Leveraging Mesonets to Develop Diverse Environmental Decision Support Systems

Statewide mesonets are often perceived as being limited to providing only meteorological information to their constituencies. The data provided by the mesonet, and the infrastructure associated with the network, are often neglected in the development of value added products for diverse environmental applications. The Delaware Environmental Observing System (DEOS) has been operational across Delaware, and parts of Pennsylvania and Maryland for nearly 20 years. During that time several decision support systems have been developed that leverage DEOS data and infrastructure. Delaware is a coastal state with the lowest mean elevation in the United States and thus vulnerable to coastal flooding from both mid-latitude and tropical cyclones. Delaware also has a thriving agricultural economy of over one billion dollars dominated by poultry farming and corn. Thus, many of the value added applications have been developed accordingly.

The Delaware Coastal Flood Monitoring System was developed to warn coastal residents of approaching storms that are likely to result in flooding. The application shows potential coastal inundation depths, tidal cycles, and winds along the Delaware Coast and surrounding Delaware inland bays. During winter storms, real-time snow depth measurements are provided by the Delaware Environmental Observing System to the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) for their Snow Removal Reimbursement Program. The snow monitoring stations directly measure snow depth, which is processed every five minutes to produce snow accumulation data. And finally, the Delaware Irrigation Management System (DIMS) uses an irrigation scheduling method based on the basic water balance using high-resolution DEOS data for precipitation and the calculation of evapotranspiration. The use of these applications by diverse constituencies will be discussed in the context of Delaware’s geographic and demographic environment.