Reliable real time data acquisition in water resources management Patra Annapurna1, Chowdhury Ujjal1, Ranade S.D.1 1Central Water and Power Research Station, Pune, Maharashtra, India Online published on 16 July, 2022. Abstract Water is the essential asset for socio economic development of any country. So it is imperative that water issues are considered in an integrated manner to provide solutions for sustainable water management. Hydrometeorological instruments and water quality instruments provide much needed measurement tools to achieve advance water resource management. In this context, Automatic Weather Station (AWS) are in huge demand for varied reasons. The advance technology, real time data reception and transmission with minimum human intervention are putting it in the front line of reliable surface weather data acquisition system than its conventional counterparts. These are effectively used to provide both online and offline data to estimate the quantum of flood, flood forecasting, severe weather warning such as cloud burst, flash floods, low pressure cyclonic precipitation, storms etc.The rain fall depth, evaporation potential, sunshine duration, wind, humidity etc. are the major meteorological parametersthat are taken into account for water budgeting.All these parameter are essential for flood estimation, flood forecasting, and water availability in the reservoirs. Hence accurate reliable data acquisition of all these parameters can only be achieved with proper knowledge of handling of weather station. The present paper attempts to highlight the challenges faced in obtaining reliable estimates of real-time weather parameter and to aware users of meteorological data to the pitfalls of blindly accepting sensors readings. Points of potential concern include proper calibration; maintenance and installation of sensors with proper levelling. The importance of data quality control is also highlighted. The key factors that includes the proper site selection, the various standards and it importance for getting the reliable data for water management is also discussed elaborately. Top Keywords Water Management, AWS, Weather data, Flood, Calibration. Top |