OUR PROJECTS
Find below a list of projects we are involved.
Gates ARCUS Weather Forecast Verification Project
Delivery of Climate Smart Agricultural Advisory solutions for SSPs. Seasonal forecasts will enhance the value of other investments to extend the range and scope of potential solutions as forecasts are extended from 3 weeks to up to 6 months (sub-seasonal to seasonal forecasts, S2S). As such, new decisions such as predicting what crop or variety to plant in advance of the growing season can be developed. The projected is targeted to establish and support the verification of the accuracy of seasonal and sub-seasonal (S2S) forecasts and inspire continued model method development. Functional S2S forecasts would enable a new level of planning for governments,
agribusinesses and SSPs based not on extrapolations of historical trends but data based predictions of seasonal weather patterns.
Development of digital early warning services against severe weather risk and of multi-hazard contingency plans for climate risk preparedness in Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya and Madagascar.
Within this project we developed tools for weather and climate services in Africa. These were designed to access, analyse and visualize online openly available weather and climate information and combine them with locally available data. The tools were designed with three applications in mind; development of dashboards for weather and climate services, early warning systems and risk assessment. The specific tools were created after a needs assessment with the stakeholders and a co design workshop. In three in-country workshops experts from the national hydromet agencies were trained to work with these tools.
Scripts were all written in python and made available for the national hydromet
organizations through github:
GitHub – HKV-products-services/Tools-for-weather-and-climate-services-in-Africa: Google Earth Engine
TEMBO Africa
Transformative Environmental Monitoring to Boost Observations in Africa (TEMBO Africa) Project. The project aims at building cost effective innovative sensor networks that can be financed by the climate services developed using these sensors.
EPIC Africa
Energy Planning and Modelling through Integrated Assessment of Climate Land Energy Water Nexus in Sub-Saharan Africa. Build innovative CLEWS data observatory and user engagement platforms and provide climate information services for the Climate, Energy, Water and Land sectors.
SAFE4ALL Africa
Harness the EU climate services landscape and leverage it with local knowledge from
African case studies to co-create information and facilitate its uptake at the local to district and regional levels. TAHMO CEO Dr. Ir. Frank Annor is the Co-PI & WP Leader for Innovation of Climate Services which encompasses model input data harmonisation, user-centred agile co-creation loops for services, sub-seasonal impact-based forecasting for foodsheds, Long-term climate projections and impact projections, Data Integration and development of transition pathways.
GIZ Madagascar
TAHMO is collaborating with the Direction Generale de la Meteorologie (DGM) in Madagascar with the support of the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) through the Adaptation of Agricultural Value Chains to Climate Change (PrAda) project. This collaboration is to support DGM to integrate all the surface station data available to them in Madagascar and to put this on the WMO Global Telecommunication System (GTS) to enhance the development of climate services.
Water and Weather Monitoring Services in Ghana’s Cocoa Region
Innovative weather censoring and information services for local farmers. This project co-installed 28 Automatic weather stations (AWS) with Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet) in Ghana which provided weather data to their server; Business development workshops were held to promote entrepreneurship on food security through the use of the weather data; Interviews and focus group discussions were carried out to pinpoint the best business opportunities for weather data in the cocoa belt of Ghana; The specific needs for weather data/information by the populace in the Cocoa belt were identified together with GMet; Senior High School Students and teachers of 28 schools were trained on Water and climate change.
The second year focused on developing information services and providing it to the general public and specific end-users using mobile platforms where Weather and agronomic information were sent to farmers on their mobile phones using sms and voice messaging in local dialects.
Meteorological Early Warning System to Build Resilience to Climate-Induced Shocks
The Trans-African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory (TAHMO) will empower local communities and vulnerable agriculturists across Uganda with an innovative early warning weather system for severe weather across the drought prone Cattle Corridor, the accident prone areas of Lake Victoria, Kyoga, and Wamala, and Uganda’s flash flood prone highlands. Leveraging the prevalence of cell phones across the country, the team will partner with mobile operators and the Ugandan National Meteorological Authority to provide low cost, on-demand access to weather alerts to more than 16 million Ugandan cell phone users and free access to all 8 million Airtel subscribers.
WMO Innovation Hub
TAHMO has received a WMO innovation hub grant to develop an Open-source non-contact river flow observation system using cameras, specifically designed for Africa. This project will be implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Water and Irrigation of the Government of Tanzania (MoWI), the Tanzania Meteorological Agency (TMA), TU Delft, Waterschap Limburg and The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute.
