Data operations, management and exchange

12. 
    Developments in data operations are critical, as major challenges in water management are expected to be present for decades to come; they are even exacerbated in some regions. Climate change scenarios are dramatic in this domain for many regions of the world. Hydrological data and information is central to improve the situation and mitigate the potentially disastrous effects of floods and droughts. Data are needed to better understand natural processes, to anticipate their development thanks to models and forecasts, to properly design hydraulic works, and to provide decision-makers with the necessary bases for taking the correct decisions. Therefore, collected data should be representative of the natural phenomena and must reach a minimal quality requirement.
    

12. 
    It is to be noted that, although in the past the main focus of WMO was on surface water quantities, all aspects of water should be addressed: surface and groundwater, water quantity and quality.
    

12. 
    To meet all requirements, hydrological data should be available both in (near) real-time and as long historical time series. This is even more crucial since major global initiatives, such as monitoring of SDGs, the UNFCCC Paris Agreement or the post-Sendai mechanism, require large amounts of data and services. Links with other activities of WMO and its partners, like GFCS and GCOS, should be strengthened. A specificity of hydrology is that many catchments are transboundary, adding administrative and policy complexity to the natural processes. Therefore, data and information exchange mechanisms must be setup, and data from different sources must be comparable thanks to standardization.
    

12. 
    Many countries have not yet met the requirements in terms of monitoring networks and standards to ensure that hydrological data can be used in water management decisions. For this reason, data and information management issues are one of the priorities of the WMO regional associations. An enhanced support must be dedicated to help these countries meeting their needs, taking into account global initiatives. In this context and in particular in the domain of production and management of data, WMO provides its Members support through the following activities:
    

1. 
   Produce data: WHYCOS, dedicated to monitoring hydrological networks through its regional HYCOS projects (see above);
   

2. 
   Process data: The Database Management System MCH (Meteorological, Climatological and Hydrological data);
   

3. 
   Show and share data: WHOS, making data visible and available using, inter alia, WaterML 2.0;
   

4. 
   Disseminate and rescue data: Global data centers, such as the Global Runoff Data Center (GRDC), the International Data Centre On Hydrology Of Lakes And Reservoirs (HYDROLARE) and the International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC).
   

12. 
    The update on the status of WHYCOS and WHOS were presented in the section on GHSF above. The other components are described hereafter.
    

12. 
    MCH is a database management system originally developed by a WMO project in Mexico and adapted by the Programme of Cooperation for Iberoamerican NMHSs. Its copyright was donated to WMO for dissemination to other countries in 2011 and is now available in Spanish, English and French.
    

12. 
    It is mainly designed for NMHSs that don’t have any system to digitize, store and process large amount of data. MCH is available free of charge, including necessary training, upon request of Permanent Representatives.
    

12. 
    Currently, MCH is installed in approximately 20 NHMSs, and roughly half of them are using it operationally. Five additional countries requests are pending as of December 2016. The following developments are foreseen:
    

1. 
   Finalization of the “gauging and rating curve” component update, including a user manual;
   

2. 
   Connection of MCH to an uncertainty analysis tool for gaugings (the French system BARATIN) and to other tools;
   

3. 
   Completion of a full standing user manual.
   

12. 
    MCH is an effective tool for simple data management and can be very beneficial for many NMHSs, as a starting tool for data operations. Its flexibility allows users to customize it to meet their specific needs.
    

12. 
    Sharing hydrological data is key for scientific progress, successful transboundary water management and for addressing regional and global water issues.
    

12. 
    In 2012, CHy-14 noted the significance and importance of WaterML 2.0, and other emerging standards under development by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) for improving service delivery in key CHy programmes, such as WHYCOS, WHOS and the WMO Flood Forecasting Initiative. In particular, activities of the WMO/OGC Hydrology Domain Working Group are providing technical and institutional solutions to the challenge of exchanging data describing the state and location of water resources, both above and below the ground surface, with a number of standards associated with WaterML 2.0 such as WaterML 2.0: Part 1 – Time Series; WaterML 2.0: Part 2 – Ratings, Gaugings and Sections; and others described in a dedicated page of the CHy-15 pre-session discussion.
    

12. 
    CHy-14 adopted Resolution 3 entitled “Proposed Adoption of WaterML 2.0 as a Standard.” In this resolution, the Commission recognized the importance of improved access to hydrological data for a range of purposes, including flood forecasting and warning, water resources assessment and evaluation of the impacts of climate variability and change, as well as the need to adopt standard procedures in the operations of National Hydrological Services. It also decided “to commence a process, including testing, that could see the potential adoption of the WaterML 2.0 as a WMO standard for information exchange managed by WMO”.
    

12. 
    Since CHy-14, WaterML 2.0 has evolved into a suite of component standards. During the past intersessional period, at the request of CHy-14, a number of NHSs have tested WaterML 2.0: Part 1 in pilot and operational systems for hydrological data exchange. This was undertaken with the support of an expert affiliated with the CHy Advisory Working Group, who participated in several regional projects specifically to evaluate the performance of WaterML 2.0: Part 1 in facilitating exchange of hydrological and related data across information systems, the main projects being for the La Plata river basin, Arctic-HYCOS and the Sava river basin. Details can be found in the webpage mentioned above and among the background documents of the pre-session discussion.
    

12. 
    As regards WaterML 2.0: Part 2, it was approved by OGC in July 2015 and published in early 2016. The AWG has recommended to CHy-15 that WaterML 2.0: Part 2 be also adopted as a WMO standard, subject to some necessary revision of its non-normative (informative) material.
    

12. 
    The WMO Secretariat is neither the owner nor the depository of any kind of hydrometeorological data. Nevertheless, there is a need for gathering and organizing existing data, and contribute to data rescue thanks to global repositories, which could also act as a redundancy system. These are some of the functions of the global data centers, three of which are dedicated to hydrological data: the GRDC for Runoff data, IGRAC for Groundwater and HYDROLARE for Lakes and Reservoirs. These Centers are briefly presented hereafter:
    

1. 
   Global Runoff Data Center (GRDC)
   

2. 
   International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC)
   

3. 
   International Data Centre on Hydrology of Lakes and Reservoirs (HYDROLARE)
   

12. 
    The future role of these global data centers should be analysed considering the new developments of WHOS and GHSF.
    

12. 
    The progress achieved in the implementation of the workplan of the project is described in its public website, which is continuously updated. Main outputs are the new report on the second edition of the survey on field discharge measurement instrumentation and techniques used operationally, the progress achieved in the development of an Uncertainty Analysis Decision-Aid Tool (UADAT), the guidelines for conducting and reporting on the calibration and verification of the performance of discharge measurement instruments, and the guidance on in situ comparison events for flow measurements and techniques (regattas).
    

12. 
    After a long process of preparation of detailed technical specifications, the first module of the Uncertainty Analysis Decision-Aid Tool (UADAT), a software for calculation of uncertainty of discharge measurements performed with the Velocity-Area method, is currently being developed and should be ready for free distribution to NHSs in 2017.
    

12. 
    Congress, through Resolution 21 (Cg-XV) endorsed the Strategy and Action Plan (SAP) of the WMO Flood Forecasting Initiative, which had been established to enhance cooperation between National Meteorological and Hydrological Services for improving flood forecasting. It also requested the Secretary General to: (1) promote the review of various activities or WMO Programmes whose contribution is essential and whose sphere of activities could have an influence on the improvement of flood forecasting practices for the implementation of the Strategy; and (2) support the implementation of demonstration projects such as the Flash Flood Guidance System.
    

12. 
    Subsequently, Resolution 15 (Cg-XVI) defined the scope of the WMO FFI to include all the hydrological forecasting activities, such as those related to flash floods and riverine floods, including seasonal forecasts and coastal flooding due to storm surge. Importantly, Cg-XVI established the WMO FFI Advisory Group (FFI-AG), with its terms of reference as per the annex to this resolution. The FFI-AG held two meetings in Geneva, one in October 2013, where it adopted its first Work Plan, and another in December 2015, where it adopted a revised Work Plan.
    

12. 
    The members of the Advisory Working Group responsible for Hydrological Forecasting and Prediction had undertaken, as members of the FFI-AG, a comprehensive review of the FFI Strategy and Action Plan and its Supplement. They noted that there was a need to strengthen the focus of the FFI on forecasting, as the current activities are highly spread-out, and there was a need to place the highest priority on activities associated with short- to medium-term forecasting. They also noted that the terminology within the SAP is heavy and confusing, while the amount of material is overwhelming. These combined with the above noted concern that the coverage of the SAP is too broad, rendering it difficult to understand and implement.
    

