Early Warning System
We develop visualization tools and GIS-based platforms for decision support.
About the project
Nicamet and Hondumet are meteorological warning systems developed for the Nicaraguan Institute of Territorial Studies (INETER) and the Permanent Contingency Commission of Honduras (COPECO). Both agencies have within their mandates all aspects related to meteorology (observation, prediction and provision of information) in their respective countries. These two systems were financed by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID).
Objectives
Nicamet and Hondumet are based on a GIS platform that allows the visualization and management of meteorological information both in-house (forecasting system developed by FIC) and from any other source, such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) or the European Center for Medium-range Weather Forecast (ECMWF). This allows the meteorological staff of INETER and COPECO to make decisions based on comparisons between different models.
On the other hand, Nicamet and Hondumet can be integrated with other GIS platforms, such as Nicaver. Nicaver is a platform developed by FIC in collaboration with Meteogrid for the visualization and management of elements vulnerable to different hazards (forest fires, lahars, landslides on volcanic slopes or floods) on Ometepe Island (Nicaragua). The combination of Nicamet outputs (weather forecasts) with the vulnerable elements integrated in Nicaver makes it possible to produce dynamic risk maps and generate alerts for the different national and local institutions responsible for disaster preparedness and response.
Other services
Another fundamental utility of Nicamet and Hondumet is to offer specialized services based on weather forecasts to different user profiles, such as bean or honey producers in the case of Nicamet. These types of applications are based on the design of “derived variables” that combine the key moments of the value chain with the expected temperature and precipitation for the next fifteen days. End users of these services can receive alerts in the form of local bulletins generated by the platform (Nicamet and Hondumet) to support their decision making via cell phone, email or any other convenient means.
Funded by
