Starting activity was the analysis of user needs. Over 40 interviews were held with potential users in the water, agriculture, energy, insurance, and flood resilience sectors. Based on the analysis, 38 services were identified with six that were prioritized for operationalization. These six services: Map your crop, your local and timely weather forecast, digital platform for index insurance, short-term prediction for solar energy, Water balance for (dam) reservoirs and heat stress indices, were selected based on their potential impact and the feasibility of rapid implementation. Additional seven services (How humid is my environment, Soil Index Crop Insurance, Does it drain, International Water Control Room, Emergency Management for heavy rains, Drought Monitoring and GNSS for floodplains and Atmospheric Moisture) have been brought to the market.
Field-testing of several experimental sensors started, with a lot of progress made, some of which have produced useful results and exploited for the current services on the market. The UAVs continue to provide very relevant new information for crop status and flood monitoring. Several citizen science apps and services have been developed and field-tested for measuring crop stages and drainage issues and operational. Data is now flowing from these sensors into the TWIGA platform, from which the services have been developed,operationalized and on the market. The data flow to GEOSS is continuously maintained. Soil moisture data from the TAHMO network is readily available in the International Soil Moisture Network to the public.
New sensors, are at the scientific core of TWIGA. In the proposal, ten new sensors were put forward at different Technology Readiness Levels. Work on most sensors has taken place with special efforts going to the evaporimeter, neutron counter, intervalometer/disdrometer, GNSS water vapour measurement and the flood mapper. Also for new sensors, such as the floating plastic sensor, proof-of-concept has been built to continuously feed the innovation pipeline from sensor to service. Due to prioritisation of needs from users for the various services, the plastic sensor has not been developed further. Involving affected citizens with an ODK App on a smart phone turned out to be a more efficient way to report plastic accumulation.
A lot of effort was put in the TWIGA data platform with feature enhancement done both on the backend and front end following some recommendations from the TWIGA project officer and reviewers. A set of micro-services has been developed that link data sources to the platform. Service delivery through the platform is operational. Data and metadata formats have been implemented that support GEOSS. New sensors and citizen science data, demand special quality control and calibration for which a framework has been put in place and being implemented even beyond the project phase.
