Hydroscope: Creation of a National Databank for Hydrological and Meteorological Information

The main objective of HYDROSCOPE is the creation of a modern information infrastructure for the hydrological cycle in Greece. Specifically, it aims at organising and systematising the hydrological, hydrogeological and meteorological information using the capacities that are provided by the modern methods and techniques of computer science and telecommunications. The database, which will be built, will contribute to the reliable programming, planning and management of the water resources of the country, the mitigation of phenomena like flood and drought, the evaluation of hydroclimatic parameters and their effects to the natural and biological environment, the diagnosis of climatic changes as well as the prediction and the control of the air pollution and the groundwater and surface water pollution. The development of a unified synergistic network, the information exchange and the co-ordination of the activities of the participating organisations, which are involved with the components of the hydrological cycle (Universities, Research Centres, Ministries and Services) as well as the reorganisation and standardisation of the hydrometeorological networks' function are considered as indirect but essential benefits. The programme includes: (a) hardware equipment, to install a network with 13 major nodes (RISC Workstations with Unix operation system) in Athens and Thessaloniki, local networks of PCs in each node, private high speed wide area network using routers and leased telephone lines, (b) infrastructure software, and specifically, distributed relational data base and graphic environment for applications' development, and (c) application software, and specifically, a distributed database system and applications concerning the input, the supervision and the processing of data in a graphic environment. This distributed database system provides firstly, the autonomy of each participant in managing data and secondly, a transparent, relatively to the data position, access. In addition, the project includes the locating of the available hydrological, hydrogeological and meteorological data that is maintained by the participants and the determination of the volume, the form and the reliability of measurements. Finally, a significant part of HYDROSCOPE deals with the development and the standardisation of methodologies regarding the processing as well as the pilot data entry of a part of the hydrological, hydrogeological and meteorological information aiming at the testing of the methodologies and systems.