Extended Hydrological Prediction (EHP)-Sub-Seasonal Forecast for Water Resources Planning & Management (new initiative taken up in Central Water Commission, DoWR, Rd & GR, Ministry of Jal Shakti)

The Extended Hydrologic Prediction Project is a forecasting system development and deployment project for three major basins of India – Yamuna, Cauvery, and Narmada basins. The forecasts will be produced at four key locations in each basin using a four-week horizon. Forecasts are hydrologic naturalized (deregulated) flows; regulated forecasts will require the addition of an operations model to account for management decisions and interventions. Forecasting streamflow over a multi-week horizon has a range of benefits to improve water resources planning for flood mitigation via reservoir pre-positioning, drought planning for shortage allocation, power maximization, and many other benefits demonstrated globally. EHP is a challenging project from the research side, where there are limited deployed systems across the world at this horizon, which is a chance for EHP to make a significant contribution to the forecasting community, which will bring benefits to the stakeholders of these basins, and will be a model for future similar forecasting systems in India and around the world.