Mashing-Up Weather Networks Data to Support Hydro-Meteorological Research

Abstract

The use of Web technologies for the collection and visualization of geoscentific data has significantly increased the availability of free sensor data over the Internet. This work aims at designing a Web mashup for the aggregation of meteorological variables (precipitation, humidity, pressure, etc.) published on the Web by several weather networks and the rendering of query results through a graphic interface in a homogeneous way. The mashup approach is particularly suitable to provide an easy to develop and quickly deployed application capable to support HM scientists in their everyday activity. As a significant case study of the adoption of the tool, the authors consider the severe flash-flood event that occurred in fall 2011 in the Liguria region, Italy. To this end, they base their analysis on the aggregated rainfall data observed by an official and a personal weather network.