Author(s): Jose Manuel Llavona Fernandez; Dionisio Ornia Laruelo; Jesus Angel Luengo Garcia; Roberto Vazquez Alvarez; Diego Castanon Martinez; Daniel Ramos Sanchez; Jesus Casado Rodriguez; Rodolfo Espina Valdes; Juan Jose Rodriguez Garcia

Linked Author(s): Jesús Casado Rodríguez, Rodolfo Espina Valdés

Keywords: Field experiments; Hydrological monitoring; Real time data; Cloud services; Flood alerts

Abstract: The Spanish Government fostered since 2001 the creation of a network of hydrometeorological stations, the so-called Automatic Water Information System (AWIS). This data is a powerful tool both for water resources management and monitoring extreme events (floods and droughts), as well as it provides citizens with hydrometeorological information in real time. The development of the network is responsibility of the corresponding water agency. In the case of Northern Spain, the Cantabrian Water Agency (CHC) created its own AWIS in 2009. It offers real-time data on river stage, river discharge, rainfall and temperature collected at control stations. Its main objectives are i) to collect and increase the hydrometeorological information, ii) to manage water resources and optimise their allocation and operation, and iii) to monitor extreme events and prevent and minimise damages. In recent years, CHC has given a new impulse to the AWIS network. On the one hand, former stations have been refurbished. Lymnigraphers have been replace by automatic lymnimeters, and rain gauges and thermometers have been installed in all stations. On the other hand, the network is in constant expansion to areas where an information gap was detected. These new stations follow a low-cost installation and operating concept. They are equipped with a radar stage sensor, a rain gauge, and a thermometer, whereas a weatherproof cabinet houses the data acquisition and transmission systems. In both cases, former and new stations, power is provided either from the electric grid or, in case of remote locations, by solar panels. As a result of this strategy, CHC has unified management and currently has a single network of stations (approximately 100 points). A major shift in the current network are the communication system and data exploitation systems. We employ GPRS and M2M communication SIM cards (which guarantee a connectivity close to 100%) to report data every 5 minutes. This data is stored in a Microsoft SQL database server operating in the cloud. Using the cloud has several advantages: 24/7 availability, accessibility, security, scalability, etc. Apart from all the previous, the data collected in CHC-AWIS is not restricted to its own stations. Since last year we exchange data with other networks from the agency itself, which provides AWIS with data from piezometers (aquifers) and stakeholders, and networks from other institutions such as the Spanish Meteorological Agency and other water agencies. The final target is to collect all the available water data which might be of interest to fulfil the three objectives above mentioned.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3850/IAHR-39WC252171192022269

Year: 2022