HDC Open Data Environmental Intelligence Dashboard

The HDC Open Data Environmental Intelligence Dashboard is a public, open data project for Hulhumalé. It brings together live weather, air quality, tide, marine and coral information for the city and presents it in plain language, so anyone can understand it at a glance.

An open data project

Every reading on this dashboard comes from open, public data services that are free for anyone to access. Our aim is to make that information easy to understand and genuinely useful for daily life.

Environmental data is often technical, measured in units like micrograms per cubic metre or wave height in metres. Those numbers matter, but what matters most to residents is how the conditions will affect their day. This portal keeps the real figures for the people who want them, and leads with a clear read of what to expect and how to plan.

Plan your day around the conditions

• Time a walk for sunrise or moonrise.
• Pick a good window for a swim in the channel around high tide.
• Know when to carry an umbrella, wear sunscreen, or move a gathering indoors.
• Choose land or water activities to suit the sun, sea and air conditions.

Reading the Daily Briefing

The Daily Briefing at the top of the dashboard is its heart. It opens with a short headline that sums up the day, then shows a set of cards. Each card turns the data into a simple read of what to expect, using colour cues:

• Green means good, go ahead.
• Amber means worth planning for, so take a small precaution.
• Red means take real care.
• Blue and violet are for timing information such as the sun, moon and tides.

What each card tells you:

• Air quality: how clean the air is right now on the US Air Quality Index, and who should take care when it rises.
• Sun and heat: how hot it will be and how strong the sun is through the day, with the midday window to avoid and a reminder about sunscreen, shade and water.
• Rain: whether showers are likely, roughly when, and whether to carry an umbrella.
• Seas: how calm or choppy the water will be, useful for small boats, swimmers and reef walkers.
• Swimming in the channel: the next high tide, when the water is deepest and most comfortable for a swim.
• Sunrise and sunset: today's times and directions, with how much daylight is left.
• Moonrise and moonset: tonight's times, directions and moon phase.

Below the briefing, each topic has its own section with the full detail and charts for anyone who wants the underlying numbers.

Where the data comes from

All sources are open and public:

• Open-Meteo: weather, air quality and marine forecasts for Hulhumalé, free and open with no account required. This is a global forecast model rather than a local sensor.
• MSRO GeoHub: live tide-gauge readings for Hulhumalé, updated every minute from a local sensor rather than a forecast model.
• NOAA Coral Reef Watch: satellite based coral bleaching heat stress monitoring for the Maldives.
• SunCalc: sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset and moon phase, calculated for our exact location.

What comes next: towards a smart city

The next phase of this project is to source and install an array of environmental monitoring IoT devices across Hulhumalé. These sensors will gather hyper local information from many points in the city, giving a far more detailed and real time picture than a single model or station can provide.

Over time this builds towards a smart city, with a high level of real time environmental intelligence collected across the city and shared openly through this dashboard. As part of this work we are also preparing to add live readings from local air quality monitoring stations and a national air quality map.

Good to know

• Most readings today come from global models, which give the best available estimate for Hulhumalé rather than an on the ground measurement. The upcoming sensor network will change that with genuine local data.
• The dashboard refreshes automatically through the day.
• The information here is for general guidance and is not a substitute for official warnings.

Developed by the Socio-Environmental Planning Section, Housing Development Corporation (HDC). For informational purposes only.

Back to the dashboard