In order to handle water buildup during heavy rain, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has established a Joint Flood Management Room to oversee reaction plans, assign teams, and allocate resources. This has already improved reaction and recovery times by 36% as a result of quicker decision-making about the deployment of teams and resources.
In November of last year, heavy rains caused key highways in the emirate to flood, especially in low-lying regions, resulting in delays of up to six hours. Numerous cars had also sustained damage from rainfall pools and roadways covered with water. Rainfall has historically caused serious traffic problems in the nation, particularly for people who drive between emirates.
RTA is collaborating with the National Centre of Meteorology (NCM) to enhance the data collection process for weather forecasts. As a result, the appropriate personnel will be better equipped to deal with water accumulations during periods of intense rain and quickly notify the public.
In order to create a thorough reaction strategy to address weather changes, the authority has also assembled a committee of members from other groups. In order to increase reaction efficacy and recovery times for water accumulations from heavy rain on main roadways around Dubai, a number of technologies have been used.
- Heat map (GIS map) will show where water is accumulating as well as the locations of pump sites and resources that are owned by involved parties.
- On the city's main roads, a video wall screen that shows live footage from 450 security cameras covering 91% of the identified sites with rainwater ponds will be installed.
- The CITADEL communication platform is intended to furnish supervisory and field teams with up-to-date information on the progress of ongoing activities.
- The control centre will be connected to a Mobile Command Vehicle (MCV) that is outfitted with surveillance cameras that may be aimed to cover regions that are not under surveillance camera observation.
The Joint Flood Management Room, housed at the Enterprise Command and Control Centre (EC3), one of the biggest and most advanced control centres, will be run in conjunction with partners such as the Mohammed Bin Rashid Housing Establishment, Dubai Municipality, Dubai Police General Headquarters, and representatives from major development areas.
