A real - time flood warning system for the Rio Cobre basin, Jamaica

ABSTRACT

As part of the Flood Plain mapping Project, the Office of Disaster Preparedness and the project's other technical agencies are installing an automated flood warning system in the Rio Cobre basin. The system will consist of automatic recording rainfall and atreamflow gauges designed to transmit data on a real-time basis to a base station equipped with a microcomputer which will decode and analyze the data and issue a warning when a critical rainfall level is reached. Application of advanced hydro-meteorological forecasting techniques is expected to provide timely and reliable warning of impeding flood events. The proposed site of the base station is the Office of the National Meteorological Service, which is to be manned on a 24-hour basis. Installation of this system will be accompanied by a public education programme in the communities at risk in the basin.(AU)