SMHI Aqua is an hydrological service operational since March 2020 and developed in the framework of the EU HORIZON 2020 project Clara. The service is addressed to drinking water producers and water managers aiming at supporting decision making process and ensuring a sustainable management of water resources at different time scales. In Sweden, several municipalities and drinking water producers are already using Aqua operationally.
Easy assessment of the current hydrological situation
SMHI Aqua includes a user-friendly web-presentation tool co-developed with the users where real-time observations as well as hydrological and meteorological forecasts are presented in an intuitive way. Information from station observations, modelled hydro-meteorological variables and forecasts at different time scales are provided in maps, diagrams and easily exportable tables.
– The demo allows you to check different data from meteorological and hydrological stations, including precipitation, temperature, discharge, water and sea levels. You can change background map and check the measured data in diagrams and table form. SMHI Aqua is presented in the demo with English and Swedish options but it can be set up in any language of choice, says Carolina Cantone, product manager, SMHI.
Improve preparedness to cope with hydrological risk
Forecasts for water levers and flows are important both in situations where there is a risk of flooding as well as for coping with drought and water shortage. SMHI Aqua includes the setup of a hydrological model and calibration against local data as well as the production of 10-day and seasonal forecasts of water levels and inflow. The model can be fed by different long-term water management strategies in order to evaluate the effect of water extraction on long-term freshwater availability providing valuable insights in both planning of water usage and support in taking actions throughout the year.
-The service is adapted and designed depending on the users’ needs ensuring the usability of the hydrological information on the operational water management framework. If drinking water production comes from surface waterbodies, groundwater reservoirs or desalination plants, forecasts from10-days up to six months can facilitate decisions about when which source should be used and to which extent, concludes Carolina Cantone, product manager, SMHI.
Forecasts can even be connected for activating early warnings that can be alerted via SMS and email to your organization when the selected low/high threshold levels/flows are reached and overcome.
