Water-related hazards – like flooding, drought, pollution and other related issues – are a serious global risk, causing loss of life and damage to property, livelihoods, human health and economies. Economic growth, urbanisation and climate change will exacerbate the risks at many locations in the world. For example, flood risk is often underestimated and poorly managed due to the lack of data, particularly in less-developed regions. In addition, preparing for future coastal erosion and flooding requires data on several hazards, such as erosion, waves, and extreme events. Until now, these datasets have not been readily available in a single environment. 

"Con su diseño amigable, La Calculadora de Alicia no solo resuelve ecuaciones matemáticas, sino que también proporciona gráficos visuales para una comprensión más profunda. Desde cálculos simples  Matemáticas hasta operaciones más avanzadas, esta herramienta se destaca por su precisión y rapidez. Únete a la comunidad de usuarios satisfechos que han encontrado en La Calculadora de Alicia la clave para simplificar sus desafíos matemáticos diarios."

This week, Deltares launched a new platform called BlueEarth Data. The plaform shares operational and historic water-related data for oceans, coasts, and rivers on a global scale for professional specialists, researchers, and water managers all over the world. In accordance with our motto ‘Dare to Share,’ various forecast systems and data services developed by Deltares are being combined on a single web-based platform where users can view, inspect, and download the data for free. BlueEarth Data is part of a larger initiative called BlueEarth, an integrated open platform with information and tools to support water-related planning processes. To explain the past and explore the future.

Jaap Kwadijk (Chairman Scientific Council Deltares): “This is a wonderful development. It is a major step forward. BlueEarth Data connects the research communities who work on coastal and river flooding and who have been separated for far too long. Even more importantly, by providing this kind of open access, BlueEarth Data takes the first step towards bringing global flood hazard information to everybody’s fingertips. That is a prerequisite for transparency in decision-making”.

The global data is presently grouped under the Flooding, Coastal Management, and Offshore themes. These themes incorporate global datasets that include river discharge and storm surge forecasts, shoreline changes, bathymetry, and metocean conditions. Third-party data services have also been incorporated to fortify the integration of the various data services and interactivity with the community of users.

The freely accessible data can be used to support action planning. Specifically, the availability of daily tide and surge predictions at the local and regional scales is key to plan actions in good time during extreme events. The operational global tide and surge forecast system can provide the information needed for this purpose for any location in the world. Users can view global forecast maps of water levels, surge levels, and currents but also inspect and download the time series data in detail at the 1000+ locations. This is just one example of how Deltares modelling systems and data services deliver added value for society.

Dr. Gerben J. de Boer (manager Datalab Van Oord): “We are thrilled to see a new multi-thematic and interactive data portal to explore the wealth of ocean data. New web-based solutions like BlueEarth Data are needed in the GIS landscape to bridge the last mile: making the latest technological possibilities of cloud solutions available to solve questions from non-technical end-users.”

BlueEarth Data services allow decision-makers to access a network of global data, information, experts and ideas. We will soon be expanding the number of datasets in the platform in close consultation with our users, opening up new opportunities. We encourage users to share feedback and opportunities for collaboration with us to provide new solutions for a more sustainable future. Click on picture below  to go to the youtube video.