Fiji’s Hydrometeorological Observation Equipment Maintenance and Service Production

The report assesses the current state of the Fiji Meteorological Service (FMS), identifying critical gaps in infrastructure, staffing, and financial sustainability. It proposes a four-phase roadmap to modernize observation networks, automate data management, and implement cost-recovery mechanisms, particularly for aviation services, to reduce dependency on external donors.

• The FMS observation network is unsustainable due to extreme heterogeneity, utilizing equipment from four different manufacturers (NIWA, VAISALA, SUTRON, and JICA), which makes maintenance and data collection fragmented and expensive.
• Financial sustainability is a major gap, as the FMS lacks cost-recovery mechanisms for its services. Currently, Fiji Airports Limited pays a fixed rate of FJD 50,000 per month for aviation weather services, which is described as unsustainable and contrary to ICAO and WMO guidance.
• Data management and collection are largely antiquated and manual, leading to inevitable human errors and a lack of confidence in the data used for forecasting.
• The forecasting infrastructure is fragmented and unsustainable, with the National Weather Forecasting Centre (NWFC) utilizing five different types of workstation software, several of which are at the end of their operational lifetime.
• Critical infrastructure gaps exist in the radar network; while the Nadi radar was upgraded in 2018, it lacks dual-polarization features, and the radars in Nausori and Labasa are over 20 years old and have reached the end of their lifespan.
• Staffing levels and qualifications are inadequate for modernization, with a low number of staff holding higher academic degrees (MSc, PhD) or specialized ICT qualifications, and a high vacancy rate of 34 out of 179 positions as of June 2019.
• The FMS currently lacks the capacity for numerical weather prediction (NWP) and hydrological modelling, relying instead on monitoring observation stations for flood forecasting.
• The proposed roadmap is divided into four phases over an estimated 5 to 7 years, prioritizing the establishment of cost-recovery mechanisms and the homogenization of the observation network in Phase 1.

APA

Liman, L., & Eerikäinen, M. (2019). Fiji’s Hydrometeorological Observation Equipment Maintenance and Service Production. NAP Global Network. https://napglobalnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/napgn-en-2019-fijis-hydrometeorological-observation-equipment-maintenance-and-service-production.pdf

Chicago

Liman, Ljubov, and Matti Eerikäinen. Fiji’s Hydrometeorological Observation Equipment Maintenance and Service Production. NAP Global Network, 2019. https://napglobalnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/napgn-en-2019-fijis-hydrometeorological-observation-equipment-maintenance-and-service-production.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Liman |first1=Ljubov |last2=Eerikäinen |first2=Matti |title=Fiji’s Hydrometeorological Observation Equipment Maintenance and Service Production |publisher=NAP Global Network |date=November 2019 |url=https://napglobalnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/napgn-en-2019-fijis-hydrometeorological-observation-equipment-maintenance-and-service-production.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{liman2019fijis, author = {Liman, Ljubov and Eerikäinen, Matti}, title = {{Fiji’s Hydrometeorological Observation Equipment Maintenance and Service Production}}, institution = {NAP Global Network}, year = {2019}, month = nov, url = {https://napglobalnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/napgn-en-2019-fijis-hydrometeorological-observation-equipment-maintenance-and-service-production.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }