Open technologies for monitoring systems aimed at disaster risk reduction

This research is spearheading the integration of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and Open Source Hardware (OSHW) in the field of agri-meteorology applications to disaster risk reduction, flood and droughts. A Do-It-Yourself weather station based on OSHW standards has been developed from local sources in Sri Lanka, reporting by SMS to tank/reservoir managers when rainfall is higher than 10mm/h. These weather stations are soon going to be reprogrammed to report to istSOS, a FOSS web-based Sensor-Observation-Service compliant system, which will collate live reporting of rainfall every hour and before if intensities are dimmed worrying for flood risks. This is both a scientific, technological, and practical challenge toward a very low cost real time disaster risk notification system in places where climate, economy and maintenance supports are themselves other challenges.