United States Trade and Development Agency on Tuesday said it had awarded Turkish State Meteorological Service 507 thousand U.S. dollars to support a project in Turkey to set up flood forecasting and early warning system.

"In order to mitigate damage, casualties and economic losses due to flooding in high risk areas located throughout Turkey, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) awarded a grant today to the Turkish State Meteorological Service (TSMS) for a feasibility study to develop a comprehensive roadmap for a fully operational flood forecasting and early warning system," USTDA said in a statement posted on its website.

The implementation of the project will lead to the development of technical and structural measures that will create substantial benefits for Turkey, the statement cited Douglas A. Silliman, Chargé d'Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, as saying.

The feasibility study aims at developing a system that would provide useful forecasts that allow citizens and businesses the maximum time to prepare for a flood.

"The USTDA study will provide Turkish authorities with a strategy to manage a serious environmental threat while also augmenting ties between the United States and Turkey," said Silliman who signed the $507,420 grant in Ankara.

The project offers opportunities for Turkey to develop commercial relationships with U.S. companies that have expertise in flood mitigation, the statement said.

"We expect that the study will assist Turkey with its priorities to improve public infrastructure development, training, technology transfer, and cross-border relations with its neighbors," Silliman said.

The implementation plan will include recommendations to assist TSMS in determining its needs for hardware, software, geographic information systems, relational database management systems, sensors, weather and water monitoring equipment, communications equipment, and modeling systems.

The grant is part of the U.S. government's long-term commitment to engage with Turkey through the Framework for Strategic Economic and Commercial Cooperation, which seeks to enhance bilateral economic cooperation.

The opportunity to conduct the USTDA-funded feasibility study will be competed on the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) website, the statement said.
 

AA