TARANG is a graph neural network that gives the river water level every hour at 1,392 CWC gauges and at 12,239 points in between, about every 5 km along 555 rivers. It fills gaps in the gauge record and forecasts up to 72 hours ahead.
SEEMA turns each water level into a flood-extent map on 20 m terrain, using a diffusion model run 16 times per pixel. Blue shows how likely the land is to be under water: light 25–50%, mid 50–75%, dark above 75%. Grey is permanent water.
Near realtime uses each gauge's latest CWC reading (up to 24 hours old) and TARANG between gauges. Forecast uses TARANG's forecast; at a gauge with a recent CWC reading the forecast starts from that reading and adds TARANG's predicted change. Past events rebuild major floods from the CWC record, with the gauge record, satellite images and news reports for each.
These are model maps. They are checked against gauges and satellite images, but they are not observations.
How accurate is it? Measured, not claimed
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- Water level between gauges (TARANG at gauges it never saw, sealed test 2022–2025): median KGE 0.65 on large rivers (stream order 7+), 0.46 on mid-size, 0.33 on small rivers. KGE 1 is perfect; 0 is no better than the average level. That is why estimated gauges carry a confidence label.
- Flood extent against Sentinel-1 radar, Delhi Yamuna flood July 2023: F1 0.50 (12 Jul) and 0.58 (16 Jul). At the flood peak the maps under-map: about 4 in 10 of the flooded pixels the radar saw are shown.
- Flood extent against Sentinel-1 across India, autumn 2026: being measured.
Known limits
- Flat plains away from floods: in at least one north Bihar area (Bagmati) the map showed about 240 km² as likely flooded where Sentinel-1 saw about 5 km² of water (24 Sep 2026). Water under standing rice is invisible to radar, so part of the gap may be real, but treat light-blue areas on flat plains with caution.
- Straight or round flood edges: SEEMA only models a corridor around rivers (about 2 km wide on each side). Where a wetland is wider, the flood stops at the corridor edge. A fix that widens the corridor was tested on 3 Oct 2026 and rejected: it added mostly false flood.
- Borders: before 2 Oct 2026, 17:00 UTC, a terrain defect drew false floods on hillsides along the Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Pakistan borders (about two thirds of the national flooded area). Maps since then are corrected; older saved maps still show it.
- Gauges without readings: TARANG estimates drift when a gauge has not reported for a day; hollow pins mark them.
- Not an official warning. Use the Central Water Commission and your state disaster management authority for warnings.
