Water Level Observation Network for Latin America (RONMAC)

Water Level Observation Network for Central America (RONMAC)  
Final Report

June 2000 – December 2001

Key Accomplishments

Designation of Regional Coordinating Agency
Institutional Baseline Report
Procurement
Reconnaissance Trips
Installations, Training, and Inspections
Technical Training Workshops
Steering Committee Meetings
Establishment of the Data Quality Control Laboratory (LABCODAT)
Web-Page
Sustainability and Expansion of RONMAC

Designation of Regional Coordinating Agency

Given the regional nature of this project and the importance of stakeholder participation and project sustainability in all activities executed, it was deemed essential to have a Central American regional coordinating agency closely involved in the RONMAC activities.  After consultation and research, the Comité Regional de Recursos Hidráulicos (CRRH) was officially designated as the Regional Coordinating Agency for the RONMAC project.  CRRH is an intergovernmental technical institution that functions under the Central American Integration System (SICA).  It specializes in meteorology, climate, and water resources.  Its main purpose is to promote the development and conservation of water resources and its sustainable use. The Organization of American States and CRRH signed a Memorandum of Understanding regarding this designation, detailing the responsibilities of both organizations throughout the project period.  In particular, CRRH was responsible for (1) analysis and recommendation of appropriate institutions for participation in RONMAC; (2) coordination of regional workshops; (3) coordination of steering committee meetings; and (4) assisting the OAS/USDE with communication and with supervision of fieldwork.

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Institutional Baseline Report

CRRH researched and presented an institutional baseline report at the inception of the project.  A CRRH consultant visited the four RONMAC participating countries and conducted meetings and interviews with the key stakeholders and potential participating agencies.  The report was a valuable guide in determining the levels of participation of various institutions and organizations.  In addition, through the report, CRRH made important suggestions regarding the execution of the RONMAC project and its related activities. 

Summary of Institutional Baseline Report

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Procurement

The sensors and satellite communication equipment required for the RONMAC stations had to meet several technical criteria, which were used in turn to guide the procurement process. A first criterion was the need to maintain flexibility in future purchases, when countries would have to periodically replace sensors that reached the end of their useful life. Generic sensor compatibility was used as a guiding feature, so that a wide variety of sensor manufacturers could be used for future procurements. This ruled out vendors who offered “packaged” monitoring systems, dictating that all ancillary components must be purchased from them in the future. A second criterion was the requirement that the vendor support the acoustic sea-level sensor acceptable to the NOAA/NOS and the GLOSS. A third criterion was that the vendor be a NOAA/NESDIS-certified GOES satellite transmitter manufacturer. 

The OAS conducted a thorough procurement process and conducted an extensive analysis of many manufacturers.  It was determined that two companies, Sutron and Vitel, met the criteria.  Before proposals were requested, a RONMAC staff member visited both firms and discussed the project with representatives of each.  Subsequently, he discussed the technical merits of both firms with the NOAA/NOS technical staff, and then prepared a request for proposal, which was sent to each firm.  Based on the proposals received, evaluation by RONMAC staff, the lower price offered by Vitel for the equipment, and the Organization of American States’ previous satisfactory experience with Vitel, Inc., during the Caribbean: Planning and Adaptation to Climate Change (CPACC) project in 1997, the contract was awarded to Vitel, Inc. for the purchase of 17 state-of-the-art sea-level and meteorological monitoring and data dissemination systems and 1 digital ground station.  Once all the equipment was ready, it was inspected, tested, and packaged for shipment under the supervision of the RONMAC Acting Technical Coordinator.

Procurement Synopsis
Final Quotation Synopsis

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Reconnaissance Trips

Upon review of the institutional baseline report, RONMAC staff conducted reconnaissance trips in the participating countries, to work with key stakeholders to develop the network in a manner that was both beneficial and sustainable. These trips generally consisted of two parts: meeting and site visits.

Meetings were held with the meteorological office, survey office, port authorities, and defense-force offices.  Historically, in RONMAC countries, the role of operating sea-level monitoring equipment went large multifaceted hydrology-meteorology-seismology offices, and most of the “historic” information resided in these offices.  Accordingly, in most instances, they proved to be the most appropriate national counterpart institutions for the network and were so designated.  Participants also discussed the commitment of personnel to participate in the installation and on-site training. While these RONMAC monitoring sites are not intended to be conventional “synoptic” meteorological monitoring stations, they do incorporate all of the same equipment elements as those found in such stations. After the reconnaissance trips, the national counterpart institutions assigned technicians to work in RONMAC, in part based on their level of familiarity with this type of monitoring equipment.

RONMAC staff, together with national technicians, also visited potential RONMAC sites.  These were both "historic" sites and alternative sites. In a few cases the historic sites were located on structures that were no longer available or suitable. Alternative sites were therefore considered, on the basis of their relative proximity to the historic monitoring station benchmarks, their structural suitability and security considerations. If the historic site was available, or if an alternative site was necessary and met all the needs, physical measurements of water depth and structure height were made. A site-specific design was developed, photographs were taken, and reconnaissance-quality GPS position was determined. The design drawings were made using CAD methods, printed and delivered to the local technicians before the RONMAC staff left.  With capacity building as a core objective of RONMAC, all efforts were made to involve the national agencies and their technicians in every aspect of the site selection, logistics, equipment installation, and system maintenance.  When necessary, RONMAC staff and national technicians also initiated the process of gaining permission to install the equipment.

