05/24/2013– Spain choses WISKI as National System for Hydrometric Data Management

In late 2011, the Ministry of Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs (MARM), through the General Directorate of Water (DGA), announced an open tender call for the implementation of an information system for the management and analysis of hydrological data from the Official Gauging Stations Network (ROEA) of all the Water Boards (Confederaciones Hidrográficas) in the country. A joint venture between SICE, a systems integrator, and OFITECO, an engineering and consultancy firm, was awarded the tender by the DGA to select and implement the system to fulfill the project’s requirements.

The initial phase of the work outlined by the DGA required OFITECO-SICE to:
• Conduct market research to locate information management systems that would be suitable for the current and future needs of the DGA.
• Work collaboratively with the Center for Studies and Experimentation of Public Works (CEDEX) to perform a rigorous analysis of the capabilities of the different systems that were “short-listed” by OFITECO-SICE.
• Develop a report of their findings, which included the results of the previous work, and to indicate to the DGA the best system to be chosen.

After a long and extensive testing period that included detailed scrutiny by water resources and information management professionals from different departments and prestigious companies, the DGA choose the “Water Information System KISTERS” (WISKI) software as the preferred system that best met the objectives of the project.

The decision was based upon the detailed findings included in the report compiled by CEDEX and OFITECO-SICE. The decision stemmed from the analysis of several key areas, including:

• Degree of robustness and general stability of the system.
• Configuration possibilities and independence of work done by the end-user.
• Openness and flexibility for system integration with external systems.
• Ability to manage different kinds of hydrological data (time series, rating curves, gaugings, chart recorders, water quality, etc.).
• Management of automatic data validation routines.
• Statistical and computational tools available.
• Working speed to obtain results.
• Worldwide experience of the vendor.

Consequently, WISKI will be installed at all of the eight regional Spanish Water Board organizations, as well as at the DGA. Hydrological information from the Water Boards will be uploaded to a national archive of hydrological information.

While the goal of the first round of WISKI installations focuses on the management of existing hydrological information at the Water Boards (ROEA), the DGA intends to incorporate information from other networks aimed at flood control (SAIH), water quality (SAICA), as well as other future networks into the WISKI system.

Antonio Matamala, Manager of KISTERS Ibérica s.l. Spain, comments, “We are very pleased with the outcome of the decision by the DGA. We have worked hard to demonstrate WISKI’s ability to perform under the multitude of aspects that were considered. After the rigorous period of analysis and comparison against competing software systems, I am delighted that yet another national government has decided to manage all of their hydrological data with KISTERS software.”

Contact:
Antonio Matamala
KISTERS Ibérica s.l. Spain
Antonio.matamala@kisters.es
www.kisters.es

Phil Stefanoff
KISTERS North America, Inc.
1-916-723-1441
phil.stefanoff@kisters.net
www.kisters.net

For additional information or a sample copy of the press release, please contact: Jennifer Durda +1 916-723-1441, Jennifer.durda@kisters.net, 7777 Greenback Lane, Suite 209, Citrus Heights, CA, 95610-5800.

Company History:

In 1963, Heinz KISTERS founded the company. Heinz’ sons, Hanns and Klaus, joined the family enterprise in the 1980’s and began supplying data management software solutions to Federal agencies in Europe. Incorporated into KISTERS AG in 1999, KISTERS grew through the acquisitions of the EH&S division of Siemens / SICAD Geomatics, HYDSTRA in 2004, deneg GmbH in 2005, EUS GmbH in 2006, and iQUEST and RHEA in 2008. Based in Aachen, Germany, KISTERS now has a global workforce in excess of 500 staff, most of whom have completed graduate studies in engineering or hydrological sciences. KISTERS has expanded to a global company.