Task 1

The aim of this task is to build a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) to support collecting, storing, visualizing, retrieving and disseminating the data needed for the other tasks. It will also provide the cornerstone for the development and implementation of risk analysis systems. The complexity inherent to the chain of processes involved, including different sources of observational (meteorological, hydrological records remote sensing imagery) and modelled datasets (hydrological and meteorological models) requires the definition, development and implementation of such an infrastructure. The SDI will allow to harmonize the data from varied data sources and to establish efficient protocols for real-time data collection.

During Task 1 different climatic, hydrologic and remote sensing data will be collected and uploaded into the Spatial Data Infrastructure which will be used extensively throughout the project. Namely, within this task, the LSA-SAF remote sensing biophysical and physical indicators available through IPMA will be collected and prepared for the following tasks.

Moreover, short-medium range forecast from the ECMWF and climate change scenarios of precipitation and temperature will also be collected. Task 1 also encompasses the preparation of the infrastructure which will support the risk analysis models and the assess to information. So, basic routines for data integration and processing will be developed. The core structure of the internet web-based interface will be developed based on standards such as XHTML + CSS and PHP, and scripting languages such as Python and PERL will be used for interfacing between the (internal) data base and analysis systems and the user interface. Most effort in this task will be devoted to the implementation of a system to automatically retrieve climate data, remote sensing images from real-time data providers, as well as the meteorological forecasts and scenarios generated in the project.​