Portuguese National Water Resources Information System (SNIRH)

Institutional setting

The European Union Water Framework Directive (WFD) was adopted in 2000 with the objective of establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy. This extensive and pioneering European legislation aims to protect and enhance aquatic ecosystems and promote sustainable water use in European territories. It sets the framework for analysis planning and management of water resources by establishing environmental objectives for water bodies to achieve good ecological status by 2027. It also defines the creation of management mechanisms such as the River Basin Management Plans to identify and assess pressures to the water bodies and specify measures’ programs (Carvalho et al., 2019; Collins et al., 2012) Most importantly, the directive established the requirements for monitoring the surface water and groundwater status and protected areas (Article 8) as well as the specific parameters to be considered (European Commission, 2003).

At the national scale, the WFD was transposed into the “Portuguese Water Law”, which aimed to prevent further degradation and protect and improve the status of aquatic ecosystems, promote sustainable use of water, based on the long-term protection of available water resources, mitigate the effects of floods and droughts, and ensure a sufficient supply of good quality surface and groundwater, for sustainable, balanced and equitable use of water.

The transposition of the WFD to the National legal framework represented an opportunity to modernise and increase the geographical extension of the already existing Portuguese monitoring networks. Although SNIRH is older than the WFD and “PT Water Law”, this public database is the perfect platform to store and make available to the public monitoring data.

Geographical setting

SNIRH monitoring networks cover the entire Portuguese mainland territory (Fig. 2) and includes hydrological and meteorological data for Azores and meteorological data for Madeira islands. This system is particularly relevant in monitoring extreme events such as droughts and floods, which are expected to be more recurrent with climate change.

Historical overview

The National Water Resources Information System (SNIRH) was created by the Water Institute (INAG) in 1995 and launched officially on the Portuguese Water Day, October 1st, 1997. It was in fact the 1990-1995 drought period (which was ended by the heavy floods period in 1995/96) that forced the necessity to create hydrometeorological automatic systems to allow authorities to provide a proper and immediate response. Between 1996 to 1998 several types of equipments were tested which laid the guidelines for establishing the Portuguese monitoring networks, which were fully operational at the beginning of the XXI century (Lacerda, et al., 2013).

In 2000, the Portuguese-Spanish relations concerning Water Resources was discussed and outlined within the Cooperation Convention for the Protection and Sustainable Use of Water from Portuguese-Spanish River Basins, also known as Convenção de Albufeira (Albufeira Protocol). It integrates the Water Framework Directive guidelines, creating a cooperation and coordination protocol for the protection of water bodies, aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, aiming for the joint sustainable use of water resources. This represented an important step in sharing information between the two countries, feeding the SNIRH and allowing for forecasts in transboundary watersheds.

In 2012, the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA), which integrated INAG valences, was created. SNIRH web portal is since then managed by APA which is also the technical organism that currently supervises the Convenção de Albufeira cooperation protocol and integrates transboundary data within the portal database.

Evidence of benefits from implementation

One of the most relevant benefits of SNIRH is the acquisition and inclusion of telemetric stations, which remotely send information in real-time and allow for decision-makers and emergency responders to take quick action in case of adverse conditions.

SNIRH databases have been also contributing greatly to the water scientific research that is conducted in Portugal. Once the platform was open to public access there was an internal discussion related to the possible commercialization of available data. INAG then took a pioneering initiative establishing free access to environmental data. This allowed the recently developed web interface to be distinguished in 1997 by the Descartes Award, promoted by the Portuguese Institute of Informatics in the category of “Provision of information on Water Resources via the Internet”.

On that note, the SVARH has also received the 3rd Prize, in the Management category, of the Microsoft Software Contest in 2003.

Today SNIRH continues to allow the use of published content as long as the source is cited.

Replication potential in SUDOE region

Systems like SNIRH exist also in Spain and France and are fully operative and reporting on water bodies ecological status based on monitoring data.

Similar to SNIRH, other smaller monitoring and reporting platforms were also assembled in Portugal, with specific purposes. As an example, the Portuguese Irrigation Technology and Operational Center (COTR) has established the SAGRA (Agrometeorological System for Irrigation Management in Alentejo). Given the strategic importance of the Alqueva surface water reservoir for agricultural uses, a platform that helps the management of irrigation water was established with a set of 14 automatic meteorological stations that determine the actual evapotranspiration in the Alentejo region, southern Portugal (Fig. 6). The main difference to SNIRH is that access is restricted to CODR associated members.

Future outlook

The web portal is currently in the Portuguese language only. The interface would benefit from some updates and modernization. Some improvements were conducted to achieve portal compatibilization for portable devices, but still lacks some of the functionalities of the PC web browser versions, allowing the user only to observe brief reports on precipitation, gauge stations and dams.

In the near future, important technological innovations are expected to be implemented in the monitoring procedures, which ultimately will end up in significant changes in platforms like SNIRH. Through questionnaire analysis of almost 100 experts, it was pointed out that EU member states should look into including new technologies, which have become available in recent years, in monitoring programs. The use of satellite data for surveillance and operational monitoring may allow for increased frequency and spatial coverage. It is also noted that those methods coupled with machine learning, improved sensor technologies and citizen science concepts may greatly enhance monitoring with effective cost reduction and increased data quality/precision (Carvalho et al., 2019).

It is expected that SNIRH may suffer significant changes to keep up with those technological advances.

Key points of the innovative method

• The National Water Resources Information System (SNIRH) is a web public web-portal that allows the user to access data related to water resources in Portugal mainland, Azores and Madeira.
• The system is comprised of 14 independent monitoring networks including meteorological, surface water and groundwater data
• SNIRH includes a vast collection of water resources related documents including historical photographs.
• SNIRH reports on extreme events situations such as droughts and includes a flooding alert system (SVARH)
• Although fully operational, the SNIRH web-portal is currently showing some signs of an ageing web-interface
• Due to specific operational problems, the information from some monitoring stations may take a few months to become available.
• A significant amount of historical hydrometeorological data can be consulted and be used freely in water-related research.