CIDMEWS-SL
The Climate Information, Disaster Management and Early Warning System-Sierra Leone (CIDMEWS-SL) Web Mapping Application is a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Web mapping application that provides easy and convenient ways to collect, map, explore, query, analyze and freely share available climate information, disaster management and early warning data and information resources from any device, anywhere, at any time. A primary goal of the CIDMEWS-SL is to allow people who are not GIS professionals to do self-service mapping on any device (i.e., desktop, tablets and smartphones using Internet browsers) and expand the creative use and sharing of climate information, disaster management and early warning data and information resources about Sierra Leone.
It is hoped that by using the CIDMEWS-SL from any device, anywhere and at any time will encourage collaboration and information sharing, and promote efficiency and effectiveness in providing individuals and organisations with timely and accurate climate information, disaster management and early warning data and information resources for better and more informed decision making in preparedness and planning, mitigation, response and recovery.
The CIDMEWS’ easy-to-use widgets and tools can be interactively used to easily accomplish various spatial analysis and mapping tasks using relevant socio-demographic datasets (Sierra Leone Housing and Population Census 2015) and the following geospatial data layers for Sierra Leone:
CIDMEWS’ easy-to-use widgets and tools can be interactively used to accomplish various meaningful queries, spatial analysis and mapping tasks using relevant socio-demographic data and the following geospatial data layers for Sierra Leone:
- Sierra Leone Housing and Population Census 2015 – Districts and Chiefdom level demographics (Source: Statistics Sierra Leone, 2016)
- Health facilities – clinics, hospitals and health centres (Source: MoHS, 2015)
- Educational facilities – primary, secondary and tertiary institutions (Source: UNICEF, 2014)
- Police stations, police schools and prisons (Source: UNMEER, 2015)
- Road networks – Tertiary, primary and secondary roads, including residential streets in urban areas (Source: OSM, 2016)
- Hydrology – major rivers and tributaries and streams (Source: OSM, 2016)
- Sierra Leone Water Security Project - borehole water monitoring in the Rokel-Seli River Basin (Source: MWR, 2016)
- Provinces – First-tier administrative boundaries in Sierra Leone (Source: Statistics Sierra Leone, 2015; OSM 2015)
- Districts - Second-tier administrative boundaries in Sierra Leone (Source: Statistics Sierra Leone, 2015; OSM 2015)
- Chiefdoms - Third-tier administrative boundaries in Sierra Leone (Source: Statistics Sierra Leone, 2015; OSM 2015)
- Sections - Fourth-tier administrative boundaries in Sierra Leone (Source: Statistics Sierra Leone, 2015; OSM 2015)
- Local Council Wards - local administrative boundaries in Sierra Leone (Source: Statistics Sierra Leone, 2016)
- Settlements – cities, towns and villages in Sierra Leone (Source: OSM 2016)
- Places of worship – churches and mosques (Source: UNICEF, 2014)
- Soils - soils type and spatial distribution in Sierra Leone (Source: FAO, 2004)
- Geology - geological formations and distribution in Sierra Leone (Source: National Minerals Agency, Sierra Leone, 2014)
- Environmental Management - Mangroves, protected areas and wetlands/swamps (Source: Ministry of Lands, Country Planning and Environment, 2012)
- Building footprints - detailed building footprints of structures (Source: OSM, 2016)
- Topographic contours (10m and 20m) - detailed topolines from ASTER GDEM (Source: INTEGEMS, 2014)
- Bumbuna Watershed – Dam, Reservoir, Settlements (Source: INTEGEMS/BWMA, 2016)
- Guma Valley and Dodo Dam – Catchment and settlements (Source: INTEGEMS/BWMA, 2016)
- Earth Networks Automatic Weather Stations – real-time meteorological information from 8 weather stations (Source: Earth Networks, 2016)
- Disaster Prone Areas (Western Area) - Disaster prone areas and locations within the Western Area (Source: ONS-DMD and INTEGEMS, 2017)
The CIDMEWS-SL Geoportal
Efforts to modernize the status of hydro-meteorological services in Sierra Leone in the past decades had been pathetic at best, or, in many areas, were absent. Consequently, despite many interventions by various donors and development partners, including the UNDP, the Sierra Leone Meteorological department is still not a dependable, reliable, timely, usable, useful, credible, authentic or responsive source of weather, water and climate information for most businesses and individuals (with limited exceptions, such as in aviation, due to legal requirements). Addressing the aforementioned challenges requires dedicated interventions capable of developing bespoke technological solutions that are platform agnostic and can work sinuously to integrate new systems into the varied patchwork of information technologies and hydro-meteorological monitoring systems currently in place. This need for careful systems integration is one of the key technical objectives of the Climate Information, Disaster Management and Early Warning System-Sierra Leone (CIDMEWS-SL) GeoPortal.
