Disaster risk reduction solutions, also known as DRR solutions, are gaining in popularity. After all, climate change is showing its consequences more and more clearly. And given the impossibility of stopping it, one of the main options open to us is to adapt to it.
And these measures are key. They have the capacity to prevent or at least minimise losses caused by, for example, extreme weather events.
And that day, as chance would have it, Arantec found itself in Sorrento (Italy) participating in the kick-off meeting of The HuT, an ambitious European project that aims to select best practices for disaster risk mitigation..
The HuT, showing the way to disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation
The HuT: The Human-Tech Nexus is an initiative with funding from the Horizon Europe programme. This programme aims primarily to tackle climate change and help achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). But it also seeks to boost EU competitiveness and growth through research and innovation.
The objective of The HuT, as mentioned above, is to select the best solutions for climate change-induced disaster risk reduction. The reason, to be able to implement them in as many European countries as possible. However, the aim is not to achieve a “one-size-fits-all” solution. Rather, it is to obtain a catalogue of tools that can be applied as a whole or that can improve existing processes.
In order to facilitate the identification of different tools and approaches for disaster risk management, the project has chosen to differentiate between several events:
forest fires, including wildland urban interface fires;
climate-induced landslides, including debris flows;
fluvial and pluvial flooding, and
storms, including heavy rain, hail, thunderstorms and storm surges.
Additionally, DRR solutions must also respond to one or more of the following areas of expertise:
human-centred remedies;
governance and policy, or
science and technology.
This last aspect suggests that developments such as those represented by IoT monitoring, one of Arantec’s fields of activity, will have a special presence.
Demonstrators, the core of the project
The core of the project are, basically, the “demonstrators” (DEM). These exhibitors correspond to 10 geographic areas that combine different geomorphological and socio-economic characteristics. And these territorial particularities make them more prone to suffer, for example, one or more of the above-mentioned events.
ID
Site
Country
Area (km2)
Territorial features
Events
DEM1
Valencia city and 2 river basins
Spain
29.635
– Urban areas – Densely populated – Natural and heritage features
D, H
DEM2
Val d’Aran region
Spain
650
– Orographically complex areas – Sparsely populated
F, L, S
DEM3
Lattari mountains
Italy
300
– Orographically complex areas – Natural and heritage features
F, FF, L, S
DEM4
Vilnius city
Lithuania
401
– Urban areas – Densely populated – Natural and heritage features
F
DEM5
Schleswig-Holstein state and harbour cities
Germany
466 km of coastline
–
H, S, F
DEM6
East fjords
Iceland
3500
– Sparsely populated
L, S
DEM7
Tisza river basin
Hungary
7180
–
F
DEM8
Ogliastra province
Italy
1855
–
D, FF, H
DEM9
Dorset county
UK
2653
– Natural and heritage features
F, L, S
DEM10
Bern canton
Switzerland
5960
– Densely populated – Natural and heritage features
Thus, areas with more developed disaster risk reduction solutions will be able to export their experience to less developed areas.
The role of Arantec in The HuT project
What functions will Arantec carry out in this initiative? Firstly, we are going to leave our stamp on the exhibition area corresponding to the Val d’Aran region. However, we have also been assigned other specific tasks:
Marcel Hurlimann, from the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya and responsible for the DEM2 demonstrator, shows the solutions implemented in Val d’Aran
Collaborate together with the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI). The objective, to create a cloud platform to enable the 10 demonstrators to share and manage information.
Develop approaches that value the use of IoT for monitoring extreme weather events. Additionally, the task also seeks to involve people in at-risk areas to act as ‘sentinels’.
Collaborate together with the Universita degli Studi di Salerno (UNISA) in improving and adapting different modelling approaches to characterise risk.
Eisharc Jaquet, CEO of Arantec, introducing the company
Why disaster risk reduction is important?
First of all, to clarify that the term “natural disasters” is wrong.
