Binh Dinh (VNS/VNA) - Automatic rain gauging stations have beeneffective in forecasting and responding to weather events in central provincesfor the last five years, according to a project review.

Since 2016, the Disaster Prevention Community Fund and the Natural DisasterControl Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development haveinstalled 20 automatic rain gauging stations for early warning of flood andrain in four central provinces of Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Quang Binh and Quang Nam.

The gauging stations have not only provided information to grassroots-leveldisaster prevention agencies but also contributed to making the rainmeasurement monitoring system stronger which helped the meteorological sectorand disaster prevention agencies have more analytical data for prediction andresponse.

From these first achievements, the project has become one of the fund’s annualfunding mobilisation projects to support the community to improve capacity fornatural disaster prevention.

This month, the fund provided 110 more stations for 11 central and CentralHighlands provinces of Quang Tri, Thua Thien-Hue, Quang Nam, Da Nang, Binh Dinh,Phu Yen, Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan, Kon Tum and Dak Nong.

The automatic rain gauging system can provide timely information on rainfall aswell as warnings of excess heavy rain for the communities where the stationsare located.

Local people and commune officials can track rainfall in real-time via softwareon smartphones or computers.

This information not only helped the commune-level disaster prevention steeringcommittees quickly prepare response plans but also people to be proactive toavoid damage from heavy rains and floods.

Rain monitoring data from this system is seen as accurate and timely data inreal-time, as well as compatible with the monitoring system of the nationalhydro-meteorological and the natural disaster prevention agencies.

The automatic rain gauging stations have contributed to building an early rainwarning system at the local level.

Thanks to this system, people, local authorities and natural disasterprevention agencies could easily make decisions in response to heavy rains andfloods.

The data from this system has been currently linked to the data portal of theNational Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control and theVietnam Meteorological and Hydrological Administration, making a contributionto forecasting, warning, and directing the responses to floods and rainsnationwide.

During five years, the fund has mobilised nearly 15 billion VND (690,000 USD)for the project./.