ULAANBAATAR, 20070505 -- In Ulaanbaatar the Dutch company EARS installed its energy and water assessment monitoring system (EWBMS). The system receives hourly satellite data and provides daily information on dryness, frost and biomass in the vaste steppe of Mongolia. By insight in the carrying capacity of these grasslands, better decisions can be made concerning moving and possible slaughter of cattle. In this way the system can be a contribution to the prevention of calamities like in the period 2000-2002, when one third of the livestock died by dry summers followed by extreme harsh winters.

Mongolia is forty times as large as the Netherlands with only 2.5 million inhabitants. The country has an agraricultural economy, traditionally based on nomadic livestock-farming. THE EWBMS will be used by agencies under the Ministry of Nature & Environment to monitor the grass growth and to prevent overgrazing, which would lead to desertification. 

The Dutch system provides daily maps displaying temperature, radiation, precipitate and vaporisation of the complete territory. These are generated by the Chinese FY2c satellite, of which the data are received and edited every hour. In addition products are developed which give information concerning dryness, the increase of the grass and the quantity of cattle which would be able to graze. Because in the winter cattle lives outside and has to find its food from underneath the snow, also the cross-section of the snow layer and the possible presence of an ice layer are determined.

The system was inaugurated today by State Secretary Enkhmandakh. He said that Mongolia gives a high priority to improvement of the provision of information by means of nature observation. He praised the cooperation between the Mongolian institutes and the Dutch consortium, existing of Haskoning (Nijmegen), EARS (Delft), ITC (enschede) and Hofung (The Hague, Beijing). Also he pronounced its appreciation for the Dutch government who supports the project financially.

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