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Quarterly Newsletter June 2009

BULA!!! And welcome to the June 2009 edition of the Pacific HYCOS newsletter. We also extend our warm greetings to the new readers.

As a tradition, the Pacific HYCOS team is back with news of the activities of the project in the last three months. Here we have stories of new installations, trainings and advancing databases with GIS.

HYCOS working in the Solomon Islands Contact: Llyod Smith

A 3 week mission to the Solomon Islands has just been complete. Martin Doyle, an experience hydrologist from New Zealand accepted a short contract to help with site establishment and staff training.

Prior to ethnic troubles in the late 1990s, the Solomon Islands had a well run hydrology programme and is fortunate to have well trained and competent staff within the Water Resources Division (WRD). HYCOS provided equipment to re-establish some of the key hydrological sites, and has retrained staff in the use of the latest dataloggers and equipment.

Under the HYCOS programme, one site on the Lungga River had been re-installed last year by Llyod Smith, but has since been broken into and had its equipment stolen - twice. The site has now being re-installed in a more secure location as the Lungga River is a priority catchment, and has a long record from previous times.

During the first week of the mission, site priority was discussed with WRD staff, and training was given to the newer recruits Sam Bata and Jack Kaobata, and to experienced Hydrologist Michael Maehaka. Following this, the first automatic raingauge was installed at Rate School in the Honiara foothills. Raingauges were installed by the trainees at threee secure sites, Tetere Prison complex, Henderson Airport, and a private residence at Mt Austin, close to the Gifu area, a Japanese stronghold during the Second World War.

The war theme followed at the next site, the Rove Stream in Honiara’s Botanical Gardens, where a flow recorder was installed. As the foundations were dug out we unearthed a mortar shell, luckily in an unprimed state. For this installation the team of three was joined by Autu Gilbert, another experienced Hydrologist. It was decided to use a PVC stilling tower in the Rove. A niche was chipped by crowbar out of a coral rock outcrop, the tower put in place with poured concrete and braces bolted to the rock. The photo below shows the completed site.

The final part of the three weeks was spent providing training in gauging techniques, flow calculation, and data archiving.

SuperSting Resistivity Demonstration for USP Contact: Peter Sinclair

SOPAC continues to support the earth science course at University of South Pacific (USP) with guest lectures in Groundwater, Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) and Water Quality. Field practicals are also used to demonstrate concepts.

This year the third year Earth Science students got a hands on demonstration of groundwater survey techniques. This included a demonstration of equipment purchased by Pacific HYCOS to undertake a geophysical survey with electromagnetics and electrical resistivity of a rugby field.

The students were involved in the field setup of equipment, recording of readings and interpretation of results to gain experience with these types of survey techniques which they may use later in their careers. This equipment is routinely used to identify ground conditions and the groundwater potential for wells and bores sites.

The students from Kiribati, Tonga, Solomons, and Fiji gained a useful insight into how to prepare for in field surveys, problem solving, data recording and the analysis and interpretation of field data back at the lab.

The students will finish their studies this year and will return to their countries to look for jobs in Earth Sciences. It is hoped that next time we meet, it will be in the capacity of natural resource management within the Pacific.

GIS for Rainwater Harvesting in Nauru Contact: Edwin Liava’a

In mid June 2009, Mr Edwin Liava’a visited Nauru to undertake further GIS activities as part of the Pacific HYCOS project.

Prior to the visit, Mr Liava’a developed a brochure called ‘Harvesting Nauru’s Heavens” which promoted rainwater harvesting and highlighted the potential of roof catchment areas. These brochures were distributed in Nauru to create awareness on Rainwater Harvesting (RWH). In addition a presentation was done to secondary school students on practical examples of managing fresh water resources as part of their senior school curriculum.

In addition, Mr Liava’a performed ground truthing of the RWH database and updated the corresponding GIS components before he presented the Nauru Rainwater Harvest (RWH) GIS/Database to the Department of Commerce, Industry and Enterprise (CIE) who will now maintain this database. He emphasised the need for water quality monitoring and encouraged the Ministry of Health to take proactive initiatives to reduce the high cases of diarrhoea in Nauru.