There are only natural hazards. But these can turn into disasters depending on the decisions taken or the degree of preparedness shown.
With this in mind, disaster risk reduction strategies provide the tools necessary to minimise these catastrophes. In short, they prevent new fatalities, reduce existing risks and increase climate resilience.
“The world has been stuck in a vicious cycle of disaster → response → dependency → repeat”
Mami Mizutori, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction and Head of UNDRR @HeadUNDRR
But… how is it possible to reduce the level of vulnerability and exposure? By implementing measures such as early warning systems. Our Smartyriver is, for example, one of these solutions because monitors the status of watercourses in real time.
We can’t predict the unpredictable… but we can prepare for it
Natural hazards are inevitable. But the impact they have on society is not.
A clear example is, for instance, the two earthquakes in Haiti and Chile in 2010. The Chilean earthquake was 500 times more powerful than the one that shook Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital. But it caused far fewer victims and less damage. The reason, a better disaster preparation in the Andean country, which has, for example, strict building codes.
In short, as Benjamin Franklin said, “by failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”. But The HuT project is a key to avoid that failure. And Arantec is going to become one of its cogs to make it a success and enable it to fulfil its mission: to save lives.
At the beginning of October, a delegation from the South Korean technological company JSLidar, partner of the Aranese engineering firm Arantec Enginnering since early 2018, together with the public institutions Korea Meteorological Institut (KMI) and Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA), have returned to visit the Arantec facilities, located in the Val d’Aran.
This visit is part of the collaborative actions of the two engineering companies, which began this year 2018, developing an improved climate sensor, which will integrate the functions of fog visibility sensors, as well as the detection of rain and snow, introducing technological parts of the two brands. In this meeting, results have been analyzed on the field of equipment and products after their integration.
JSLidar is the only Korean company specializing in light source technologies and high-potential Lidar sensors to extend reliability and optimize the performance of the measurement target. JSLidar has developed a laser-based high-end fog and visibility sensor used in airports, road management agencies and meteorological agencies, which helps prevent accidents caused by poor visibility.
Aranese engineering Arantec is a company specialized in providing “cloud” solutions for the measurement and control of environmental phenomena. It is responsible for designing, developing and producing its own software and hardware to offer customers complete and reliable solutions for the Internet of Things (IOT).
They traveled to the Val d’Aran with a delegation of South Korean institutions, the Korea Meteorological Institute (KMI) and the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). Both institutions work closely together with JSLidar to expand their technology outside the Asian continent. These administrations work to support and efficiently cultivate the promotion and development of the meteorological industry in Korea in order to contribute to the development of the industry and the economy of their country, in addition to research and development of meteorological technology and international cooperation to through the exchange of meteorological experiences.
During the three-day visit to the headquarters of Arantec, these delegations have visited and known Smarty Planet sensor stations, monitoring and remote control solutions designed specifically for riverbeds, and rivers (Smarty River), monitoring the snow (Smarty Snow), quantity and quality of water (Smarty Water), weather stations (Smarty Meteo), forest fire control (Smarty Forest), acoustic and environmental quality (Smarty Sound) and air quality (Smarty Air).
This meeting took place taking advantage of the days leading up to the celebration of the 8th edition of the Meteorological World Expo in Amsterdam, considered by all as the most important exhibition of meteorological solutions in the world, where the leading technologies of the sector are exhibited. Both Arantec Engineering and JSLidar have returned to participate and showcase their products. It should be remembered that the first contacts between the two companies occurred in the 2017 edition of this event.
Finally note that, in this year’s edition, Arantec presented to the visitors of Meteorological the new solution “Smarty Flow” consisting of a Doppler radar that measures level and speed, and therefore flow without contact with water, which allows to obtain values of flow more rigorous and in real time. With this solution, Arantec strengthens the control of flow rates in free plate for captures, positioning itself for the measurement in channels and sanitation pipes.
