Opportunistic sensors are increasingly used for rainfall measurement. However, their raw data are collected by a variety of systems that are often not primarily intended for rainfall monitoring, resulting in a plethora of different data formats and a lack of common standards. This hinders the sharing of opportunistic sensing (OS) data, their automated processing, and, at the end, their practical usage and integration into standard observation systems. This paper summarises the experiences of the more than 100 members of the OpenSense Cost Action involved in the OS of rainfall. We review the current practice of collecting and storing precipitation OS data and corresponding metadata, and propose new common guidelines describing the requirements on data and metadata collection, harmonising naming conventions, and defining human-readable and machine readable file formats for data and metadata storage. We focus on three sensors identified by the OpenSense community as prominent representatives of the OS of precipitation: Commercial microwave links (CML): fixed point-to-point radio links mainly used as backhauling connections in telecommunication networks Satellite microwave links (SML): radio links between geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) satellites and ground user terminals. Personal weather stations (PWS): non-professional meteorological sensors owned by citizens. The conventions presented in this paper are primarily designed for storing, handling, and sharing historical time series and do not consider specific requirements for using OS data in real time for operational purposes. The conventions are already now accepted by the ever growing OpenSense community and represent an important step towards automated processing of OS raw data and community development of joint OS software packages. ... Read more

This paper proposes a virtual water trade model to obtain a better understanding of how hydro-climatic change affects societies through changes in virtual water trade. In previous studies it has been shown that global trade patterns can be influenced by water scarcity and vice-versa. The extent to which this relationship holds is still a topic under discussion. With the model introduced in this paper, the dynamics behind these trade patterns are further explored. First, a model is constructed of a society suffering from an increase in water scarcity. This model is shown to be capable of replicating patterns of technological, population, production and consumption per capita changes. In order to incorporate the effects of globalization and trade, the model has been extended to a toy model of virtual water trade between two societies. The two societies are represented by overlapping generations models. The individuals of each generation provide the labour needed for the production of the composite goods. In addition to this labour, water and technology are also incorporated as factors of production. There are two goods being produced; one is labour intensive and the other water intensive. Trade emerges from the principle of comparative advantage, with differences in labour-abundance and water resources availability between the two societies. Using this model of two societies interconnected by trade, it is examined how trade of water-intensive commodities alters under changing scarcity conditions. In particular we explore the conditions under which trade emerges, and to what extent. Furthermore, we present the conditions for the sustainable development within these two societies. ... Read more