During the meetings and site visits, RONMAC staff, national counterpart institutions, and port authorities also discussed the type of data produced and the method for data delivery, and discussed the feasibility of using the Internet as a vehicle for data delivery back to the countries.  After these visits, the appropriate changes were made regarding data production (e.g., additional sensors) and it was determined that data could be delivered over the Internet.

In the past, NOAA/NOS had operated sea-level monitoring sites in all the participating countries in conjunction with the national offices. The information on the historic monitoring sites was gathered, and consideration was given to reusing them. Suitable conditions at the “historic” site and alternative sites were considered.

RONMAC Photos (Zip File Format): Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua
RONMAC Benchmarks (Zip File Format): El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua

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Installations, Training, and Inspections

The RONMAC equipment was shipped from the manufacturers in Chantilly, Virginia, U.S.A. to each participating country.  The OAS National Office and the Regional Counterpart Agency then facilitated its clearing customs and delivery to the national counterpart institution. RONMAC staff prepared a suggested installation schedule and sent it to all the national counterpart institutions for their approval and integration into their other existing work schedules. Once the schedule was agreed to, an installation team visited each country, consisting of the RONMAC Acting Technical Coordinator, the RONMAC Assistant Technical Coordinator, and national technicians.  The national technicians then assembled each station with the RONMAC staff acting as trainers. The technicians were thus able to get individual training from the team members. This also served as training for the RONMAC Assistant Technical Coordinator, who had formal education and experience with meteorological sensors, but did not possess significant exposure to sea-level monitoring systems. At the end of each installation there was further training on long-term maintenance and direct local data retrieval, and a detailed question-and-answer session. Detailed training was also provided in the second regional workshop after all the installations were completed, once all technicians had had the benefit of some experience with the system. Additional visits by the RONMAC coordinators were also made for follow-up training.  In the last two quarters of the project, low-range data reception computers were installed near the RONMAC stations for local data retrieval.  Detailed documentation was completed for each station upon installation.

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Technical Training Workshops

First Technical Training Workshop

RONMAC held a technical workshop and a steering-committee meeting during the week of May 14, 2001, in Antigua, Guatemala.  The workshop provided the RONMAC participating countries with practical, hands-on training in water-level data processing.  It was primarily taught by Mr. Pat Caldwell, the manager of the Joint Archive for Sea Level (JASL) and the one of the primary authors of the JASL software.  Dr. Patrick Michaud, Director of the Division of Nearshore Research at the Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, also made a presentation on data analysis and processing.  Country participants in the workshop were:

El Salvador: Luis Hernández (IGN), Rolando Mejía (IGN)

Guatemala: Pedro Tax (INSIVUMEH), Luis Santos (INSIVUMEH), Francisco Lima (OBIMAR/Portuaria - not funded), Nicolás Solares (OBIMAR/Portuaria - not funded)

Honduras: Arturo Pineda (IGN), Constantino Pineda (IGN)

Nicaragua: Sergio Cordonero (INETER), Javier González (INETER)

Also in attendance at the workshop were Sasha Beth Gottlieb (OAS), Lee Chapin (OAS), Doug Martin (NOAA/NOS), Thomas Landon (NOAA/NOS), Max Campos (CRRH), Alejandro Gutierrez (CRRH/RONMAC), Jim Navarro (CRRH/RONMAC)

RONMAC staff devoted significant time and effort to the coordination of the logistical and technical aspects of this meeting and participated in it.  It received very successful evaluations.

Workshop Report
Sea-Level Data Processing Manual

Second Technical Training Workshop

RONMAC held a Second Technical Training Workshop in Heredia, Costa Rica from October 16 10 18, 2001.  Jonathan Koval, of Vitel Inc., taught the workshop, with support from Lee Chapin (OAS) and Jim Navarro (CRRH/RONMAC).  The topics covered at the workshop were:

• Operation and maintenance of the Vitel VX1100

• Theory, calibration, operation, and maintenance of the RONMAC meteorological sensors

• Standards and calibration of the Bartex acoustic sea-level sensor

• Annual stability checks of the sea-level monitoring sensors

• Maintenance requirements of the RONMAC monitoring structures

• Theory, operation, and maintenance of the RONMAC communications

• Local data downloading

• Regional data downloading and the RONMAC Web page

• Trouble-shooting commonly encountered problems

• Record keeping

RONMAC country participants in the workshop were:

El Salvador: Luis Hernández (IGN)
Guatemala: Julio A. Román (INSIVUMEH)
Honduras: Arturo Humberto Pineda (IGN)
Nicaragua: José Tomás Valle P. (INETER), Francisco Javier González (INETER)

Other country participants were:

Barbados: Ronald Leslie (CIMH), John Richards (CIMH)
Panama: Ricardo Thompson (Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute)

 Also in attendance at the workshop were Lee Chapin (OAS),  Max Campos (CRRH), Alejandro Gutierrez (CRRH/RONMAC), Jim Navarro (CRRH/RONMAC).

