Utilities Digital Solutions Europe

VIDEO: Deltares launches Blue Earth Data open access web platform

Wednesday, 9 September 2020

Supporting water-related planning processes

Independent Dutch institute Deltares has launched a new online platform called BlueEarth Data to bring together multiple water datasets in a single, free environment.

Using the platform, users can view, inspect and download operational and historic water-related data on oceans, coasts and rivers to support water-related planning processes.

The organisation said it has been developed because “flood risks are often underestimated and poorly managed due to the lack of data, particularly in less-developed regions”.

Deltares recently won Water Europe’s ‘Digital Water Award’ for developing a smartphone app to measure and share nitrate levels in groundwater.

More information on BlueEarth can be seen in the video below:

“BlueEarth Data connects the research communities who work on coastal and river flooding and who have been separated for far too long,” said Jaap Kwadijk, chairman of the Deltares Scientific Council.

“Even more importantly, by providing this kind of open access, BlueEarth Data takes the first step towards bringing global flood hazard information to everybody’s fingertips. That is a prerequisite for transparency in decision-making.”

Bridging the last mile

There are three themes under the BlueEarth global datasets, including Flooding, Coastal Management and Offshore.

These include river discharge and storm surge forecasts, shoreline changes, bathymetry, and metocean conditions. Third-party data services have also been incorporated to fortify the integration of the various data services and interactivity with the community of users.

Deltares said that users can view global forecast maps of water levels, surge levels and currents but also inspect and download the time series data in detail at the 1000+ locations.

“New web-based solutions like BlueEarth Data are needed in the GIS landscape to bridge the last mile: making the latest technological possibilities of cloud solutions available to solve questions from non-technical end-users,” added Dr Gerben J. de Boer, manager Datalab Van Oord.