12. 
    The FFI-AG had thoroughly discussed the extensive review and had agreed to the following proposed actions:
    

1. 
   Prioritize the SAP actions so that the highest priority actions reflect short- to medium-ranged flood forecasting system development. Develop a generic list of requirements/best practices of flood forecasting taking into account high priority actions;
   

2. 
   Prioritize the SAP actions so that the highest priority actions reflect flood forecasting system development (and not data rescue issues, flood design calculations, etc.). Take into account these actions in further FFI documentation (e.g. generic list of requirements/best practices of flood forecasting);
   

3. 
   Ensure that all major demonstration projects and components, including but not limited to CIFDP, SWFDP and FFGS, include the requirements for effective and sustainable flood forecasting in their design and implementation (according to the aforementioned generic list of requirements);
   

4. 
   Avoid current terminological complexity in further FFI guidance documentation (e.g. generic list of requirements/best practices);
   

5. 
   Regarding the Action Plan: develop a new FFI implementation strategy based on Demonstration projects and other FFI components implementation, guidance material development for different audiences (NMHSs, donors, NGOs, etc.), development of training programmes, and effective promotion of the aforementioned items so that they are available to the target audience;
   

6. 
   Regarding the aforementioned promotion activities, that the WMO/GWP Associated Programme on Flood Management’s Integrated Flood Management (IFM) HelpDesk be used to maximum advantage for this purpose.
   

12. 
    On the basis of these actions, the FFI-AG at its Second Meeting had also agreed to the four main tasks within its new Work Plan, which are contained in the report by the president of the Commission.
    

12. 
    Cg-XV in 2007 approved the implementation of a Flash Flood Guidance System (FFGS) project with global coverage that had been developed by CHy jointly with CBS and in collaboration with the US National Weather Service, the US Hydrologic Research Center (HRC) and USAID/OFDA.
    

12. 
    There are a number of on-going FFGS projects having different levels of completion. These include:
    

(a) Central America FFG (CAFFG) (Operational): Costa Rica (Regional Centre (RC)), Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama;

61. 
    As part of several initiatives in line with the Sendai Framework that build upon the WMO community’s considerable capacities to contribute to Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems (MHEWSs), WMO is playing a key role in developing and promoting the International Network for MHEWSs (IN-MHEWS), as well as in supporting an International Conference on MHEWSs (IC-MHEWS)), from 22-23 May 2017, in Cancun, Mexico. IN-MHEWS is a multi-stakeholder partnership that will facilitate the sharing of expertise and good practice in strengthening MHEWSs as a national strategy for DRR, climate change adaptation and building resilience. IC-MHEWS will build upon the three previous international conferences on early warning (1998, 2003, and 2006) and three WMO expert symposia on MHEWSs (2006, 2009 and 2010) and will identify effective strategies and actions needed to promote and strengthen MHEWSs in support of the implementation of the Sendai Framework.
    

61. 
    Cg-17 decided, through the adoption of Resolution 9, to standardize weather, water, climate and other related environmental hazard and risk information and develop identifiers for cataloguing weather, water, and climate extreme events. This decision considered that an identifier and cataloguing system is an important prerequisite for the Atlas of Mortality and Economic Losses from Weather, Climate and Water Extremes and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction Global Assessment Reports on Disaster Risk Reduction. These measures will promote interoperability among datasets and facilitate Members’ efforts to assess risk and track losses and damages.
    

.

61. 
    Cg-17 requested the president of CHy to continue to implement the WMO Strategy on Education and Training in Hydrology and Water Resources, adopted by the Commission through Resolution 6 (CHy-14).
    

61. 
    In accordance with the Strategy, training needs have been determined in consultation with Members and Regional Associations Working Groups on Hydrology, CHy and its subsidiary bodies based on the surveys undertaken by the WMO Secretariat. According to the guidelines defined by the Commission, priority has been given to training of trainers and distance- and blended-learning training courses, and to developing systematic training for the NHSs and other professionals based on the manuals and guidelines produced as part of the QMF-H.
    

