Integration of the WRF model and IoT sensors to develop an early cold snap warning system for inland fishponds

The cold weather-related economic losses in the aquaculture and fisheries industries are enormous and will only increase due to future climate change. Advancements in weather forecasting have increased the accuracy of predicting environmental factors like air temperature, solar radiation, and wind speed. However, the water temperature of fishponds, which affects the lives of fish, cannot be accurately predicted. As a result, fishermen are unable to implement early disaster mitigation and avoidance measures effectively. In this study, we developed an early warning system for extreme temperature events in fishponds by using a weather forecasting model in combination with local observations from a customized sensor placed in a pond. This system could provide water temperature forecasts with up to 120 h of lead time. A fishpond and multiple events were selected to assess the performance. Compared to the actual observations, the predicted water temperature difference had a root mean square error of <2 °C for up to 72 h of lead time. Furthermore, due to limited computational resources for weather forecasting models, the water temperature and depth data collected by the sensor improved the accuracy of temperature prediction specific to each pond. The results have confirmed that the integrated method can effectively predict the water temperature of farmed fishponds and assist fishermen in implementing precautionary measures in time.