SNIRH: Globally Accessible Water Resources Data

João Ribeiro da Costa, Manuel Lacerda, SNIRH
Ed. UNINOVA, Quinta da Torre, Monte de Caparica 2825, Portugal
jrc@uninova.pt; lacerda@inag.pt

INTRODUCTION

Portugal is the most western country of the European Union. Situated in the Iberian Peninsula, the country has an area of 92,000 km2, it is occupied by a population of about 10 million. With an average yearly rainfall of 910 mm, and average run-off of 700 mm/year (50% of which originates in Spain), Portugal is heavily dependent on Spain for its water resources. Attention to water resources has a long tradition in Portugal, with the first Water Law having been published in 1919. INAG, the Water Institute, is the body responsible for water resources planning and coordination in Portugal, together with the Regional Planning Offices based within Portugal's five main regions.

Following the guidelines of the new EU Water Resources Framework Directive, there is currently a major initiative underway in Portugal to develop the National Water Resources Plan and River Basin Plans for each of the basins in Portugal.

OBJECTIVES

Hydrological data, including both surface and groundwater hydrology, quality and quantity, are the cornerstones of all water resources management activities. With this in mind, the law underlying the creation of the Portuguese Water Resources Institute (INAG), establishes the creation and maintenance of a Water Resources Information System, capable of providing the data and information required for water resources management as one of its responsibilities. In fact, collecting hydrological data and publishing it has been the responsibility of INAG's predecessor institutes since the beginning of the century.

SNIRH (Sistema Nacional de Informação de Recursos Hídricos), is the Portuguese Water Resources Information System. The ultimate goal of SNIRH is to improve the technical performance of INAG, thus contributing to:

To fulfil this goal SNIRH must be capable of:

DATA COLLECTION AND DISSEMINATION

The Portuguese Water Resources Information System, SNIRH, collects data on climate, hydrology (quantity and quality), and groundwater through over 2000 measurement stations, from within ten different networks in the country. It also gathers data related to the day-to-day management tasks of the Institute. A second stage involves the processing and storage of this data by SNIRH in a complex database system. Besides the data collected by INAG, SNIRH stores other data required for water resources planning, namely geographic information including elevation data (Digital Terrain Models, slopes, aspect), hydrographic data (rivers, drainage basins, aquifers), information concerning water use (wells, dams, pipelines), and administrative data. This is used as a framework for analysis.

In a final stage, SNIRH makes this data available to the Institute as a whole and to the outside world, providing the data analysis capabilities required to support hydrological studies and the development of water resources plans.

Aware of the importance of promoting and raising awareness to SNIRH, INAG has produced considerable documentation on the system, organised special sessions and conferences, and undertaken countrywide presentations. Numerous newspaper articles have been published and its usage has quickly spread to universities, eager to access the available data. As confirmation of public interest in the SNIRH-Internet project, the public interface to the system was awarded the Descartes in Prize 1997, the most significant prize for Public Administration Information Technology Projects in Portugal.

USERS AND USER NEEDS

INAG was responsible for the start-up of the SNIRH project. As such, the first group of users belonged to the Institute. INAG makes all data available free of charge, and two concrete initiatives were launched based on the explosive growth in the number of users during the past 6 months. The first initiative was to ensure that all data supporting the River Basin Plans currently being prepared, would be made accessible through SNIRH, thus allowing/compelling consultants to access the system. The second initiative was designating the National Water Plan to draw on the system, both for data, procedures and models.

So, at present, five categories of users may be identified:

  1. Water resource planners, who within INAG and the regional planning offices, access the system through its INTRANET;
  2. Consultants involved in developing water resources plans, who must obtain all their data through the system and provide the results in a format compatible with the system;
  3. University researchers and students looking for reliable data;
  4. EU technicians looking to obtain data on Portugal;
  5. The public in general, looking to obtain information of general interest, ranging from simple climate analysis to water quality along beaches.

PROJECT DEVELOPMENT

The strategy involved the development of an early prototype (after 6 months), followed by full-scale implementation at the national level (within two and a half years). Regional deployment is under current analysis, based on concrete experiences.

The main activities in the project were:

  1. Definition of objectives;
  2. Functional analysis, including a detailed user needs assessment, analysis of the information products needed, the information system and geographic information system, operations required, etc.;
  3. Implementation plan (including specifications, general design, and application specification);
  4. Database, client-server software and INTRANET development;
  5. Procedural development;
  6. INTERNET access development;
  7. Training.

One of the major concerns was the definition and implementation of specific procedures for each of the regular tasks being performed when using the system. For simple cases, like computing rainfall for a given hydrographic basin, the procedure may be totally built into SNIRH. For more complex cases, like validating rainfall stations, the validation steps can be built into SNIRH, however, expert intervention is always required. Precise procedural definition, therefore, becomes an important tool not only for experts but also in terms of staff training, and even for the outside world, especially when consulting companies winning new contracts are issued precise rules and directives rather than having themselves to re-invent the wheel at high cost each and every time.

