HYDROMETEOROLOGICAL NETWORK UPGRADE DESIGN FOR OGUN-OSHUN RIVER BASIN

Abstract

Hydro-meteorological data useful for hydrological monitoring, agricultural production, research and planning in the tropics are grossly inefficient in terms of their practical values as a large number of the stations fall short of the international standard established. This study examined the effectiveness of the existing hydro-meteorological network in Ogun –Oshun river basin in terms of providing useful data for hydrologic processes and agricultural planning. This is with the overall aim of designing an upgrade for the network suitable for providing useful data for agricultural planning and hydrological processes. The design of hydrometeorological network upgrade in Ogun–Oshun river basin was carried following WMO standard for network design. The primary data and field information were obtained from the working files and existing stations of Ogun-Oshun River Basin Development Authority. Results obtained showed that, complete data were scarce and a lot of interpolations had to be done. Thus, important hydrometerological information relevant to agricultural planning and hydrological processes were missing. Also, that the existing spatial distribution of the networks has been found to be highly inadequate in most parts of the river basin. The reliability of hydrometeorological characteristics depends not only on the accuracy of observations, but also on the mathematical background for interpretation of the results. The need to optimize networks, means and methods of observations as well as the procedures and techniques of data processing is also discussed.