Early Warning 4 Ethiopia
Dire Dawa is a city located in east of Ethiopia and known to frequently experience torrential rain and extreme flooding of the Dechatu River, causing many casualties over past decades. One of the most effective ways of reducing casualties from flooding is implementing flood early warning systems by warning the public
flooding is imminent.
In Africa and Dire Dawa specifically, early warning for urban floods is often ineffective because of three reasons: 1) rainfall forecasts are inaccurate because heavy (convective) rain occurs at short timescales and small spatial resolutions, which current weather models do not capture well and weather radars are not available, 2) urban flood impacts need to be modelled as high spatial resolution, while current flood impact models are computationally intensive which limits their resolution or results in too long computation times and 3) dissemination of forecasts and impact information to the public is lacking as well as translation to early actions, which means it is difficult to effectively warn citizens of flooding.
With this project we aim to demonstrate the implementation of a satellite-based now casting approach with local impact models for urban flood forecasting. When finished, the results of this project will be made available to other flood early warning developments within Ethiopia.
A Landscape Analysis and Pre-Feasibility Study of Urban Nature-Based Solutions to Reduce Flood Risk and Strengthen Resilience in the City of Kigali, Rwanda
WB and the City of Kigali (CoK) collaborate within the RUDP II project to improve urban areas in Kigali including the mitigation of flood effects, upgrading of low-income areas, improving environmental conditions and so on. One of the studies carried out under RUDPII was to analyze the potential positive effects of urban nature-based solutions in Kigali to mitigate floods, but also to enhance social andenvironmental conditions. This study was commissioned by the World Bank to a consortium led by Defacto urbanism and included HKV as subconsultant. The study analysed the flood risk in Kigali, developed a long list of nature-based solutions (NBS), assessed the NBS in terms of effect on the flood risk, but also the effect on other functions such as social, cultural and environmental. The project also in particular looked at future urban and climate developments and proposed a plan on how to address adverse impacts through NBS. A road map towards funding of large scale NBS was also provided by the consultant.
Development of an operational nowcasting product for three cities in the Volta-Region – Urban Flash Flood Forecasting System (UFFFS)
Within the Volta Flood and Drought Management (VFDM) project implemented by the WMO, Volta Basin Authority and Global Water Partnership-West Africa, HKV (WMO partner) was requested to implement a pilot of an Urban Flash Flood Forecasting System
(UFFFS) for three cities in the Volta basin: Bondoukou in Cote d’Ivoire, Tamale in Ghana and Mango in Togo.
The UFFFS is an operational system providing alerts for the three pilot cities based on nowcast of heavy rainfalls in combination with a flood risk assessment on the impacts of extreme rainfalls in the urban environment.
UFFFS makes use of openly available rainfall products provided by the Meteosat satellite and combines the rainfall retrieval with cutting edge technology in nowcasting of precipitation. Next to this, the flood risk assessment is based on open-source data sets and is improved by field surveys of the local drainage system. The final (operational) product of UFFFS is disseminated through the MyDewetra-Voltalarm platform developed by CIMA within the Volta Flood and Drought Management (VFDM) project.
The data product and Delft-FEWS application to run the operational forecasts are developed within a short timeframe of 3 months. Within this time an operational nowcast is developed, a field survey to develop hydraulic models for three cities is conducted, the hydraulic models are developed, and the dissemination was set up.
High Impact Weather Lake System (HIGHWAY)
HIGHWAY is a 4,500,000.00 GBP project under the Weather and Climate and Information Services for Africa (WISER) programme, funded by the UK department for International Development (DFID) which looks to enhance the resilience of African people and economic development to weather and climate related shocks, with an inital focus on the Lake Victoria Basin (LVB).
Design and Supervision FEWS-Accra (Ghana)
The GARID project (Greater Accra Resilience and Integrated Development) under the Ministry of Works and Housing in Ghana commissioned HKV and TAHMO to design and supervise the development of a flood early warning system for the Greater Accra Region (GAR). The resulting system, FEWS Accra, will help to mitigate recurrent and devastating flooding in the Accra region and is part of a larger commitment to mitigate flood risk in the area. The assignment consists of two phases: the first phase includes design of the system, support tendering process and the development of a CONOPS document (concept of operations). The second phase consists of supervision of the FEWS implementation, training, and capacity building. HKV together with its consortium partners and key individual national specialist have a lot of experience in flood disaster management in Ghana and Greater Accra Region more specifically. This expertise was used to:
– Assess the current flood disaster management status in Greater Accra region
– Propose a system for FEWS-Accra that can be implemented under current conditions.
We especially looked at meteorological (including Radar) and hydrological.
