CAE AT WORK IN VIETNAM: ON GOING THE REALIZATION OF A MONITORING NETWORK FOR THE CENTRAL PROVINCES

It’s scheduled in April the installation start of the meteorological monitoring network designed by CAE for the Central Provinces of Vietnam: 74 automatic stations, 5 Provincial Centres, a Regional Centre in Da Nang and the National Centre in Hanoi, to ensure an accurate prediction of flood levels of the main watercourses in the central area, thus increasing the safety of resident people and production activities that are fundamental to the Vietnamese economy.

THE ITALO-VIETNAM PARTNERSHIP
The project assigned to CAE - the first of this scale in Vietnam in the environmental monitoring sector - is the result of the international dialogue between the Italian Government and the countries interested in the implementation of an advanced model of Civil Protection based on the model of what already realized in our country.
With the realization of this project, Italy takes the lead as the country that provides advanced technologies to support a strategic sector for the socio-economic growth of Vietnam: the prospect is to implant a system structured on a national scale, to obtain maximum efficiency in the acquisition and processing of environmental data.
CAE has been defined as “strategic partner” in environmental monitoring of climate changes during a meeting on July 2009 with Nguyen Xuan Cuong, Vice -Minister of MONRE (Ministry of Natural Resourced and Environment).

THE CLIMATIC SITUATION OF VIETNAM CENTRAL REGION
The climate of Central Vietnam is characterized by the alternation of two seasons: to a “dry” season, which lasts from February to July, follows a “wet” season characterized by particularly intense weather events between September and November, caused by tropical storms from the South China Sea, causing heavy rains and violent typhoons.
For the particular conformation of Central Vietnam, the perturbations impact on the Annam mountain chain, where major rivers have a very low concentration time: flowing into these rivers, torrential rains produce devastating effects of flash-flood in the downhill area - where production activities are concentrated - with serious damages to the population and to the economy.
To mention a recent case, the typhoon Ketsana - despite being only a Category 1 - devastated the Quang Nam and Quang Ngai provinces: on this occurrence at least one hundred and eighty people lost their life, tens of thousands have been left homeless and damages were estimated at about 800 million USD.

THE ANSWER TO THE PROBLEM: THE CAE NETWORK
The network CAE designed for Central Vietnam aims to improve the forecasting of floods and their impact on the area: it is a complex system that collects different weather parameters that affect significantly the knowledge of the overall situation. Throughout the Central Provinces will then be located in strategic positions 15 rain gauge stations for the measurement of rain, 42 rain gauge and water level stations to measure rainfall and in the level of water courses, 1 marine station for sea level measuring, and 17 weather stations for measuring rainfall, wind, humidity and barometric pressure in the coastal provinces of Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Thua Thien-Hue, Quang Nam and Quang Ngai, plus the area of Da Nang city.
Data collected by the stations will be transmitted in real time to the 5 Provincial Centres, and from there to the Regional Centre of Da Nang, and then converge at the National Centre of Hanoi: the data will be acquired and processed through the CAE software that can timely return accurate and reliable information about flood levels. The information obtained will enable the authorities to act promptly in case of alarm, implementing security plans to minimize the risk to goods and people.

THE WORKS
The origin of the project dates back to 1998, following a Vietnamese request based on the Memorandum of Understanding between Italy and Vietnam signed in 1997.
In 2007 was launched a tender, that awarded the project to CAE. The work began in 2009: firstly, CAE cared to further match the actual needs of the client, on which the final monitoring system configuration was designed. After this initial phase, an exhaustive on-field survey allowed the definition of each site installation details to better fit the extreme conditions that occur during typhoons of great intensity.
The equipment arrived in Da Nang in December 2009: in these days will be redirected to the installation sites.
The installation and activation of the stations and of the Provincial, Regional and National Centre will start on April 2010, and will be completed within the month of July.
From summer 2010 the first data useful for the calibration of prediction models will be available.