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A low cost mobile weather station made in Sri Lanka can capture and transmit near real-time data on rainfall. It raises alarm in the event of extreme rainfall and other natural disasters, which can help farmers, disaster management officials and the scientists plan ahead. The device, costing US $250, is made primarily from locally sourced materials.
Floods, the most common and hazardous natural event in Sri Lanka, are mainly caused by excessive rainfall received during monsoons resulting from development of low-pressure systems in the Bay of Bengal. From 2004 to 2014, Sri Lanka faced 23 flood occurrences with over 500 lives being lost and 9 million people affected. These floods caused an economic loss of USD 1 billion, reveals data available with International Water Management Institute (IWMI).
With a large number of people being affected by floods every year, weather monitoring is a critical factor for Sri Lanka’s disaster management plan.
Build your own mobile weather station
Designed by IWMI scientist Yann Chemin, this open-source product will be made available online for anyone to use. The designs are in the open domain because Chemin wants people to build their own weather stations and share improvements or refinements.
We are currently experimenting with low cost Open Design, Open Source Hardware and Open Source Software integrative solutions for weather monitoring Chemin told Down To Earth (DTE). “What is essential is the ‘community of learning’ that we have created by making these designs open-source,” says the scientist.
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IWMI innovation Vs WMO certified device |
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Mobile weather station |
WMO certified weather monitoring device |
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Costs US$250 only |
Costs US $10,000 per station |
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Lacks the very high level of accuracy required for official WMO certification |
Very accurate |
Made-in-Sri Lanka, for-Sri Lanka
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Making available climate data in the public domain through this initiative is a significant step forward in meteorological monitoring, says Chemin.
It should drive the discussions and debate on climate impacts, adaptation, especially in South Asia and Africa. Isn’t this a message that deserves to be on the agenda of global climate negotiations, especially the Paris Climate Conference (COP 21) scheduled to be held in December 2015?