EMAYA, Empresa Municipal d’Aigües i Clavegueram S.A., is a company owned by the City of Palma de Mallorca, which owns 100% of its capital. The company is in charge of the management of the integral water cycle of the Municipality (catchment, purification and drinking water supply, as well as the maintenance of the sewage, sanitation and water purification installations), in addition to the concession and establishment of connections.
Among the functions carried out by EMAYA is the control of circulating flows in the supply and sanitation networks, both for pipelines in charge as well as for channels and collectors where the water circulates in free-flowing regime.
For load measurement, it has numerous flow meters throughout the network that allows it to control the circulating flows, while for measurement in channels and collectors it has level probes that depend on it and the curves of expenditure, you can estimate the water that circulates through them.
However, in the continuous improvement process carried out by EMAYA, it wanted to take a step forward and count on the collaboration of Arantec Engineering to carry out a pilot test with equipment capable of measuring the level and superficial velocity of the water to obtain flow values more rigorous and in real time.
That is why Arantec has supplied the so-called “Smarty Flow”, consisting of a Doppler radar that measures level and speed, and therefore flow rate without contact with water. This type of equipment has allowed a quick and easy installation, as well as a minimum maintenance.
“Smarty Flow” is a device that adapts both to the measurement of natural source intakes in free sheet, as it has been in this case, as well as to supply and sanitation collectors.
With this installation Arantec strengthens in the control of flow in free sheet for catchments, positioning itself for the measurement in channels and sanitation pipes with the aim of giving a solution to the City Councils and Provincial Councils for compliance with the R.D. 1290/2012 for control of overflows in sanitation networks, which indicates in point 2 of its third transitory provision the following:
“The holders of the current discharge authorizations and those that were in process at the entry into force of this royal decree, as well as those requested until December 31, 2015, must provide the overflow points with quantification systems of relief, within a period of 4 years from the entry into force of this royal decree “
Viesgo is an energy company dedicated to generating, distributing and commercialize electricity and gas, with a team of more than 1,000 professionals, serving more than 730,000 customers in Spain and Portugal.
Viesgo operates in the regulated electricity distribution market and in the liberalized markets for electricity generation and electricity and gas commercialization.
Currently, it distributes electricity through an infrastructure of 31,150 kilometers of network and has a generator park of 3,755 MW of conventional and renewable energy throughout the Iberian Peninsula
Among the renewable energies, the company’s hydroelectric plants stand out, located in the north of Spain and have a production of 704 MW, the main one being the Agrupación Aguayo-Aguilar, which includes four hydroelectric power plants of Aguayo, Torina, Besaya and Aguilar, located on the rivers Torina, Besaya and Pisuerga, in the provinces of Palencia and Cantabria. It has an installed capacity of 388 MW.
The Aguayo hydroelectric power station, located in San Miguel de Aguayo (Cantabria), has been in operation since 1982. It currently contributes 38% of the installed power generation capacity in Cantabria.
It is a reversible plant, also called pumping. This type of power plants present with respect to the rest (hydraulic, thermal, nuclear, wind, etc.) the characteristic that they are capable of storing electrical energy. This differential advantage allows its use within the electrical system to compensate the moments in which there is excess production, accumulating energy, and the moments of excess demand (generating energy). For this, in the hours of low demand (nights and weekends fundamentally), the excess electrical energy in the system is used to pump huge quantities of water to an elevated reservoir. At times when additional electric power is required due to high demand, the water is allowed to fall to the lower reservoir, to move the turbines that generate electricity again.
La planta de Aguayo utiliza como depósito inferior el embalse de Alsa y como depósito superior el embalse de Mediajo.
The Aguayo plant uses the Alsa reservoir as a lower reservoir and the Mediajo reservoir as the upper reservoir.