Hydrological Forecasting using Publicly available data and free Cloud-based technologies (Mozambique)
The project HydroPC focused on co-development and application of innovative data technologies and comprehensive training of beneficiaries to support water and disaster risk management in Mozambique. A particular objective was to strengthen the technical autonomy of the Unit for Flood and Drought Control (UFDC), hosted within the National Directorate for Water resource Management in Mozambique. A synergetic treatment of official and non-official hydrological data was incorporated in the co-development of a free and open-access online platform that operates in the Google Earth Engine environment. The platform focuses on Mozambique but has included some functionalities that provide data service on a wider regional scale, some even world-wide. A further sub-goal of the project was to facilitate a transition to free open-source software in water and disaster risk management.
Flood Risk Management Information System Yemen
The objective of this project is to develop a Flood Risk Management Information System (Flood RMIS, of FRMIS in short) to support UNESCO’s efforts in addressing flood risks in Yemen. The FRMIS is intended to provide a comprehensive view of the flood risks and support decision-making processes related to flood management, including planning, preparedness, response, and recovery with a focus on Sana’a and Shibam.
FRMIS Yemen is a web-platform which is tailored to the needs of Yemen water managers. Different sections are developed to provide insight in the current situation:
– A Flood risk information section, providing insight in known (and mapped) risks, but also on information for emergency situations, such as known shelters health sights, roads, etc.
– An impact-based forecast section providing insights in the (rainfall) forecasts up to 48 hours ahead based on open source available forecasts.
– A real time insight section, combining local measurements (based on EWS Sana’a
Flood Hazard Assessment Oti River
The study Oti River Flood hazard assessment investigates the scale and severity of flood hazards, the exposures of various assets and communities and assess the effectiveness of structural and non-structural measures to reduce or eliminate flood damages in the future. Hydrological and meteorological data was collected at several institutes that are dealing with floods in Togo and Ghana. In addition, an extensive field survey was organised to collect bathymetry data for the river. This data was used to prepare a transboundary hydrological, hydraulic and inundation model. The model was used to developed flood hazard and risk maps, and was also used in the Early Warning System for the Oti River.
Representatives from these institutes were trained in the different project steps as well.
These multiple day training sessions were organized bi-monthly. In addition to transfer knowledge, an important objective of these session was to create a transboundary community of practice. Therefore, the training sessions were held at the same time and location for experts from Togo as well as Ghana.
Hydro-meteorological data and information dissemination for Saint Lucia
The Government of Saint Lucia (GoSL) has obtained assistance from the World Bank Vulnerability Reduction Project (DVRP) aimed at reducing the country’s vulnerability to natural
hazards. The DVRP aims to reduce the to natural hazards and climate change impacts. This includes various activities related to capacity building for open systems and platforms to create, share, analyse and use disaster risk and hydro-meteorological data and information.
Component two of the DVRP, “Technical Assistance for Improved Assessment and
Application of Disaster and Climate Risk Information in Decision Making”, includes the enhancement of hydro-meteorological service capacity of the main hydro-meteorological service providers in Saint Lucia, the Water Resources Management Agency (WRMA) and the Saint Lucia Meteorological Service (SLMS).
Transforming Weather Water data into value-added Information services for sustainable Growth in Africa (TWIGA)
The objective of TWIGA is to provide currently unavailable geo-information on weather, water and climate for sub-Saharan Africa by enhancing satellite-based geo-data with innovative in situ sensors and developing related information services that answer needs of African stakeholders and the GEOSS community. The concept is a systematic feedback loop to reciprocally validate in situ measurements and satellite data in one integrated model. Over 500 in situ measurement stations using citizen science.
Building on and pushing further recent advances in sensor and communication technology to provide cheaper and more robust in situ measurements covering a wider area at a higher resolution in sub-Saharan Africa. Working with tech-hubs in Europe and Africa to feed the creation and growth of European and African start-ups that develop sensors and geo-services, delivering complete value chains from sensor to customer-ready information delivery. More info can be found on the website of TWIGA.
Schools and Satellites (SaS)
Schools and Satellites (SaS) is a project that aims to better quantify and understand precipitation patterns in Ghana (West Africa). Understanding precipitation patterns is critical for water management anywhere. In West Africa, rain gauges (ground-based measurements) are few and far between. Imagery from satellites (remote sensing measurements) can be used to estimate precipitation and present a potential solution; however, current precipitation estimates from satellites for the region are very inaccurate.
The goal of SaS is to use machine learning to improve these precipitation estimates from satellites; ground-based precipitation measurements from Smartphones4Water will be utilized in training and verification of the machine-learning algorithm developed. Their classic soda bottle rain gauges will be distributed to schools in Ghana, which will record local precipitation data using smartphones. You can learn more about this method of data collection here, and the accuracy of these gauges here.
