Accurate quantitative rainfall prediction at high temporal and spatial resolution is vital for flood management and operations at Singapore’s National Water Agency PUB.

H2i is proud to announce that the Radar rainfall project has been successfully completed by the end of 2018 as per schedule. Working with weather radar supplier Furuno, H2i has been developing this system for the PUB since June 2016. 

The result is a sophisticated network of 3 X-band rainfall radars; one located in the North, one the East and one in the West of the country. These radars detect rainfall at high spatial- and temporal resolution.

X-band radars are compact, cost effective and energy efficient, however they do suffer from signal attenuation caused by heavy rainfall. To address this, the three radars work in tandem. The system seamlessly merges the observations of the individual radars into a single integrated rainfall map and adjusts in real-time, for any signal attenuation.

All information is disseminated through a H2i in-house developed web interface. The web interface is equipped with a nowcast system predicting in real-time the rainfall for the next 2 to 90 minutes. In addition, the web interface contains many tools for the users. Some tools are used by the PUB operators for live management of (predicted) heavy rainfall; other tools allow for analysis after a heavy events or analysis of a whole season, such as the North-East monsoon season. In case of heavy rainfall within the Marina catchment, SMS-alerts are sent out to relevant PUB staff such that timely mitigation actions can be performed. The System is currently fully integrated into PUB’s Operational systems.