authorities, disaster management team through both email and SMS. The quick availability of earthquake information as well as potential damage map and shake map increase the ability and efficiency of decision makers and significantly reduces the time delay in start of the relief work. The reliable and immediate reports are also provided to the media to allay the anxiety/fear among the people.
To increase the visibility and provide quick information to the general public, ISR has initiated for the development of a Mobile Application name “QuakeInfo” that can be easily downloaded and installed in any IOS mobile. The basic aspect of this App is to provide Earthquake location its magnitude in both tabulated as well as graphically on a Map. The App provides options for the user to choose the earthquake location notification based on user specified options such as Location, Magnitude and Time, etc. Further, it provides an option for the users to connect to us by an option “I Felt This Earthquake”, where the user can send pictures and videos.