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Steering Committee Meetings

Two meetings of the steering committee (CRRH, OAS, and NOAA)  were held during RONMAC’s execution, both coinciding with the technical training workshops (May and October 2001).  The meetings provided the members of the steering committee with the opportunity to review accomplishments to date, plan future activities, and make modifications where necessary.  For example, the decision to establish the Data Quality Control Laboratory (See Establishment of the Data Quality Control Laboratory) was reached at the first steering committee meeting in May 2001.

RONMAC First Steering Committee Minutes
RONMAC Second Steering Committee Minutes

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Establishment of the Data Quality Control Laboratory (LABCODAT)

In May 2001, the Steering Committee decided to establish a Data Quality Control Laboratory (LABCODAT) for the project.  The purpose of LABCODAT is to serve as a permanent mechanism of data quality and analysis and a base for technical assistance and calibration for the RONMAC stations.  To achieve these ends, a ground station, a satellite dish, a calibration station, and a computer were installed at National University of Costa Rica in October 2001.  Space was donated by the University for this purpose and renovated by RONMAC staff.

In July 2001, prior to the installation of the equipment, the Acting and Assistant Technical Coordinators participated in the installation of a similar ground station in Trinidad.  The Assistant Technical Coordinator benefited from training by both the manufacturer and the Acting Technical Coordinator.  Additionally, the occassion provided CPACC and RONMAC staff with an opportunity to collaborate on future links between the two projects.

The procedures carried out at LABCODAT are outlined in the Regional Archiving Center Process Document and Procedure Manual.

Regional Archiving Center Process Document and Procedure Manual

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Web Page

The OAS established a web site for the RONMAC Project during the first quarter of execution (www.oas.org/ronmac).  CRRH/UNA later created a site based at LABCODAT (www.una.ac.cr/ronmac/ronmac.html).  Both sites provide background information and technical documents on RONMAC.  The CRRH/UNA site will begin during the first quarter of 2002 to provide real-time data from the stations.

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Sustainability and Expansion of RONMAC

Sustainability

Since its initial conception, a key element for RONMAC was to ensure long-term sustainability after the funded portion of the project ended (December 31, 2001).  The need for such a strategy was reinforced during the reconnaissance trips and installations when RONMAC staff observed a variety of donated equipment not being fully used because of a lack of technical and financial capacity for maintenance.  The selection of CRRH as the regional counterpart institution was a central component of RONMAC’s sustainability strategy.  CRRH demonstrated its commitment to RONMAC through its continued financial and human contribution to the project.  CRRH possesses a clear mandate from the governments of Central America to carry out this type of activity.  After December 31 2001, CRRH took over responsibility as the coordinating institution for RONMAC.  It has already obtained external funding for the operation of the network and is exploring the possibility of income-generating activities related to sea-level observation networks.  The establishment of LABCODAT will allow CRRH to perform routine calibrations of equipment and also serve as a respository for spare parts.  The RONMAC Technical Director remains vigilant on the state of the equipment, providing repairs and replacements as needed. Commitment at the national level is also an important component of RONMAC’s sustainability.  Accordingly, the strategy sought to ensure significant country buy-in and technical and institutional capacity-building.  Memoranda of Understanding were signed between the OAS and all the RONMAC countries.  These documents provided a vehicle for the participating governments to demonstrate their commitment to the installation and utilization of the equipment and the maintenance of the Network.  CRRH staff will work with the governments to plan for RONMAC maintenance needs.  LABCODAT will continue to provide calibration and repair services. 

Expansion

In September 2001, RONMAC staff (Lee Chapin and Jim Navarro) traveled to Panama to meet with the Panama Canal Commission and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Together they operate the Panamanian sea-level and meteorological monitoring system. RONMAC staff visited their sites and discussed their potential collaboration with CRRH in an expanded network for Central America. Three of their principal monitoring sites are identical to the RONMAC sites except for the “local communications” features of RONMAC. Both institutions were very much interested in participating in the post-RONMAC activities and expressed their desire to enter into a mutually beneficial MOU with CRRH. RONMAC/CRRH agreed to immediately begin downlinking Panamanian GOES telemetered data and presenting it on the RONMAC Web site.  Two RONMAC-type stations were installed in September–October 2001 at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama - Galeta Island and the other at Bocas del Toro Island. Although these stations are not part of RONMAC, they are of significant scientific importance to the region. Some specialized and in situ training was given to the marine lab technicians.

Links have also been made between Belize and the RONMAC Countries.  Belize is a participating country in CPACC and the Mainstreaming Adaptation to Climate Change (MACC) Project.  It may serve as a liaison between the two projects, because of its unique character as both a Caribbean and a Central American nation.

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