Supporting water managers making effective decisions by using HydroNET

Reichard, A. Lobbrecht, S. Clark, C. Catalano, B. Tate, D. Cox (2014). Hydrology & Water Resources Symposium, Perth, Australia 2014.

Floods caused by excessive rainfall are creating hazardous conditions in many countries around the world. Such hazards are occurring more frequently, and range from local, water-induced damage to flood-generated devastation of whole communities. HydroNET is an open platform where more than 20 universities, knowledge institutes and consultant companies from the water and earth-observation sectors work together. Their goal is to support professionals in the water sector to manage their water systems knowing that the climate is changing and to improve the resilience of the systems in all weather conditions. HydroNET connects the user to all available data sources in real-time (databases, satellites, radars), combines the data and displays them on personal, user-friendly dashboards. The more than 80 HydroNET water applications (waterapps) which have been developed by many partners from different countries enhance insight and understanding of their systems and enable water managers to make effective decisions. In 2010 HydroNET won the innovation grant from the Dutch Ministry of Environment and Infrastructure for its openness and new way of cooperation via the waterapp store. This paper presents details on the HydroNET portal and experiences with the implementation of water, food and climate related applications in the Netherlands.