URA chooses KISTERS for the creation of a Hydrometeorological Information Management System

The Basque Water Agency (URA) has awarded KISTERS with a contract for the creation of a Hydrometeorological Information Management System, connecting hydrological models via the FEWS Platform and Alarm Generation as part the work carried out for the creation of a system for prevention and emergency response in case of flood in the Basque Country (Spain).

The Basque Water Act has created the URA as the central agency for the implementation of water policy in the Basque Country, known as Euskadi in the Basque Language. Amongst other objectives, the URA aims at defining structural and non-structural measures for flood prevention, and for the forecasting of water level changes in case of flood.

Once installed and configured, the WISKI Hydrometeorological Information Management System will allow the following automated tasks:

An automated import of hydro-meteorological data from various monitoring networks in the BAC (Basque Autonomous Community) including measurement stations of the Euskadi Hydro-Meteorological Network (Bureau of Meteorology and Emergency Management of the Basque Government, county councils, hydrographical confederations, concessionaires, etc.), and independent measurement stations.

The generation of alerts and alarms according to various criteria (limits, gradients, etc.), and their distribution in different formats (text message, email, voice message, etc.) to the relevant recipients of each event.

Total, bidirectional integration with the FEWS modelling management platform, to which information will be sent in format, frequency and process specifically adjusted for optimal predictions. Furthermore, predictions will be received as part of the information to be input and processed by the WISKI, thus facilitating recalibration tasks.

Unified management of all information, together with historical data, from the URA databases, as well as the provision of tools for its correct validation, report creation, statistical analysis, etc.

In Spain since 2000, KISTERS is particularly willing to take on this project, as it will be using an approach that has been successfully deployed in many flood control centres worldwide; where the total integration of WISKI with hydrological modelling management platforms (Deltares, DHI, Wallingford, etc.) allows optimal management of information and flood scenarios by decision-makers.