LAC: Operational water management and forecasting
A flood forecaster, reservoir operator or operational manager in the water sector, often needs to make responsible, time critical decisions, in which it is critical to be informed by recent observations and predictions of water related events. For example, they might decide to evacuate people if there is an indication of possible flooding of their households.
Such decisions are becoming increasingly important in Latin America due to:
- the increasing occurrence of weather related extremes such as floods and droughts and the increasing pressure on already stressed water resources, and
- the increasing impacts that these events have.
To support these decisions, most countries in South America are using our Delft-FEWS platform to host a hydrological forecasting system customised to their specific requirements.
For example, in the Yi catchment (Uruguay), the emergency management agency (SINAE) used FEWS to forecast a flood in Durazno city, which provided key information for the local emergency authorities to carry out timely evacuation of people from their households. The environmental authority of the Cauca Valley in Colombia (CVC) employs Delft-FEWS to manage their data and information flows, to make hydrological forecasts, and to take decisions on how to manage their water resources.
At Deltares, we can help you to configure your customised hydrological forecasting system and provide you with training and expert advice.
Examples of our work
Flood forecasting and dam optimisation Salto Grande dam (Uruguay/Argentina)
In this project the inflow forecasting system FEWS-Salto Grande was set up in collaboration between Deltares and the hydrology area of CTM Salto Grande. The system has the main objective of automating and supporting the inflow forecast to the dam with the aim of timely programming the energy production of the hydropower dam and put in practice flood mitigation measures when a flood peak is approaching. Contact person: Jan Talsma.
FEWS- Uruguay (Uruguay)
First steps towards a national flood forecasting system for Uruguay have been made in collaboration with the University and DINAGUA. The national flood forecasting system already includes national hydro-met data from several institutions in the region and flood forecast for two cities (Artigas and Durazno). Contact persons: Jan Talsma and Patricia Trambauer.
Implementation of Navy’s Operational Coastal Forecasting System to Guanabara Bay (Brazil)
Deltares led the design, development and installation of an operational forecasting system for the Brazilian Navy’s major hub: Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro. Contact person: Joao de Lima Rego.
Hydropower optimisation modelling studies for CEMIG (Brazil)
In this project tools for robust decision support in the field of flow forecasting and reservoir management were developed, where flood prevention and hydropower benefits objectives are optimized on a real time basis. A forecasting system and a hydrological database was set up in Delft-FEWS. Contact person: Jan Talsma.
First Delft- FEWS user days in Latin America (LAC)
The event was organized with Itaipu Binacional and took place in November 2019 in Foz do Iguaçu. The event brought together more than 30 experts from different countries and facilitated the interaction of Delft-FEWS users from different areas. The event was attended by hydropower system operators, hydrometeorological agencies, emergency centers, consultants, etc.