A new TB3 raingauge was also installed and basic training on data collection was provided to the CIE staff.

Installations in PNG Progress Contact : Llyod Smith

The Laloki river site at GS1 (Gauging Station 1) was Papua New Guinea’s first Hydrological station. It was installed in the 1950’s and was installed by the Australian Administration to assess the potential for hydro power generation for Port Moresby. Reliable streamflow data was collected until 1996 when Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) staff could not service this and other important stations due to funding reductions. In May, HYCOS, PNG Power and DEC partnered to upgrade the station and a hydrologger water level recorder was installed to collect reliable data from this valuable site.

Later this year, additional 2 streamflow stations and one station at Lake Sirinumuwill be reopened. Lake Sirinumu is a man-made reservoir at the headwaters of the Laloki river and provides the storage for four Rona hydroelectric power stations and for Eda Ranu, provider of Port Moresby’s water supply. Lake Sirinumu all but emptied in the 1997 El Nino event, seriously compromising the delivery of essential services. Following un-seasonal heavy rainfalls it is currently running at 100% level and has recently ceased spilling.

Another forecasted El Nino episode and rapid economic growth and urban development in Port Moresby brought on by a resource sector boom, has made stakeholders realise the need for the collection for hydrological data collection in order to manage their assets, provide essential services and plan for future development options.

Most likely these monitoring will extend to the Goldie and Brown river catchments later in the year. Both rivers have closed sites, which HYCOS proposes to reopen. Measurements from all three catchments, will provide high quality data that can be used for the planning and design of infrastructure necessary to further develop the Port Moresby area and provide sustainable services into the future.

Vanuatu Welcomes Hydrological Monitoring Contact : David Turner

Pacific HYCOS mobilised to Port Vila, Vanuatu at the end of April 2009 to assist the country’s National Hydrological Services install HYCOS supplied rainfall monitoring equipment.

During the visit Hydrological Services (Australia) TB3 tipping bucket raingauges and ML1 dataloggers were installed by Department of Geology, Mines & Water Resources (DGMWR) hydrology staff at 2 sites in Efate in order to collect long term, robust rainfall intensity data.

The ML1 logger is particularly attractive for use in remote locations as it boasts a 10 year internal battery life. Data from the logger can be downloaded in the field using a laptop computer. The logger can also be easily removed from the Tipping Bucket Raingauge and swapped by a relatively inexperienced person. The logger can then be returned to the office for data downloading. Loggers can therefore be delivered to the sites caretakers and returned, avoiding expensive site visits by VMS and Hydrology staff.

The Government of Vanuatu is proactive in implementing rainfall intensity monitoring around the country. There is an understanding of the need for intensity data for all kinds of hydrological analysis, whether for water resources management, engineering design, community risk or climate change monitoring. DGMWR have been monitoring rainfall intensity for many years and have experience in the technologies and procedures involved.

The main driving force behind the Vanuatu Meteorological Service’s rainfall intensity network expansion is the need to verify heavy rainfall forecasts and provide rainfall information on vulnerable areas during ENSO events. With guidance from the Pacific HYCOS Project, they have purchased 10 Tipping Bucket Raingauge and 10 Manual Raingauges which will be installed at strategic locations throughout the country. VMS also has plans to implement real time data retrieval at key sites close to heavy populated areas through the installation of telemetry equipment. It is hoped that the data collected will improve their flood warning capabilities.

Whilst the DGMWR Hydrology Team and VMS operate their own separate rainfall monitoring networks there is a move towards the creation of a national rainfall network and a centralised rainfall database. Such inter-departmental cooperation will be invaluable to Vanuatu’s development; ensuring rainfall data is readily available for analysis and accessible to any interested stakeholder. Currently Vanuatu has a network of 21 rainfall sites and aims to expand this to 60 sites by 2011.

The future of rainfall monitoring in Vanuatu is looking very promising with the expansion of the intensity gauge network. The Pacific HYCOS Project will be available to provide further advice and support to VMS and DGMWR as and when they require it.

Fiji Met – Pacific HYCOS Collaboration Upgrades Nausori Raingauge Contact: Linda Yuen

The Pacific HYCOS project has entered into a partnership with the Fiji Meteorological Services (FMS) to increase the coverage of the Suva area’s rainfall monitoring network by installing an automatic raingauge at the Nausori Airport.

