FEWS - Uruguay: A platform for Flood Early Warning System and water management

Efficient water resources management requires robust platforms to manage the information related to water resources and support decision-making processes. These platforms must incorporate information on water uses, real-time hydrological and water quality data, and weather forecasts. In Uruguay, the Ministry of the Environment and the National Emergency System (SINAE), in collaboration with the University of the Republic and Deltares from the Netherlands, are developing a hydrological platform based on the Delft-FEWS system: FEWS-Uruguay. This work describes the development and implementation of hydrological flood early warning models for the cities of Durazno and Artigas. Flood forecasts are generated by assimilating real-time data from different telemetric networks, the Global Ensemble Forecast System (GEFS) model results, and running different hydrological models. The platform generates hydrographs and maps of flood zones that are used by the National Emergency System to coordinate actions to safeguard the physical integrity of the people who inhabit the affected areas. Currently, there is an ongoing project which adds to FEWS-Uruguay the Santa Lucía Basin, the most important freshwater body of Uruguay, which supplies drinking water for 60% of the population. This basin has had quality issues related to the intense agricultural activity carried out in it. In this work, we also present the main advances made related to the water quantity, quality, and management models implemented in FEWS-Uruguay.