• Region of Sicily: the integration of the meteorological monitoring network for the purpose of civil protection has been completed
    CAE MAGAZINE n.21 - English Version - July 2021
    Region of Sicily: the integration of the meteorological monitoring network for the purpose of civil protection has been completed

Region of Sicily: the integration of the meteorological monitoring network for the purpose of civil protection has been completed

The activation of all 265 new automatic stations, as well as of the 19 repeaters with radio reserve and of the new software and hardware technologies for the control centres, has been recently completed. The measurements are now updated via radio every 10 minutes and more timely data requests are always possible also via GPRS. Thanks to this investment (made with PO FESR 14-20 funds - European Regional Development Fund, Action 5.1.4), the Decentralized Functional Centre - Idro (CFD-Idro) finally has the control and monitoring systems needed for an effective prevention and real-time control of meteorological phenomena.

It has been two years of intense work for the Civil Protection of the Region of Sicily. Installing 265 new stations has required both great technical effort and hard work to obtain permits. Each monitoring site required its own authorizations and had its own times and challenges: the dedication and commitment of the authorities in charge allowed to overcome the bureaucracy and achieve this result.

The effectiveness of this network is based on its consistency, timeliness, efficiency, reliability and redundancy. All the provided supplies and services aimed at creating a complex meteorological survey system, with a high technological profile, as well as at performing specialized activities and services such as aerial surveys, LIDAR surveys, topographic surveys, mapping, DSM and DTM, in order to establish and integrate the existing Geodatabase. The recently concluded extension aimed at solving some of the major problems, especially in those parts of the region where, for geological and climatic reasons, there is a greater tendency to geomorphological instability and flooding phenomena, even in small watersheds.

In order to guarantee the highest possible level of integration, a single system will be implemented building around the network of the Water Observatory (Osservatorio delle Acque) which, due to implementation criteria and transmission systems, has proved to be suitable for Civil Protection. The system now integrates already existing and new stations. The system has a single UHF radio network, as well as two main control centres: one at the CFD-Idro (DRPC), the other at the Basin Authority (AdB). This solution will allow CFD-Idro to manage all the stations jointly and simultaneously, without the need to overlap separate subsystems or split systems, which would involve more or less complex integration logics that often prove to be inefficient. The Giampilieri "system" has also been integrated into the UHF radio data exchange procedures. Finally, the new headquarters at the SIAS (Sicilian Agro-metereological Information Service) will also receive data from the CFD-Idro main centre, while the data collected by the stations of the SIAS proprietary network needed by the Administration will be integrated and subsequently transmitted to the main AdB and CFD-Idro centres.

As far as redundancy is concerned, backup repeaters have been integrated to all new repeaters, as well as to old ones not already provided with it, now guaranteeing prompt switching between the main equipment and the backup device in case one of them fails to function properly. Furthermore, a GPRS/UMTS secondary communication system has been added.



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