Pagasa, Smart partner in rainfall data transmission

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) has joined forces with Smart Communications to automatically transmit rainfall data by mobile phone.

Ramon Isberto, Smart public affairs head, told participants of the disaster reduction seminar last Tuesday at the SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City that the automated rain gauge technology is part of the disaster management program being implemented by the government and the private sector.

The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) and SM organized the seminar.

Isberto said the automated rain gauges (ARGs) are capable of machine-to-machine communications.

The weather bureau has completed the installation of all these ARGs in Smart’s cell sites located strategically in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.

Smart is helping empower local officials and residents through a communication solution useful for efficient information dissemination in the most crucial times.

Smart offers the Infoboard solution where local government officials and the disaster risk reduction and management council could quickly send and receive official bulletins and situation reports via SMS.

The network service is ready to power these machines so PAGASA could access and retrieve crucial information anytime. The rain gauges should be connected to the network even if the weather devices to measure rain volume are located in the mountains, watersheds or near rivers.

The provincial government of Benguet and Smart Communications had initially installed the automated rain gauge system on Sept. 21, 2012 in Atok in La Trinidad, Benguet. 

Smart said Atok is one of the 63 ARG sites nationwide selected by PAGASA and Smart under a 2011 co-location agreement.

Project NOAH, another major program of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), is intended to significantly improve the country’s weather monitoring and flood warning systems through accurate and timely rainfall and river level monitoring.

Data are made available to the public through its website noah.dost.gov.ph.

Under the memorandum of understanding signed by Smart, DOST and Smart’s sister company Digitel, at least 600 ARGs would be installed in the two telecommunication firms’ cell sites in 18 major river systems nationwide.