Prospects for the Development of Urban Precipitation Observation Networks

The authors performed a study to assess the demand by various categories of consumers (legal entities and individuals) for actual meteorological information on precipitation received from automatic precipitation measuring stations included in the specialized monitoring network in Saint Petersburg. The estimates are based on consumer requests fulfilled by the Northwestern Administration for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring in 2020–2022. For the first time, consumers of the information are categorized by types of information products according to requested characteristics of precipitation with different levels of discreteness. The paper shows how the demand for actual meteorological information changes in case of severe and adverse hydrometeorological events that cause damage. The results of the analysis demonstrate how promising and significant for the economy and population it is to create dense urban networks of precipitation observations in megacities of the Russian Federation.