H1 2026 Evaluation
Uruguay Reservoir Transparency
B-68Average — Ranked #29 out of 167 countries
weight 30%
weight 20%
weight 15%
weight 13%
weight 10%
weight 8%
weight 5%
Primary source evaluated
Dimension breakdown
Data Availability
20% of total score
Scoped to the COVERED subset (4 major hydroelectric reservoirs: Rincón del Bonete, Baygorria via internal SCADA, Palmar, Salto Grande). ADME publishes operational water-level (cota) series and inflow data for Bonete, Palmar and Salto Grande through PRONOS/SIMSEE; CTM Salto Grande publishes hourly and daily cotas for Salto Grande independently. The PRONOS portal provides downloadable SCADA cota series. For the typical covered reservoir, daily-or-better operational data is published, although the most public-facing dashboards focus on Salto Grande (the binational dam). Data quality and completeness is high for the covered subset.
Technical Accessibility
15% of total score
For the COVERED subset: no documented REST API exists. ADME data access is via web interfaces and manually triggered file downloads (ODS/Excel, tab-separated SCADA caches in .sas format). The latorrex ensemble portal offers parametric date queries with XLS downloads — the closest thing to a structured query interface. CTM Salto Grande publishes hourly/daily cotas as HTML web tables only, with no CSV/JSON export. Programmatic access requires scraping HTML reports or downloading non-standard cached files.
Coverage
30% of total score
Conservative estimate — denominator includes Paso Severino (~67 hm³ OSE drinking water, only published during crisis), private smaller dams (irrigation impoundments for rice cultivation in eastern departments which are non-trivial in aggregate), Aguas Corrientes and Canelón Grande, and small agricultural/livestock impoundments. Methodology v1.3.0 (capacity-weighted). Covered capacity through ADME PRONOS/SIMSEE for Bonete + Baygorria + Palmar + Salto Grande + CTM Salto Grande totals approximately 12,000 hm³. A realistic national denominator including Paso Severino, smaller irrigation reservoirs and private agricultural impoundments reaches approximately 13,600 hm³. Score = round(100 × 12,000 / 13,600) = 88. UTE/ADME publishes operational data for the 4 dominant hydroelectric reservoirs which together represent essentially the totality of Uruguay's strategic regulated storage; the conservative discount reflects the OSE/private irrigation tail not routinely published.
Historical Depth
13% of total score
MEDIAN years across the 4 covered reservoirs: ADME annual reports are publicly accessible from 2010 onwards (15 years of monthly hydrological variable tables for Bonete, Palmar and Salto Grande). Monthly operational PDFs are available from 2013. PRONOS SCADA cache files date back to at least 2018. CTM Salto Grande's institutional records extend much further (since 1979 operation), with daily data browsable by date. The typical covered reservoir has approximately 15+ years of accessible monthly history, placing the median solidly in the 10–20 year band. Longer historical records exist internally (Bonete operating since 1945) but the publicly accessible online median is ~15 years.
Update Frequency
10% of total score
For the COVERED subset: CTM Salto Grande publishes Salto Grande cota hourly via datos_horarios.php and a daily report at 13:30. The ADME PRONOS/SCADA platform collects 10-minute resolution data for Bonete and Palmar, with public series typically refreshed daily. Daily-or-better refresh applies to >50% of covered reservoirs (3 of 4). Monthly ADME market reports add lower-frequency consolidated context with ~1-month lag.
Methodological Transparency
8% of total score
For the COVERED subset: ADME annual reports and Programación Estacional documents describe SimSEE optimisation methodology including capacity curves and probability bands for cota projections (95% exceedance levels cited for Bonete and Salto Grande). CTM publishes structural characteristics of Salto Grande (height, spillway, turbine flow, full-pool cota ~35 m). SimSEE is open-source. However, stage-storage (cota-volumen) curves for individual covered reservoirs are not published online, nor are sedimentation updates or bathymetric resurvey schedules. Operational calibration parameters are not public. Methodology is partially documented but insufficient for independent verification of published storage volumes.
Language and Usability
5% of total score
All primary and secondary data sources are exclusively in Spanish. ADME (adme.com.uy, simsee.adme.uy, pronos.adme.com.uy, latorrex.adme.com.uy) is Spanish-only with no English interface. CTM Salto Grande (saltogrande.org) offers no English toggle. catalogodatos.gub.uy, UTE, the Ministerio de Ambiente and DINAGUA all publish exclusively in Spanish. No machine-readable dataset includes English field labels or metadata.
Evaluator notes
v1.2.0 recalibration (2026-05-29, denominator audit): coverage recomputed as linear share — UTE/ADME publishes operational data for 4 hydroelectric reservoirs out of approximately 8 Uruguayan reservoirs >10 hm³. Coverage = 50% (round(100 × 4/8)). The denominator was revised down from the previous estimate of 15, which over-counted by including small irrigation tajamares below the 10 hm³ threshold. Historical depth rescored to MEDIAN of the 4 covered reservoirs (~15 years per ADME archives). Quality dimensions remain strong for the covered set — daily-or-better refresh, decent methodology — but Spanish-only access and no REST API persist as structural weaknesses. The 2023 Montevideo water crisis demonstrated latent capacity for crisis-driven daily publishing of Paso Severino, but that did not extend to routine open publication for the ~4 smaller reservoirs that remain dark. Uruguay's RTI profile is a small hydropower-dependent country with deep operational data for its 4 major dams but limited breadth across the full national reservoir stock.
Evaluated by Jaime Delgado · 2026-05-29 · Methodology v1.3.0
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