The newly established Taiwan Typhoon and Flood Research Institute will develop better monitoring technologies and help government officials respond more effectively to weather-related natural disasters, institute Director Lee Cheng-shang said Aug. 17.
Lee made the remarks during the inauguration ceremony of the institute, which began operations this April.
TTFRI will serve as a platform between researchers and government agencies, and will initiate interdisciplinary projects on flood observation fieldwork, data collection and analysis, Lee said.
The institute is working with local universities, research institutes and the Central Weather Bureau to develop an integrated forecast system, together with core technology in meteorological and hydrological observation, numerical modeling, and hydrological analyses, according to Lee.
“The information on typhoons and floods provided by the system will be shared with the authorities responsible for disaster prevention and reduction,” Lee said, adding that the system is expected to help the CWB make more accurate weather forecasts starting next year.
“If we can better predict the paths of typhoons and their rainfall amounts, fewer lives and properties will be lost,” institute officials said during the ceremony.
They added that TTFRI also plans to set up mobile radars and a hydrology simulation system to provide accurate precipitation forecasts that take into account Taiwan’s complicated geography.
“The system will be able to predict rainfall three hours in advance, and give local governments more time to carry out emergency measures such as closing down bridges,” the institute said. Current technology can predict rainfall only one hour in advance, they said.
CWB statistics show that a total of 408 typhoons hit Taiwan between 1898 and 2010, with an average of 3.57 per year, the TTFRI said.
It added that rains and floods caused by typhoons brought an average of NT$17.4 billion (US$599.9 million) in damages every year, an average of 0.33 percent of each year’s gross national product. (HZW)