Transcript Suriname has no natural disasters Until

EARLY WARNING SYSTEM
The suriname situation
We had a saying ….
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Suriname is a God given country
Suriname has the nicest mixture of human being
Suriname has no
natural disasters
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Until …..
So Climate change …
Changed this believe
We suddenly got aware that we are
vulnerable to a number of natural disasters
What may we expect
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Flood
Drought
Forest fires
High Tide
Tsunami
Contents
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Geographic info
Production
Weather hazards
What did we learn
What to do
End
Suriname
Characteristics
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The coastal plain is
about
deep on the east
border and
 100km deep on the
west border.
Country Study Climate Change Suriname
354 km
43 km
V.A. Study Area
101 km
27170 km2
 40km
Suriname
163820 km2
N
100
0
Project Area
Suriname
100 Kilometers
Coastal plains
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This area with lies between 0 and 1m above MSL.
About 50% of this area is swamp
More than 90% of the population lives here
Almost all industries are concentrated in this area
All agriculture areas are in this area
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This area is sensitive to flooding
This area is sensitive to water related diseases
This area is threatened by the sea
This area is vulnerable to salt water intrusion
This area is threatened by Accelerated Sea level Rise
This area is vulnerable to Tsunamis
Precipitation numbers
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Average figure: 2200mm/year
Maximum per day: 240mm
Maximum per month: 960mm
Average number of days> 50mm:
Maximum number of days>50mm:
Interior
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Terrain is hilly
Most activity along the many south – north
streaming rivers
Most people live directly along the rivers
Most cultivated land directly along the rivers
This area is vulnerable to …
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Flooding
 Possible
loss of human lives
 Loss of food production
 Most
 Source
agricultural land directly along the rivers
for vector diseases
 Standing
water, failing sanitation system
This area is also vulnerable to
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Drought
 Loss
of agricultural production
 Agriculture
 Serious
 Most
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is totally based on natural irrigation water (rain)
transport problems
transport to the hinterland goes over the rivers
Forest Fires
The four seasons
Coastal Area
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Short Rain Season
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15 Aug – 1 dec
15 feb – 1 mar
Long Rain Season
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15 dec -1 feb
Short Dry Season
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15 apr – 15 aug
Long Dry Season
Short Rain Season
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1feb – 15 apr
Long Rain Season
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1dec -1feb
Short Dry Season
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Interior
1 mar – 1 aug
Long Dry Season
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1 Aug – 15 dec
Short Rain Season
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ITCZ activities on southward movement
Heavy nocturnal showers caused by upper trough
Easterly waves as ITCZ moves southward
Short Dry Season
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Occasional Easterly waves
Sometimes no activity at all, Sometimes north
boundary of ITCZ does not move south of the
country
Long Rain Season
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Always present
High frequency of showers
High daily precipitation numbers (>50mm)
End of Season remarks: Sibi busis: Heavy
Thundershowers with high windspeed
Occasional heavy weather from the south
Long Dry Season
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Little or no rain (some places 0.0 mm/month)
Upper river streams dry out
Transportation problems (There is no road
infrastructure)
The four seasons (summary)
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The Short dry season window in the interior is
relative short
Sometimes this season diminishes between the short
and long rain season
There is continuous rain period of about 6 months
Our first experience
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In may 2006 the message was received, that large
parts of the interior were flooded over night.
Fortunately there were no human losses
All the crops were lost
Risk of outbreak was real
Djumu & Omgeving
First reaction
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The NCCR (National Coordination Center for
disaster management) was in the root phase.
The Met office was the first to provide info to the
NCCR.
Meteorological service
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Precipitation numbers of the past days
Expected weather conditions (The MBAR product of
INMET was used)
 It
would be great if Suriname could also be covered
with the 7x7km resolution
What did we learn?
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The absence of an early warning system was the
reason for the surprise
There were no adequate communication systems
 Headquarters
in Paramaribo could only be contacted
the next morning on scheduled airtime
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The Met. Info of the area was sparse
What do we have to do?
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Upgrade telecomm systems:
 Now
almost all habitated areas have GSM
communication
 Remote operation of hydro/met stations is now possible
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Upgrade/ expand meteorological stations
Expand cooperation with NCCR
Setup international cooperation system
What have we done until now
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Interprete on daily basis MBAR DATA for different
sections of the country
Produce 3 day sums of an number of stations in the
country
Produce simple reports with regard to possible
flooding
The virtual network
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Provide info on border crossing disaster
phenomena:
 Heavy
Rains
 Tsunami’s
 plagues
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