HydroNET completes control room for all nine South African water management areas
South African Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) recently launched its HydroNET Water Control Room at a festive ceremony in Pretoria.
All nine of the country’s Water Management Areas now have access to the weather and water information they need to make weather‐ready and climate‐smart decisions for sustainably managing precious water resources.
The HydroNET Water Control Room has been developed and delivered by consultancy firm Hydrologic, ICT-firm eLEAF and South African Weather Service.
Official start of the HydroNET Water Control Room by Han Peters (left), Dutch ambassador South Africa, and Trevor Balzer (right), Deputy Director‐General Department of water and sanitation. (Photo credits: Carike Baird).
Dashboards
HydroNET is a web‐based decision‐support system for operational and strategic water management. It combines weather information from the South African Weather Service (SAWS) with water information from the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS).
It also adds models and local knowledge to generate personalised overviews, forecasts and warnings.
This information is available via dashboards and reports.
Weather information
Last week, over 150 South African water managers were trained to optimally benefit from the SAWS information, which is easily accessible via HydroNET.
Information on irrigated water use, water availability, water quality and other relevant data will be connected to HydroNET in the next few months, and more training sessions will be organised.
South Africa's nine water management areas (in different colours) that do not align with provincial boundaries (grey lines).
Every raindrop counts
South Africa suffers from water stress. To efficiently manage the available water resources and reduce climate‐ and weather‐related impacts, water managers need access to historical, current and forecast water and weather information.
As Leanne Reichard, Business Director of HydroNET, comments, ‘I’m extremely proud that over 300 South African and Dutch colleagues have been able to work together to provide South African water managers with a practical solution that supports them before, during and after weather‐ and climate‐related events.’
Reichard continues: ‘I’m pleased to see, for example, that the water auditing application developed in South Africa to monitor irrigated water use is now also going to be implemented in the Netherlands to support Dutch water managers during droughts. This way, Dutch water management will also benefit substantially from our success in South Africa.’
This news item was originally published on the website of HydroNet South Africa.
Photo credits: Hydrologic (top photo), Stats SA (map)
Read also on this website
● New online initiative WaterConnect supports decision-making on water management, 12 December 2018
● Roll out of Hydronet and eLEAF water auditing software across South Africa, 24 August 2018
● WISA2018: South Africa and the Netherlands prologue cooperation in the water sector, 26 June 2018
● Expertise: Water for all and Water for Agrifood.
● Country: South Africa
More information
HydroNET South Africa
South African Weather Service
Centurion, South Africa
+27 12 367 6000
www.hydronet.co.za
Hydrologic
Amersfoort, the Netherlands
+31 33 475 35 35
www.hydrologic.nl
eLEAF
Wageningen, the Netherlands
+31 317 729 000
www.eleaf.com
Video presentation of the online HydroNET Water Control Room that translates terabytes of data into easy to understand online decision-support dashboards.