Due to the importance of this plant Viesgo has decided to install – in order to control the environmental values and the possible avalanches or avalanches that could happen on the installations – a complete nivometeorological station (temperature, humidity, wind, thickness of snow, incident radiation, heated rain gauge), with 220v mains supply and ADSL communication, located between the dependencies of the power station and the lower dam.
A group of workers moves daily to the lower dam. To do so, they must cross 3 km of road that is heavily exposed to avalanches. It is about grassy and smooth slopes of about 40º of inclination, that in spite of its modest level produce avalanches frequently.
To reduce the risk to which workers are exposed, a snow safety protocol has been put into operation, which is activated based on the values recorded by the weather station.
Arantec Engineering through its Smarty Meteo solution, has supplied the equipment and has made the installation in a folding mast made the enclosure, as seen in the following images
Currently Arantec also performs the maintenance of the station.
With these works Arantec expands its expansion within the national territory to Cantabria and, what is more important, it serves a strategic sector such as the generation of energy through hydroelectric power plants.
The Electric Company Corani S.A. (http://www.endecorani.bo) operates two hydroelectric plants – Corani and Santa Isabel – located in the Chapare Province – Department of Cochabamba, 78 and 84 km from the city of Cochabamba, respectively, an artificial lake (Lake Corani) and adduction network composed for rivers, canals and tunnels.
The company is dedicated to the generation and sale of electricity, in accordance with the Electricity Law and applicable legal standards, and serves the needs of the Bolivian electricity market. It was created in July 1995, from the capitalization of the Empresa Nacional de Electricidad S.A. As of May 1, 2010, 97.88% of the shares of Empresa Eléctrica Corani S.A. It is represented by the National Electricity Company – ENDE and the remaining 2.12% by private shareholders and former employees of ENDE.
ENDE Corani is currently in the expansion phase of its hydroelectric power plants, for which it is executing the San José and Miguillas projects, as well as many others that are in the drafting phase such as Icona, Rositas, Banda Azul, Ambrosía, Santa Bárbara , Santa Rosa and Villa Jorka.
The Villa Jorka Hydroelectric Project will take advantage of the waters of the Juntas Corani River through the location of an annual regulation reservoir of 278 Hm3 of useful volume.
The Villa Jorka reservoir will be located on the Juntas Corani river, with a dam height of 154 meters and a reservoir of approximately 308 hm3 of total volume. The type of dam considered according to the topographic conditions is a double curved arch.
The construction of a 4.5 km long transfer tunnel is planned, which will allow a gross drop of 297 m.
The transfer tunnel will reach the equilibrium chimney where it will connect with 2 forced pipes of 2.35 m in diameter to the Villa Jorka Hydroelectric Power Plant, which will operate with 2 Francis units, which together will provide a total installed power of 140 MW and an average flow of 60 m3 / s.
Actualmente, se realizan los estudios básicos de topografía, geología–geotecnia, recolección de datos hidrológicos, y se elaboran los documentos de licitación para el Estudio de Prefactibilidad.
Dentro del proceso de recogida de datos hidrológicos e hidráulicos, Ende Corani ha contado con la empresa Consulmet S.R.L Instruments (http://www.consulmet.net/ ), partner de Arantec Engineering en Bolivia, para el suministro e instalación de un Smarty River (http://www.smartyplanet.com/soluciones/smarty-river/) en el río Juntas Corani, el cual suministrará en tiempo real datos de nivel del cauce, permitiendo así realizar un análisis exhaustivo de los futuros caudales circulantes y la posterior elección de las turbinas óptimas a instalar y operar en la Central Hidroeléctrica.
A continuación, se muestran unas imágenes del equipo instalado.
Currently, the basic studies of topography, geology-geotechnics, hydrological data collection, and the bidding documents for the Pre-feasibility Study are elaborated.