TECHNICAL ASPECTS

SNIRH was designed as a database server, to continuously receive data from many different sources, and to simultaneously reply to requests from many different clients. INAG selected ORACLE as the database server. The system is installed as a network and includes workstations and PC's, both at the Institute and in the country's regions. The database server concept was taken as far as possible, with the central database storing not only the usual time-series and alphanumeric data, but also complex data, such as images. ORACLE's Binary Large Object (BLOb), was used to support this implementation. The Environmental Systems Research Institute's (ESRI) Spatial Database Engine (SDE) is being used to extend the database server to maps. Appropriate client programs were developed to fulfil the multiple tasks being supported by SNIRH. The following client interface programs currently operate:

  1. SQL command line interface, for low level system administration tasks;
  2. General Purpose Client Interface, used for the measurement network management, database update, and to produce regular data reports, TSF-NetManager;
  3. Water Resources Analysis Client Interface, SNIRH-SER, used to support most studies;
  4. SNIRH System Management Client Interface for internal system management, TSF-MANAGER;
  5. Generic Data Input Client Interface, for time-series data input, TSF-LOADER;
  6. GIS Data Client Interface, to combine time-series with GIS, ArcView-TSF;
  7. WWW Interface, for both INTRANET and INTERNET access, SNIRH-WWW.

SNIRH was tailored to satisfy INAG's existing requirements, however, changes are introduced as these requirements evolve.

The database server is an ALPHA 4000, UNIX, while the web server is an ALPHA 600. The network includes workstations, Win95 PC's and NT Workstations. The basic software includes an Oracle Database Server, Apache Web Server, Arc/Info and ArcView GIS software, and original software developed by Chiron.

EXPERIENCES OF SNIRH

The implementation of a major information system does introduce considerable institutional changes, power-shifts, etc. Upper management support and clear objectives, associated with robust technical competence in information system development, are two crucial items for a successful project. The main difficulty experienced has been funding the support staff with enough database management competence to actually manage on a day-to-day basis a large and complex database system.

As far as offering practical suggestions for other agencies looking to implement similar systems, it is worth recommending:

  1. Clearly define your goals and objectives;
  2. Find the right project director;
  3. Prepare a realistic budget;
  4. Find the correct partnership for system development and implementation;
  5. Give enough attention to training.

TRANSFERABILITY

SNIRH is a general water resources information system, which can be applied to any region. Besides the software, the underlying functional analysis and theoretical concepts enjoy a broad based application in any environmental project. Potential user groups include water resource and environment agencies. INAG is keen on assisting other regions and countries implement SNIRH-like systems. Efforts are under way to implement such a system in Madeira, the Azores and Mozambique.

CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK

INAG was the first public administrative entity to clearly define a data dissemination policy, that was free of charge and comprehensive. This approach has had a major impact on the information society in Portugal. At present, every citizen may access the water resources data collected by the Water Institute on a cost-free basis. Communication with other government institutions is optimised and internal resources at INAG are better allocated. Communication with Europe, namely the European Environmental Agency, is facilitated, as all data is transparently available.

The ongoing planning process aimed toward developing the National Water Resources Plan and the River Basin Plans, is directly associated to SNIRH. SNIRH has become the foundation of the plan and the axis for the development of all planning scenarios. This planning effort is being fully coordinated with the practical implementation of the Water Resources Framework Directive, to guarantee the successful adoption of European Legislation.

As long as the system is in use, SNIRH will be under continuous development. At present, Geographical Analysis and Storage capabilities are being added, namely to check-in and store over 50,000 digital maps being produced as part of the planning effort. New procedures are also being added on a regular basis, to cope with the various areas of responsibility of INAG.

REFERENCES

Costa, J. R., Jesus, H.B., Lacerda, M. (1995) Integrating GIS and time-series analysis for water resources management in Portugal. Paper presented at HYDROGIS 1995.

Costa, J. R.& Lacerda, M. (1995) SNIRH: Sistema nacional de informação de Recursos Hídricos (SNIRH: the Water Resources Information System). INAG Working Papers INAG, Portugal.

Costa, J. R.& Lacerda, M. (1995) The Portuguese Water Resources Information System: using OOP to integrate time series and GIS. Paper presented at the ArcInfo Users Conference 1995.

Cunha, L. V. 1994 - Recursos Hídricos na Europa. In "O Jardim Comum Europeu", Quetzal Editores/FLAD, Lisboa, Portugal.

INAG 1996 - Proceedings of the Special Session SNIRH during the 1996 Water Congress in Lisbon. Portuguese Water Resources Association, APRH, LNEC, Lisboa, Portugal.

Matos, J., Costa, J. R., Sousa, R. (1997) Especificações técnicas para a informação geo-referenciada a ser integrada no SNIRH (Technical specifications for the geographic information to be stored in SNIRH). INAG Working Papers INAG, Portugal.

Sousa, R., Nery, F., Costa, J.R., Oliveira, R. (1997) Especificações técnicas para os metadados no SNIRH (Technical specifications for the geographic metadata in SNIRH). INAG Working Papers INAG, Portugal.

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