SAED digitizes the Senegal River valley with BWI virtual stations

How SAED relies on virtual stations and hydrological forecasts to improve water management, anticipate risks, and support irrigated agriculture.

SAED — Société d’Aménagement et d’Exploitation des terres du Delta du fleuve Sénégal et des vallées du Fleuve Sénégal et de la Falémé — is the Senegalese public institution responsible for developing irrigated agriculture in the Senegal River valley. Founded in 1965, it operates across a potential 240,000 hectares of irrigable land and today mobilizes more than 400 staff deployed along the entire left bank of the river.

The Senegal River valley is the country’s main rice-producing area — it accounts for roughly 50% of national local rice production. Managing water in this territory therefore directly supports Senegal’s food security.

In this context, SAED is part of the ambitions set out in the Senegal 2050 agenda, with a clear objective: to modernize water management in order to better serve the farmers and the populations that depend on the valley.

The challenges

Irrigation management under pressure

Irrigation planning in the valley depends directly on knowing the flows of the river and its distributaries. Without reliable data across the whole network, SAED’s teams struggle to optimize pumping windows, to anticipate flow variations that could affect crops, and to support farmers in their operational decisions. The consequences feed directly into agricultural yields — particularly rice — and into SAED’s ability to fulfill its territorial development mission.

Operational and financial constraints

Deploying and maintaining physical stations represents significant costs, both in upfront investment and in operation. These constraints slow the expansion of the measurement network, even as the need for data grows to support the development of irrigated agriculture. In this context, extending hydrological coverage becomes a major challenge — but a difficult one to meet with traditional infrastructure alone.

A growing need for anticipation and steering

Faced with increased hydrological variability, SAED’s teams need reliable, forward-looking information to manage risks and optimize their interventions. Irrigation planning, infrastructure management, and support for farmers all require better forecasting capability, especially in the event of flooding or major flow variations. Beyond the data itself, the challenge is therefore to have tools that enable more proactive steering and better-informed decision-making.

The solution

Virtual stations to complement the existing network

In this context, the collaboration with BWI gives SAED access to virtual stations, capable of providing hydrological information on non-instrumented areas.

This data complements existing systems and makes it possible to:

  • expand network coverage
  • improve water management planning
  • anticipate hydrological risks

Forecasts of up to 15 days

With the BWI solution, SAED also benefits from flow forecasts of up to 15 days, offering greater anticipation capability, particularly for:

  • flood risks
  • infrastructure management
  • support for farmers

Impact

Better management of risks and interventions

Thanks to the data provided by the virtual stations and the forecasting capabilities, SAED’s teams now have better visibility into how flows and water levels are evolving. This improvement makes it possible to anticipate flood episodes more effectively, identify at-risk areas, and adapt interventions upstream. It also strengthens the teams’ ability to support farmers and limit potential impacts on populations.

A tool serving farmers and managers

The information generated by the BWI solution integrates into SAED’s existing systems and feeds directly into its agricultural decision-support tools. It helps improve the planning of irrigation campaigns, better coordinate work on infrastructure, and provide more precise recommendations to farmers — notably on pumping windows and the risk of sudden flow variations. Access to continuous, structured data thus contributes to more proactive management, to the direct benefit of the valley’s farmers.

A scalable and accessible solution

Setting up virtual stations offers a complementary alternative to physical infrastructure, enabling rapid extension of hydrological coverage across the entire valley. This approach makes reliable information accessible in areas that were previously poorly covered, while reducing the constraints tied to installation and maintenance costs. It opens the way to larger-scale deployment, tailored to the needs of the territory.

Outlook

Toward a valley-wide deployment

With the initial results judged conclusive, SAED is now considering extending use of the solution across the entire Senegal River valley. This scaling-up will be accompanied by the deployment of complementary systems and continuous improvement of the models, in order to strengthen the accuracy and robustness of forecasts across the whole territory.

A contribution to SAED’s digital transformation

Beyond the operational aspects, this project is part of the digital transformation drive led by SAED under the Senegal 2050 agenda. Deploying virtual stations and accessing structured hydrological data help strengthen the institution’s analytical capabilities and feed its internal information systems. This data infrastructure forms a foundation on which SAED can progressively build durable steering tools, in service of public policy and long-term strategic decisions.

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