MeteoTech, a company that provides private meteorological services, has set up four stations to gather agro-meteorological data. The stations were set up as part of an Israeli-Palestinian ecological research project, financed by the US government.
The data gathered will form the basis for ecological and environmental research in the Mount Hebron and northern Negev region, aimed at assessing joint agricultural development capability.
The research, amounting to NIS 500,000 in the initial stage, will be funded by a US government fund promoting economic research cooperation between Israel and the US.
Israeli researchers from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and researchers from Hebron University and from the Palestinian Authority ministry of the environment, agreed to cooperate on the project.
Two of the stations were set up in the Palestinian Authority territories, on the southern flank of Mount Hebron. The other two stations were set up in the northern Negev region. According to Meteo-Tech general manager Richard Abramski, "The stations we set up gather meteorological data independently, for agricultural and environmental purposes."
The joint ecological initiative was made possible thanks to researchers at the New Mexico University in the US. The American researchers specialize in developing modern monitoring technology. The researchers deal with atomic weapon safety in the US, and global monitoring of disarmament agreements.
Published by Israel's Business Arena July 19, 1999