For more information, please take a look at the pitch presentation that was made to win the grant. The project is granted funding by the Citizen Science and Earth Observation Lab, CSEOL.
The project will take part in the 5 northern regions of Ghana: Upper West, Upper East, North East, Northern and Savannah regions, involving farmers and teachers with their students from Junior High Schools.
The project has started in August 2019 and will continue until we have been able to capture a whole rainy season with many measurement points. This was intended to happen in 2020, but due to the #CoronaCrisis, we will probably continue until the end of 2021.
Ground Truth 2.0
Ground Truth 2.0 builds on the strong existing social structures of citizens. The citizen groups and associations that are involved in the demonstration cases are: local communities closely working with the civil society organisation and consortium partners WWF and TAHMO (Zambia), outdoor enthusiasts and CSO (Sweden), weather enthusiasts and citizen scientists (The Netherlands), farmers, public schools, and outdoor enthusiasts (Spain), associations and members of the public at large who have an interest in safeguarding the quality of their local environment and more, specifically, the Youth and schools (Belgium), conservation organisations and tour operators (Kenya), local and (inter)national NGO’s representing citizens, farmers, schools, health workers, Youths and members of the general public via TAHMO.
Moreover, the Ground Truth 2.0 consortium involves industrial player for mobile apps and system integration and five SMEs that contribute relevant expertise in earth observation technologies and market uptake, hydrologic modelling, data mining of human sensed data and back end services, social media analytics for implicit data sensing by mining social media in a wide range of languages and serious gaming for cooperative planning, web mapping and GIS services as well as limited liability and not-for-profit organisations (knowledge and technology providers) for data collection and visualisation, land-use modelling and remote sensing and mobile data collection, open source software, citizen feedback systems and web tools and low-cost weather stations (TAHMO).
For further information please visit the Ground Truth 2.0 website.
The West African Monsoon: false starts and actionable information (TWAMFSAI)
In West Africa the rainy season regularly has a false start; the rain often falls when the actual rainy season has not yet started. Sometimes the start of the actual rainy season will even kick off a couple of weeks after the first rainfalls. Many farmers plant seeds immediately after the first rainfall in order to maximize their profit in the rainy season. However, if the regular rains are delayed, they suffer a lot of damage and need to replant their seeds (sometimes they have to replant their seeds up to 3x). While this happens in various countries in West Africa, this project focuses specifically on Ghana. In West Africa, the real rainy season coincides with a northward jump of the Inter –Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). With simulations, fed by ground and satellite observations, it is possible to accurately determine whether the ITCZ has indeed shifted and thus whether the actual rainy season has started. Such information has a lot of value for farmers since this can reduce a significant amount of extra costs. TAHMO, a Dutch social enterprise, can by means of innovative TAHMO weather stations and satellite data, identify the ITCZ and therefore supply valuable information to farmers. While it is certain that such services are of high value it is less certain how these services can commercially be viable for TAHMO and partners. This study has the aim to identify the market opportunities and financial feasibility for this service in Ghana.
Information services for Rwandan Potato Farmers (ISRPF)
Rwanda is a country, in sub-Saharan Africa, with a surface area equal to about half of the Netherlands and a population of about 12 million people. With an ever increasing population growth, the demand for food is increasing while the amount of available land is becoming scarcer. Thus creating a need for the existing agricultural practices to become more efficient. The current state is that Rwandan farmers do not have access to information that will encourage them to make smarter decisions. This project focuses on delivering required information services to the farmers that in order to reduce one of the most important risks with regards to food security in Rwanda: late blight (disease for potatoes and tomatoes). TAHMO has received this feasibility study to discover if such services are commercially viable.
Global Resilience Partnership
The Global Resilience Partnership is exploring, prototyping and scaling innovative resilience solutions, experimenting on the edge of the possible, pioneering deals, convening and encouraging collaboration between new partners and traditional agencies – to provide mass to achieve impact at scale. The organisation plans to help millions of vulnerable people in the Sahel, the Horn of Africa and South East Asia better adapt to shocks and chronic stresses and thrive in a more resilient future.
Weather Underground (IBM) funds over 300 TAHMO stations in Africa
IBM, through Weather Underground, has supplied funding to add more than 300 TAHMO micro-weather stations across Kenya, Nigeria and various other African nations. The stations are placed in a strategic location to serve a historically under-served community with real-time, accurate weather data. Potential results of the installations include helping improve irrigation and agricultural resource management as well as providing unique climate insights for the aviation, power, insurance, and various service-related industries.