Bolivia hydro-meteorological network

Country

Bolivia

Name of Client

SENAMHI (Servicio Nacional de Meteorologia e Hidrologia)

Financing sources

Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE)

Duration

01/1990 - 01/1993

Project Description

The technical assistance program has been provided for the whole duration of the Contract by a team of expatriated experts based at SENAMHI (Servicio Nacional de Meteorología e Hidrología) National Headquarters in La Paz and by permanent teams of local peripheral offices (at a department level). TA tasks have consisted of consulting services for upgrading the performances of the existing network, its extension to the whole national territory, and management of the retrieved data.

Activities have included:
- inventory of all existing meteorological stations, and diagnostic;
- selection of strategic sites for 30 new automatic stations able to collect and digitize weather observation data (rain, wind, temperature, relative wetness, sunshine, evaporation);
- turn-key design and implementation of new station civil works;
- purchase, import and installation of electronic instrumentation for the 30 modern stations and the 90 traditional ones;
- final sitting map of all meteorological stations covering the national territory.

Data management has included:
- briefing of SENAMHI staff at La Paz headquarters as well as peripheral offices;
- computerized customized applications for data processing;
- program for climate parameters data bank creation at a national level;
- training of national staff for an efficient use and maintenance of the electronic instrumentation in the new stations;
- reorganization of existing data and creation of the corresponding data bank;
- creation of the technical specifications documentation of the data bank and the different customized software applications (retrieval, classification, processing).

In addition to TA and training services, a number of detailed studies have been developed at a national level, i.e.:
- yearly and monthly rains;
- average, maximum and minimum temperatures;
- relative wetness;
- pressure;
- thematic maps;
- water resources map;
- Bolivian siting map of hydro meteorological and meteorological network

Services Description

Technical assistance, supply and installation.