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VTT calculates the benefits of meteorological services in Croatia
30.01.2008
The World Bank and WMO recommend similar analyses to be always carried out before significant development and investment decisions
According to the calculations of VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), the benefits generated by the Croatian weather services amount to a minimum of EUR 30 million annually, which gives the services a benefit-cost ratio of approximately 4. VTT has identified aviation, waterborne transport and agriculture as the main winners. Based on experiences obtained in the project, the Word Bank and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) recommend that similar analyses should always be carried out before significant development and investment decisions are made. FMI and VTT are currently preparing a corresponding analysis for the entire Balkan region. The joint project is commissioned by WMO.
The Croatian Hydro-Meteorological Service (Državni Hidrometeorološki Zavod,
DHMZ) has an annual budget of approximately EUR 8 million. The annual benefits
amounting to some EUR 30 million give the weather services a benefit-cost
ratio of approximately 4. Further development of the weather services, their
distribution and marketing could mean even larger benefits for trade and
commerce as well as other sectors of Croatian society. The potential
additional benefits amount to over EUR 10 million annually.
According
to Pekka Leviäkangas, Senior Research Scientist at VTT, the
results and experience obtained in the project are also important with regard
to the export of Finnish equipment and know-how. “Export efforts need to be
backed up by analyses that demonstrate the usefulness of systems to users and
thus justify the allocation of funds for such procurement.”
Analyses
also provide a starting point for international discussion concerning the
financing and development of various met-services. Bengt Tammelin, Head
of Unit at FMI, notes that the future of hydro-meteorological institutes
depends on their success in providing information that promotes well-being and
security, environmental protection and economic development in each country.
“In order to secure the funding and development of these institutes, we must
be able to show governments, the industry and commerce that developing the
hydro-meteorological service sector is not just an expense item in the
national budget but a profitable investment. Thanks to VTT’s collaboration
with FMI in this project, advances have been made in methods for evaluating
the economic significance of hydro-meteorological functions and the required
investments.”
Based on the benefit analysis, VTT
prepared a strategic development plan for Croatian weather services, designed
to reinforce the institute's competitive position and impact both within
Croatia and elsewhere in the Balkan region.
Carried out in
Croatia, the project was financed by Finnfund (Finnish Fund for Industrial
Cooperation Ltd.) and VTT. The project was part of a larger research effort
into information services (EVASERVE), which is financed by Tekes (Finnish
Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation) and coordinated by VTT.
An
online report Benefits of meteorological services in Croatia is available at
http://www.vtt.fi/inf/pdf/tiedotteet/2007/T2420.pdf
The
EVASERVE project: http://www.evaserve.fi/