Water resources estimation, planning and management is an essntial requirement for sustainable growth. The continuous deterioration of the quality of the environment and more specifically the water environment has led to a dramatic change of the quantity, quality and availability of water resources. The situation is becoming more complicated in the view of changes of climate (greenhouse effect) and land use (reduction in forestland, increase in urban areas etc.). In this context, the protection, rational management and exploitation of the water resources are becoming key issues of the strategic planning in a national level. The project of the National Data Bank of Hydrological & Meteorological Information, which was assigned to N.T.U.A by the Ministry of Environment, Planning & Public Works, provides the required infrastructure for the implementation of the E.U. Water Framework Directive for the protection, rational management and exploitation of the water resources in the national level.
General Information
The core of the project is a Data Bank, containing a huge amount of hydrometeorological and hydrogeological data covering the whole country. The data were acquired from the archives of the participating organisations :
- The Ministry of Environment, Planning and Public Works
- The National Meteorological Service
- The Public Power Corporation
- The Ministry of Agriculture
- The Ministry of Development
- The National Observatory of Athens
Various software applications are linked to the central Database of the project supporting the analysis and synthesis of the data and the elaboration of secondary information. The distributed form of the database allows a continuous online operation and exchange of data between the participating organisations.
One of the most interesting features of the project and one of major hydrological concern is the development of the GIS subsystem to support the spatial analysis of hydrological data. The GIS applications were designed and implemented in such a way to allow both independent processing of data as well as interaction with the database and the different software packages.
Funding of the project
The project was funded by the Cohesion Fund (85%) and the Ministry of Environment, Planning & Public Works (15%).
Evaluation of NDBHMI
NDBHMI is undoubtably the first big project in the area of estimation and management of the available water resources in Greece. It provides the basic framework for all the modelling attempts towards forecasting and management of the water potential in the country. Specfically NDBHMI is :- A reliable reference framework for all data related to water (quantitative in this phase).
- An integrated tool on which all studies concerning water can be based. The system provides reliability, easy access to consistent and comparative data and the means for linking models, software applications and databases.
- A tool for strategic planning of water resources and integrated basin management.
- A decision support system, for the exploitation and integrated management of water resources and the protection of the water environment.
- A unique technological infrastructure necessary for the implementation of the Water Framework Directive.