Within the process of collecting hydrological and hydraulic data, Ende Corani has had the company Consulmet SRL Instruments (http://www.consulmet.net/), partner of Arantec Engineering in Bolivia, for the supply and installation of a Smarty River (http://www.smartyplanet.com/soluciones/smarty-river/ ) in the Juntas Corani River, which will provide real-time channel level data, allowing a thorough analysis of future circulating flows and the subsequent choice of the optimal turbines to be installed and operated in the Hydroelectric Power Plant.
Below are some images of the installed equipment.
La instalación y puesta en marcha por parte de Consulmet ha sido compleja, al encontrarse el punto de medición del cauce en un lugar inaccesible en vehículo, siendo necesario el transporte a pie durante más de 2 h, de la estructura de soporte y el equipo de medición. Esta labor ha sido posible gracias a las reducidas dimensiones (20 x 40 cm) y el poco peso (menos de 5 Kg) del Smarty River, diseñado especialmente para zonas remotas, como es el caso.
Con esta instalación, Arantec amplía tanto su expansión internacional a Bolivia como la instalación de equipamiento para la medición de caudales en el sector hidroeléctrico.
The installation and commissioning by Consulmet has been complex, since the measuring point of the channel is located in a place inaccessible with a vehicle, being necessary the transport on foot for more than 2 h, of the support structure and the equipment of measurement. This work has been possible thanks to the small dimensions (20 x 40 cm) and the low weight (less than 5 Kg) of the Smarty River, designed especially for remote areas, as is the case.
With this installation, Arantec expands both its international expansion to Bolivia and the installation of equipment for the measurement of flows in the hydroelectric sector.
Aranese company Arantec Engineering formed by a group of engineers, programmers and designers of interfaces specializing in wireless sensor networks (WSN) at the service of Smart Cities, under the Smarty Planet brand of cloud solutions for the measurement and control of environmental phenomena and for the Internet of Things (IoT), it has been honored with the ANYWHERE Project Innovation Challenge prize that was awarded during the 5th General Assembly of the ANYWHERE working group held in Spiez, Switzerland, from March 6 to 10.
The ANYWHERE Project organizes an Innovation Challenge to select the best innovative idea to complement the ANYWHERE products and services. The prize consists of the invitation to become a new partner of the ANYWHERE consortium and receive € 50,000 of a specific budget to cover the costs of the work associated with this implementation.
The ANYWHERE Project
The project “EnhANcing EmergencY Management and Response to Extreme WeatHer and climate Events” (ANYWHERE) is funded by the research and innovation program Horizon 2020 of the European Commission (EC-HORIZON2020-PR700099-ANYWHERE) and started in June 2016.
The objective of the project is to integrate the various advanced extreme weather prediction algorithms and their direct impacts into an accessible platform that can be used at different levels, helping all types of administrations such as Civil Protection and general and regional administrations, as well as the population in general. Designed to help protect against damage caused by weather and, ultimately, save lives.
The project has partners from 12 countries and is coordinated by the Center for Applied Research in Hydrometeorology of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, which includes 6 companies, 12 operational authorities and 13 research and development partners, ensuring the capacity and high standards of the project results, as well as its application and acceptance in the market.
In this European project include partners such as Airbus (http://www.airbus.com/), the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF-https: //www.ecmwf.int/) the Finnish Meteorological Institute (http : //en.ilmatieteenlaitos.fi/), the Catalan Water Agency (http://aca-web.gencat.cat/) and universities.
Within the ANYWHERE project (http://anywhere-h2020.eu/) the Innovation Challenge initiative has been developed in order to find innovative ideas to improve administration and response during emergencies, helping to complement the products and services of ANYWHERE. These ideas will be based on the following concepts:
Integration or use of ANYWHERE products in an innovative solution with strong commercial application and preferably with a high benefit of social impact. The proposed solutions may include a plan to commercially exploit it in a relevant market and it will be preferred to include specific requests or interested clients.
Tools, algorithms or innovative processes that can be integrated into the ANYWHERE platform and that could improve it as a whole. Proposals can be exclusively technological (IT) or a broader solution that also includes operational processes.
