SNIRH
(Sistema nacional de Informacio de Recursos Hidricos)

Keywords:environmental information system, water resources
Application site: Lisbon, P
Internet: http://www.inag.pt

Context
With an average yearly rainfall of 910 mm, and average run-off of 700 mm/year, Portugal is heavily dependent on Spain for its water resources (50% of which originates in Spain). 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 organization 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, a major Portuguese initiative is underway to develop a National Water Resources Plan and River Basin Plans for each of the basins in Portugal.

Hydrological data, including both surface and groundwater hydrology, quality and quantity, are the cornerstones of all water resources management activities. The Portuguese Water Resources Institute (INAG) has promoted the creation and maintenance of a Water Resources Information System, capable of providing the data and information required for water resources management. Such a strategy of collecting and publishing hydrological data has been under the responsibility of INAG's previous institutes since the beginning of the century.

The first attempt to move from a file based system to an organised database has been created in 1990, with the prototype version of SNIRH, the Water Resources Information System. After the reorganisation of INAG the project was resumed and it was decided to move from the prototype stage to a fully working Information System, capable of handling requests from many different users, in a network environment.

Objectives
The main objective of the system is to help in the updating of water resources management in Portugal and to promote new working procedures in the Portuguese Water Institute. At present there is a major effort in Portugal aimed at developing the National Water Resources Plan and the Basin Plans for each of the river basins, following the guidelines of the new Water Resources Framework Directive. SNIRH is the support for these studies, both in terms of data storage, data delivery and model integration. INAG was the first public administration entity in Portugal to define clearly a data dissemination policy, which is free of charge and complete, by means of SNIRH.

Results
The first step of the Portuguese Water Resources Information System, SNIRH, started in the field, collecting data on climate, hydrology and ground-water in over 2000 measurement stations, in ten different networks in the country, and gathering data from day-to-day management tasks of the Institute. Then SNIRH processes and stores these data in a complex database system. SNIRH stores also other data required for water resources planning, namely geographic data, like elevation data (DTM, slopes, aspect), hydrographic data (rivers, drainage basins, aquifers), water uses data (wells, dams, pipelines) and administrative data which is used as a framework for analysis.

The Information System SNIRH makes the data available to the entire Institute and to other users outside INAG, providing data analysis capabilities required to support hydrological studies and to develop water resources plans.

SNIRH is capable of storing, processing and displaying water resources information, both inside INAG, based on the SNIRH INTRANET, and to external users, namely consultants, other government agencies and research institutions, through the SNIRH INTERNET (www.inag.pt/snirh).

Aware of the importance of establishing and documenting procedures, INAG has produced considerable documentation on the system, organised special sessions in Congresses and promoted countrywide presentations.

Technical characteristics
SNIRH has been designed as a database server, continuously receiving data from many different sources, and simultaneously replying to requests from many different clients. INAG has selected ORACLE as the database server. The system is installed in a network including workstations and PC's, both at the Institute and in the 5 regions around the country. The database server includes functionalities such as the collection of the usual data, mostly time-series and alphanumeric, as well as complex data like images. ORACLE' s Binary Large Object, BLOb, was used to support this implementation. ESRI SDE is being used to extend the database server to the maps as well. Appropriate client programmes were developed to fulil the multiple tasks to be supported by SNIRH.

The following client interface programmes are currently operating:

Specification of equipment used: Hardware/software requirements: Transferability
SNIRH is a general water resources environmental information system, which can be applied in any region. Besides the software the underlying functional analysis and theoretical concepts have a wide application in many environmental projects, water resource and environmental agencies and other groups have a potential interest in the project. Most of the software and principles are easily applicable in water resources or environment agencies. INAG is keen to help other regions and countries to implement SNIRH-like systems. Efforts are under way to implement it in Madeira, the Azores and Mozambique. The software costs are the only costs for transferring the application and only the data is specific for the application. A number of implementations has already been carried out in consulting companies, which use the system for planning purposes.

 
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