61. 
    Some relevant training events organized in the last intersessional period, were:
    

1. 
   Roving Seminars on Operation and Maintenance of Automatic Hydrometeorological Stations were organized in four Iberoamerican countries and three regional advanced training of trainers for network managers on the same topic were held in 2013 and 2014, (sponsored by the Iberoamerican programme financed by Spain);
   

2. 
   Training events on the WMO Manual on Stream Gauging utilizing training material developed by CHy experts and downloadable from the website of the corresponding CHy community of practice, were held for staff of NHSs in English in Ghana (for Western Africa countries, with instructors from USGS and Canada) in 2012 and Nepal (for HKH countries, with USGS instructors and, sponsored by the HKH-HYCOS project financed by Finland) in 2015, in Spanish in Mexico (for Iberoamerican countries, with Spanish-speaking USGS instructors) in 2013, and in French in Benin (for sub-Saharan francophone countries) in 2015. Similar events more geared to a professional audience were held in conjunction with IAHR and IAHS in the Republic of Korea in 2013, Vietnam in 2014 and New Zealand in 2016;
   

3. 
   A Regional Workshop on Integrated Flood Management, Flood Forecasting and Early Warnings for the Western Balkans and Turkey was held in Turkey in 2013, while a course on Flood Forecasting and Warning for South and South-East Asian countries was held in India, at the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, in 2015 and an advanced course on the same topic was co-organized with PROHIMET for Iberoamerican countries in 2016 (sponsored by the Iberoamerican programme financed by Spain);
   

4. 
   A training workshop on Advancing Groundwater Monitoring in Pacific Small Island Developing States was jointly organized by WMO, the International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC), Fiji Meteorological Service (FMS), the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) in 2016;
   

5. 
   As regards Distance Learning, courses in Hydrological Sciences of two levels, basic and advanced, based on COMET hydrological modules adapted to an international audience, have been developed. In the period 2013-2016, seven such courses of an average seven week duration, were organized by a Regional Training Centre, with the support of COMET and the WMO Secretariat: five (three basic and two advanced) were held for RA II countries, organized by the National Water Academy (India), and two basic courses were organized by the Institute for Meteorological Training and Research (Kenya). In addition, the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology offered online hydrology courses, such as a course on Floodplain Mapping to regional and international communities.
   

61. 
    Resolution 6 (CHy-14) had asked the Secretariat to develop open source and community of practice solutions to promote the transfer of technology for database management systems; training material for stream gauging courses; training material for flood forecasting and warning courses; a decision-support tool for uncertainty analysis of flow measurements (uncertainty analysis decision-aid tool); and delivery of distance learning courses in hydrology.
    

61. 
    The most widely used of these communities is the one on MCH, with approximately 90 registered members and 20 active participants, mainly software developers who exchange their experiences and share their developments. The community on training material for stream gauging has been widely used to download parts or the entire material in any of the four languages available, but the interaction among participants has been limited. The one on the decision-support tool for uncertainty analysis has been frequently used by the experts of the Management Committee of the Project on the Assessment of the Performance of Flow Measurements and Techniques (Project X), but has not yet been open to a wider community. The two communities on training material for flood forecasting and delivery of distance learning courses have developed more as ad hoc sites for individual events.
    

1. 
   A range of different institutional arrangements have been adopted by the WMO regional associations for addressing issues relevant to hydrology and water resources in their respective Regions. The AWG, in order to incorporate the regional needs in the work programme of CHy, has continued to conduct extensive consultations with the Regional Hydrological Advisers, both through informal meetings during sessions of the Executive Council and by inviting them to participate in its third meeting in February 2016, dedicated to the planning for CHy-15.
   

2. 
   With the goal of streamlining the use of resources and better responding to the regional needs, the regional associations during the present intersessional period have established, among their subsidiary bodies, the following bodies to deal with water related matters:
   

RA I: Working Group on Hydrology and Water Resources, Chairperson: Mr A. Zakey (Egypt);

RA II: Working Group on Hydrological Services, Chairperson: Mr S. Kim (Republic of Korea);

RA III: Working Group on Hydrology and Water Resources, Chairperson Ms D. Goniadzki (Argentina);

RA IV: Working Group on Hydrology, Chairperson: Mr E. Planos (Cuba);

RA V: Working Group on Hydrological Services, Chairperson: Mr J. Fenwick (New Zealand);

RA VI: Working Group on Climate and Hydrology, Chairperson Ms C. Eklund (Sweden).

3. 
   In order to optimize resources and give continuity to their work beyond the traditional face-to-face meetings, several regional working groups have developed innovative solutions: in RA II, thanks to the generous financial support of the Republic of Korea, three face-to-face meetings were held, when possible in conjunction with international water conferences; in RA VI, teleconferences have been held often to advance on specific issues of the work programme; finally, in RA III, RA IV, RA V and in the near future RA VI, an online portal for the working group has been established, with a section open to the general public and a part reserved to members, where documents in progress are posted and a virtual forum is held to exchange experiences of regional relevance.
   

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