The CIDMEWS-SL GeoPortal is a Cloud-based mapping platform that integrates Web-based Geographic Information System (GIS) and Management Information System (MIS) systems with mobile data collection technology to provide a family of sophisticated tools and Web services for collecting, managing, visualizing, mapping, analysing, reporting, disseminating, sharing and collaborating on various aspects of hydrometeorological (weather, climate and hydrology), disaster management and early warning systems in Sierra Leone from any device (desktops/laptops and smartphones/tablets), from any place and at any time. The only real requirement to interact with the CIDMEWS-SL Geoportal is Internet connectivity through 3/4G or Wifi and a Web browser (e.g., Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Edge, Safari, Firefox, etc.) on any device.
The CIDMEWS-SL Geoportal has been developed by Integrated Geo-information and Environmental Management Services (INTEGEMS) as part of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Sierra Leone sponsored Project (Support to Communications and Dialogue on Early Warning, Forecasting Products and Climate Information), whose main objectives are to:
- Establish a functional network of meteorological and hydrological monitoring stations to help understand better weather and climatic changes overtime.
- Enhance the capacity of hydro-meteorological services and networks to predict climatic events and associated risks, including the development of a more effective and targeted delivery of climate information and early warnings.
- Develop and disseminate weather and climate information and warnings to the Government of Sierra Leone, the private sector and the general public.
INTEGEMS has closely worked with four Implementing Partners - Sierra Leone Meteorological Department (SLMD) in the Ministry of Transport and Aviation (MTA), the Office of National Security, the Ministry of Water Resources (MWR), and the Environment Protection Agency-Sierra Leone (EPA-SL) - to design and develop the CIDMEWS-SL GeoPortal and to provide timely and reliable information for better understanding and improving hydrometeorological (weather, climate and hydrology), disaster management and early warning system through the enhancement of technical and technological capacities.
The CIDMEWS-SL GeoPortal enables registered ONS, SLMD, EPA-SL and MWR staff to create, store and access both locally hosted and Cloud-hosted contents, which are comprised of GIS Web services, maps and configurable applications. It specifically allows the ONS-DMD to use the entire platform to collaborate, catalogue and share maps and applications with members of other hydrometeorological, disaster management and early warning organisations or constituents of Sierra Leone. Additionally, the CIDMEWS-SL GeoPortal can be used by various organisations to lay the foundation for creating a collaboration pattern across disaster and emergency management organisations, establish a pattern for each disaster and emergency management organisation to use the platform and fosters sharing and collaboration across each pattern.
The Implementing Partners (i.e., ONS, SLMet, EPA-SL and MWR) have been fully subscribed to the CIDMEWS-SL GeoPortal and can use it to manage, create, store, and access hosted services, maps and applications. Other GoSL MDAs, Development Partners, NGOs and INGOs, CBO and other organisations can subscribe to the platform through the ONS and use it to access various hosted services, maps and applications.
The CIDMEWS-SL Geoportal can contribute to the following:
- lead-times for local communities at risk – of floods and severe storms (hail, thunder, lightning, intense rains and violent winds) – to prepare and undertake risk reduction measures, including moving assets to safer locations and implementing flood resilience measures;
- interpretation, packaging and transfer of climate information for relevant user-agencies to minimize risk to life and livelihoods including evacuating vulnerable groups, assisting local communities implement risk reduction, and implementing flood control and re-routing structures;
- agro- and hydro-meteorological information for informing integrated farm management and water resources management;
- integration of climate information into planning and policy making processes; and;
- packaging of weather and climate data and information for a range of other service providers including applications related to building and management of infrastructure, land and air transport, and the private sector.