Forecasting App

There are more than 500 million smallholder farmers cultivating less than 2 hectares of land worldwide. Although these smallholders are the cornerstone of local food security and local economies, many are highly vulnerable to climatic events such as extreme precipitation, hurricanes, and droughts. In response to requests by small farming communities in northern Nicaragua, and in partnership with a local community development organization CII-ASDENIC, a collaboration between members of the Frugal Innovation Hub, the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Sustainable Engineering, the Department of Environmental Studies and Sciences, and the Department of Art and Art History, have developed a mobile phone application called “NicaAgua.”

By utilizing human-centric design and frugal innovation principles, we developed a mobile phone application called NicaAgua with and for our partner organization CII-ASDENIC. Its basic capabilities are: uploading and sharing timely data from a local weather station, broadcasting weather and water information such as flood warnings, and visualizing community-scale short and medium-term climate forecast data to better prepare farmers for crop planting and harvesting given weather variations and climatic changes. Visual and interpretative information explains whether current weather is outside of the expected range. The NicaAgua app features an intuitive and user-friendly interface, designed to provide a seamless experience for users in accessing crucial weather information. The overall design of the user interface prioritizes ease of navigation and accessibility, ensuring that users can quickly find the information they need.

The NicaAgua app has 3 core functionalities: live weather updates from a local weather station, a broadcast message system for critical water alerts, and access to short-term local weather forecast information from the UC Santa Barbara’s Climate Hazards Center Infrared Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS), as well as longer-term forecasts. The app has been tested by our collaborators at CII-Asdenic and by smallholder farmers at workshops and focus groups. A Beta version was released in September 2023 in the Google Play Store. No Apple version is currently available.

Our Latest Functionality

Understanding how weather patterns have shifted over the years can be invaluable, particularly for farmers. Observing long-term trends helps visualize the impact of climate change and enables farmers to make more informed decisions. By incorporating these larger patterns, they can better predict and plan for future conditions.

To support this, NicaAgua has developed the 'Comparison Functionality.' This feature allows users to select a specific month and access historical weather data for their community spanning the past 40 years. The data is presented in both graph and table formats, providing a simple and intuitive way to interpret the information, tailored to the needs and preferences of different users."

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