ANYWHERE 2020 Innovation Challenge
Among the more than 20 innovative ideas received by institutions and companies, two finalists have been chosen, GeoAdaptive and Arantec Engineering, which have submitted their candidacy to be part of the ANYWHERE project in the “5th General Assembly meeting” on the 6th to March 10 in Spiez, Switzerland.
GeoAdaptive (http://geoadaptive.com/) is a planning and development strategy company that specializes in the use of geospatial technologies to solve complex economic, environmental and social problems in a variety of territories, scales and industries. It is responsible for implementing and integrating advanced techniques in space economy, risk analysis, socio-ecological models and place-based design, to create solid strategies for clients around the world, reducing their risks and maximizing their opportunities for sustainable and inclusive growth.
Among its solutions related to the ANYWHERE project are those aimed at modeling risk analysis and climate change, risk probabilities in cities and mainstreaming aimed at resilience and disaster risk reduction (DRR).
Arantec-Smarty Planet (www.smartyplanet.com), is a company in charge of providing “cloud” solutions for the measurement and control of environmental phenomena. It is responsible for designing, developing and producing its own software and hardware to offer customers complete and reliable solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT). In short, unique integrated solutions that are reliable, compatible, cost-effective, easy to implement and intuitive to use.
Arantec Engineering sells Smarty Planet complete solutions for monitoring and remote control, designed for the needs of different sectors, such as hydraulic works, roads, smart cities, agriculture, airports and railways.
Smarty Planet sensor stations are monitoring and remote control solutions designed specifically for riverbeds, rivers and rivers (Smarty River), snow monitoring (Smarty Snow), water quantity and quality (Smarty Water), weather stations (Smarty Meteo) , control of forest fires (Smarty Forest), acoustic and environmental quality (Smarty Sound) and air quality (Smarty Air).
In the presentation, in charge of Eisharc Jaquet, CEO of Arantec Engineering and Mario Losáñez, Director of Business Development, have shown the necessary tools for the integration of the ANYWHERE products together with the Smarty Planet service to propose the development of a capable tool to give Smarty Anywhere services to the final customer.
On March 9, the Consortium decided that the winner of the most innovative idea to improve the platform, and what from now on, as a new partner, will implement their idea or tool selected on the ANYWHERE platform is Arantec-Smarty Planet.
About Smarty Planet Solutions
Smarty River System of Early Warning (SAT) for floods and hydrological monitoring, is a solution that allows in a simple and real-time mode, record, visualize, manage alarms and share data on monitoring and the status of rivers and reservoirs.
Smarty Snow System of prevention and control of avalanches or snow avalanches, and winter road management. With this technology, the risk of avalanches or avalanches of snow in the mountain is controlled, avoiding damage to infrastructures and ski resorts.
Smarty Water Sensor station for the control and monitoring of water quantity and quality. using flow meters or meters, provides control of circulating flows through the supply and sanitation networks, in addition to monitoring continuously and without monitoring those parameters related to water quality, such as temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, conductivity , ammonium, nitrates, etc.
Smarty MeteoScientificgradeforSmart Cities compactmeteorological stations. Self-sufficient sensory solution designed specifically to perform the measurement of environmental parameters and thus be able to offer an added value in the meteorological service of cities through wireless environmental sensors for Smartphones.
Smarty Sound Sonometers for the monitoring and control of environmental noise, specifically designed for the remote measurement in decibels (dbA) of noise pollution in streets and outdoor areas, as well as in industrial facilities.
Smarty Air Sensor station for the control of air quality, allows to record, visualize, manage alarms and share data on the status of air quality and levels of air pollution.
Arantec Engineering develops its projects in Spain, Europe and South America, as well as implementing Smarty Planet solutions in collaboration with various Partners in Portugal, Andorra, Estonia, France, Malta, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Brazil.
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