News from the world: Italian technology in Serbia

December 15th, 2015 has seen the installation and activation of the first multi-hazard CAE station in Serbia, in the town of Valjevo. The station, equipped with an ultrasonic hydrometer, measure the water level of the Kolubara River in a sensitive point of the city, whose center has already been affected by the May 2014 floodings that also swept away the previously installed hydrological station.

The Mhaster station was purchased by the HydroMeteorological Service of the Republic of Serbia (www.hidmet.gov.rs), which turned to CAE as part of the project "ALERT - Strengthening Serbian multi-hazard early warning and alert system. Phase I: Setting-up integrated policies to reduce damages from extreme events and risks for population (Ref. No. 1206.001-14)”, carried out by the Emilia-Romagna regional agency for prevention, environment and energy (Arpae, www.arpa.emr.it) and the same Serbian HydroMeteo Service, with co-financing from the Central European Initiative (www.cei.int) within the CEI Know-how Exchange Programme (CEI KEP).

Valjevo was one of the cities most affected by the floods that hit Serbia back in May 2014, which caused the death of 51 people, 32,000 evacuees and over 1.5 billion euro of damage to the country’s economy. Now, the water level measurement and other valuable data are being transmitted every 10 minutes from the station to the Belgrade central, and are visible – via the Hydro-Meteo Service website – both to citizens and to all authorities involved. It is a small but significant and useful step to support the correct forecasting and management of floods. 

• At this link the Serbian tv report on the project.

• At this link the real-time measurements.