Phase One of the project was completed when Pacific HYCOS funded and installed a TB3 automatic tipping bucket rain gauge with an ML1 mini-data logger at the site in June 2009. While FMS is familiar with the raingauges, the datalogger and the associated downloading software, WinCom Log, is new to the agency.

A technician has been designated by FMS to be responsible for data downloading from the raingauge and has been trained in the use of this software.

The raingauge is hosted by the FMS at their existing weather station at the Nausori Airport and the logger will be downloaded manually on a regular basis before the system upgrade under Phase Two takes place within the next two months.

This collaborative exercise will see the raingauge upgraded to the NEON telemetry system and to the same standard required for inclusion in FMS’ automated rainfall monitoring network across the country. This will allow near real time data to be automatically transmitted back to the FMS office on a scheduled basis and for data to be shared with the Hydrology Division. The NEON datalogger will be able to facilitate further upgrade of the system to a full automatic weather station if this is required by the FMS in the future.

However to maintain common standards across the region, the project has deployed consistent instrumentation to the water resources monitoring agencies in the 14 member countries.

El Niño – Are You Prepared? Contact: Komal Raman

The possibility of an El Niño has been forecasted for the later this year. Meteorologists have found rapid changes in oceanic and atmospheric conditions in the tropical Pacific in recent months from increasing number of computer model predictions, pointing to a substantial likelihood of an El Niño event in the second half of 2009.

In simple terms, El Niño is known to create weather and climatic conditions that are opposite to the usual seasonal patterns. These conditions can be very extreme and cause large floods during the dry months of the year or cause severe droughts during the wet months of the year. El Niño usually occurs every 4 to 5 years intervals.

As nature has it, El Niño cannot be avoided, however each nation can be prepared to overcome the effects of El Niño, especially where water resources are concerned – Is your nation prepared????

HYDROLOGY can help. By monitoring and managing our valued water resources, whether it be groundwater or surface water, we can ensure there is water even in droughts.

Similarly having stream water level monitoring stations, especially telemetered stations, will help to forecast floods and avoid loss of lives and stock.

During such extremes, the governments calculate losses in millions of dollars. Such figures can be reduced significantly by injecting substantially less money in hydrological monitoring. Such steps will greatly aid water management in drought situations by providing data on the minimum water level required to support the water demand. Water conservation measure, storage or switching to other water sources can also be initiated well before the supply reaches critical levels.

We urge the nations to invest in hydrology in order to reduce greater economic losses from the effects of this recurring phenomenon.

“You Can’t Manage What You Don’t Measure”

BRIEFLY….. Contact: Komal Raman

4th Progress Report Submitted to European Union

The Pacific HYCOS 4th Progress Report for the period January to December 2008 was submitted to the donor European Union (EU) in early June. Unlike previous years, the EU agreed that amid year report did not need to be submitted. This allowed the outcomes of the 2nd Pacific HYCOS Steering Committee meeting (July 2008) to be covered in a more comprehensive report.

Activities during the reporting period included recruitment new staff, ongoing mobilisations, and significant ordering and purchasing of equipment for most of the countries in accordance with Country Implementation Plans and based on the respective countries’ capacity to implement HYCOS initiatives.

The Progress Report was forwarded to the focal points and partners for their comments and input before submission to the EU. The Progress Report will soon be available on the Pacific HYCOS website www.pacific-hycos.org for downloading.

Samoa and PNG Staff Undergo Hydrological Training.

In mid May 2009, the Pacific HYCOS Project funded Ms Azarel Matatia from Samoa and Mr Walimu Apaka from PNG to undergo hydrological and database management training with National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research in Christchurch New Zealand.

The training took place over two weeks with one week dedicated to physical and technical hydrology and the other to data management, usage, and storage. They received basic skill training on collection of data, equipment management and maintenance, data collection and storage standards and training in data rescue and TIDEDA database.

Both the participants will now help increase the capacity of their departments by teaching the skills and techniques they learnt to other staff. They will also put in place appropriate standards for data collection and data management to ensure their departments have sustainable and long term data.