Remote sensing company EARS Earth Environment Monitoring in Delft, the Netherlands, has concluded a contract with the Niger Basin Authority (NBA) to develop and implement a Meteosat based water monitoring system and flow forecasting system for the Niger River. The project is carried out in cooperation with the Insitute for Water Education UNESCO-IHE, also in Delft. The project takes almost 4 year and is followed by an operations and maintenance phase of 5 year.
The Energy and Water Balance Monitoring System (EWBMS), developed by EARS, receives every 15 minutes Meteosat visual and thermal infrared images. These are processed in near real time to hemispheric data fields of cloudiness, precipitation, temperature, radiation and evapotranspiration. These data are subsequently used to feed a 3-dimensional rainfall-runoff forecasting system. In this way problems caused by very high or very low discharges can be anticipated and timely action can be taken.
Current hydro-meteorological data collection in the basin is difficult. The Niger basin spans 9 different countries including Nigeria. Data exchange is not always optimal. Measuring instrumentation is expensive in purchase and maintenance. In remote locations parts are demolished and stolen. With the implementation of the Meteosat based system these problems are history. On the roof of the NBA office in Niamey there will be a single Meteosat receiving dish. A computer system coupled to the receiver will process the received information daily to precipitation and actual evapotranspiration maps covering the entire region, as well as to river discharge in the various parts of the basin.
It is not the first time that this innovative satellite based technology is applied. From 2006 to 2009 a similar system was successfully implemented in the Yellow river basin. The system appeared to be very accurate: the discharge of the Upper Reach (120000 km2, over 3000 m altitude) was determined at 1 % accuracy. This was an enormous improvement in an area where only very few ground measurements are available. In West-Africa the conditions are different and the system will be designed, validated and calibrated again.
The EWBMS data collection system can be considered a major breakthrough. In large parts of the world the number of measuring stations on the ground is far from sufficient, hampering economic development. The EWBMS precipitation and evapotranspiration data are available on a 3 km grid, every day and for the entire hemisphere. The historic database covers 32 year. This is not only suitable for the prediction of river discharge, but may also be used in the design of hydraulic structures. Also in the agricultural sector new challenges are addressed. Here, EARS is using its data to develop affordable drought en extreme precipitation index insurance for farmers in Africa and beyond. Using other geostationary meteorological satellites the company may ultimately serve the entire world.
Written by:
Andries Rosema
Director at EARS Earth Environment Monitoring Ltd
