Data Management System

Transmission of data from hydrometric stations to data management centers at hydrological services agencies in individual countries is a core element of network operation and management. Loss of data transmission is one of the principal factors in unsustainable hydromet systems, and non-payment of cellular data charges in GPRS telemetry systems is the principal cause of transmission loss. To avoid this weakness, the project deployed dual telemetry systems including GPRS, which is familiar to hydrological services in Africa, as well as satellite telemetry using Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) communications to provide robust telemetry using low profile, low power antennas and transmitters. Satellite telemetry has been configured and demonstrated in each country. The member countries that cannot adopt satellite telemetry for policy reasons have the flexibility to opt to use the GPRS transmitters only.

Effective Data Management Systems (DMS) are essential, as an integral to the way in which countries provide hydrological services, including generation of information products. In collaboration with the member states’ national hydrological team, NBI procured and deployed a comprehensive DMS that include cost-effective cloud-based data hosting services for each country that opts for this and support the setup and configuration of the system. The DMS centers have upgraded and configured the hydromet system in seven Nile countries’ hydrological service agencies and provided the necessary capacity building to the member states on the DMS configuration and management. In addition, NBI continues to support the configuration of the existing systems, with a focus on meeting the regional objectives for information sharing. The DMS is complemented with web-service for data visualization, analysis and visualization.