Open-Source Mobile Weather Stations:
Providing Information for a More Secure Water Future
David A. Wiberg, Water Futures Theme Leader
Yann Chemin, Soumya Balasubramanya, Lahiru Wijesinghe, Farah Ahmed, Mohamed Aheeyar
Launch Workshop
“Open-source mobile weather stations:
reducing flood damages and increasing the preparedness of communities”
IWMI, Sri Lanka,
3 May, 2016

IWMI’s vision - A water-secure world
IWMI’s mission - To provide evidence-based solutions to
sustainably manage water and land resources for food security, people’s
livelihoods and the environment
Water Futures vision – A decision support toolkit that helps
planners, managers and stakeholders understand and assess possible futures
and sets of solutions.
Mission - To identify contextually-appropriate pathways to achieving
sustainable water security.

Half our planet’s population are water
insecure… uncertain futures
Absent or unreliable WSS Food security and Irrigation
The impacts of unmitigated variability
including floods & droughts Degraded water environments
Photo: Pablo Tosco/Oxfam
(Flickr CC)
Photo: Felix Antonio / IWMI
Photos: Neil Palmer / IWMI
Photo: Hamish John Appelby / IWMI

0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
1950 1970 1990 2010 2030 2050
Urban Population Share (%)
SSP1 (Asia)
SSP2 (Asia)
SSP3 (Asia)
SSP4 (Asia)
SSP5 (Asia)
SSP1
SSP2
SSP3
SSP4
SSP5
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
30000
35000
40000
45000
50000
1970 1990 2010 2030 2050
Income (GDP/cap)
SSP1 (Asia)
SSP2 (Asia)
SSP3 (Asia)
SSP4 (Asia)
SSP5 (Asia)
SSP1 (ROW)
SSP2
SSP3
SSP4
SSP5
• Water use grows with income.
• GDP/capita rises everywhere,
while GDP in China could start to
decrease in the latter half of the
century.
Photo: Neil Palmer / IWMI

Climate Change
Schewe et al. (2013)
Relative change in annual discharge at 2 °C
compared with present day, under RCP8.5.

Increasing uncertainty
Decreasing knowledge
Median rainfall and standard deviation USA - SSA
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
0 20 40 60 80 100
median rainfall %standarddeviation
SSA
USA

Expensive
Not available in local market
Closed/Proprietary system
Manual recording/entering
system
Solution is,
go for open design
Available solutions…

Available non-local solutions…
Ex-

Mobile Weather Station Core…
EXCEL
Comma
Separated
Values sheet
$80
$80
$10
$10

Document costs of mobile stations
Price/Unit (USD) Unit Cost
F08079 Serial Log Chip Open Source Data Logger Module* 9.50 1 9.50
JST SH Jumper 6 Wire (GPS)* 2.95 1 2.95
GPS receiver* 39.95 1 39.95
Weather meter [1] 76.95 1 76.95
Weather Shield for Arduino* 39.95 1 39.95
RJ11 (x2), 6 pin connector for Weather Shield* 1.25 1 1.25
Arduino stackable header kit - R3* 1.50 1 1.50
8 Gb Memory Card* 6.85 1 6.85
Arduino Mega - Circuit Boards* 8.22 1 8.22
5A Solar Controllor* 9.59 1 9.59
Solar Panels* 27.39 1 27.39
Motorbike Battery* 26.70 1 26.70
Parts* 20.54 1 20.54
Steel stand structure* 47.93 1 47.93
GSM Module* 30.00 1 30.00
Total [2] 349.25 1 349.25
[1] To be replaced every three years in SL
[2] Entire weather station to be replaced every 10 years (recommended)
Equipment

MOBILE WEATHER STATIONS SUMMARY
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