Coordination Meeting of DRR Focal Points of Technical Commissions and Programmes Geneva, October 2013 Presenters 1 Johnson Maina and 2 Yuri Simonov Commission for Hydrology (Chy) AWG 1 Kenya Meteorological Service, Nairobi-KENYA 2 Hydrometeorological Centre of Russia, RUSSIAN FEDERATION WMO CHy

Name of Technical Commission Focal Point: TitleFirst nameLast namePhone number address DrAnnCalver Please provide the following information on who has been consulted to complete your response TitleFirst nameLast nameRole within Technical Commission address DrHarryLinsPresident, Commission for Hydrology MrBruceStewartDirector, Hydrology and Water Resources Department, WMO Acknowledgement With support of Ann’s report to DRR Coordination Meeting

Hydrological Hazards Hydrological extremes are plainly crucial – floods and droughts; Overall hydrological characterisation may also be important in terms of background to other hazards o Landslides/Mudflows/Debris flows/Land subsidence Risks are to human wellbeing (health and safety), water and food supply, mobility/transport, power supply, industrial functioning, and environmental quality concerns Hydrological disasters have both fast and slow run-in times, and recovery times vary; Sequences of events can be important source: Swiss Federal Office for Civil Protection The Disaster Cycle The Problem: Hydro-Meteorological Risks

Hydrological domain is one where intervention is possible to a degree; it has the challenge of being a multi- use and time-varying domain Better strategic planning is likely to reduce operational time-of-disaster stress Risk management in hydrology is often less dependent on other regions/nations than in the case of atmospheric risks: this has an impact on the degree of need for standardisation of data/approach The Hydro-meteorological setting – hydrological cycle source: M Bramley groundwater

Key drought risk activities Monitoring development of conditions Analysis of drought severity drought frequency estimation development of drought indices vulnerabilities extent Forecasting of droughts drought risk

Key flood risk activities Real-time monitoring and detection Short-term flood forecasting, warning! Longer term flood frequency estimation Inundation extent, risk maps Specific aspects e.g. urban flooding, groundwater floods Impacts assessment, X-sectoral! (economic costs/damage: water supply, infrastructure, agiculture, health, food security, affected population,..) Preparedness!!! timely warning, control structures, … Response plan: relief, evacuation, search and rescue, evacuation centres… Role play! Cross sectoral flood risk

Further hydro-meteorological involvement Heavy precipitation: o Storms - rain and snow o tropical cyclone/hurricanes /typhoons o tornados o extreme winds/ gusts o thunderstorms o coastal flooding, storm surges o landslide / mudslide o rapid melting of glaciers Earthquakes and tsunamis Waterborne hazards – characterisation of hydrology and hydrogeology Water contamination Sea water intrusion and salination of fresh waters Use of flood waters – harvest for irrigation source: VLWRC groundwater flow paths potential contaminant pathways

COMMISSION FOR HYDROLOGY ACTIVITIES RELATED STANDARDS OF RISK ASSESSMENT The Commission for Hydrology directs a major part of its work towards risk assessment and/or relevant areas, Capacity Building and Guidelines. Works closely with other bodies: WMO Technical Commissions; CIMO, CBS, Cyclone Centres, … Member States, NMHS: routine weather forecasting and warnings, local flood warning systems, drought forecasts/advisories, downscaling of global products, linkages with national & international disaster management agencies, dissemination of warnings/risk information (e.g. media, RANET) International agencies: UNESCO, ISO, UNDP, IHP, … Institutions: SMHI, DHI, USGS, UKMO, ICHARM, WMTC Regional Climate Centres: ICPAC, ACMAD,IRI,UKMO,.. Support agencies

Flood Forecasting Initiative, FFI Associated Programme for Flood Management, APFM Coastal Inundation Forecasting Demonstration Project (CIFDP) Severe Weather Forecasting Demonstration Project (SWFDP) World Hydrological Cycle Observation System (WHYCOS)/ Regional Hydrological Cycle Observation Systems (HYCOS) oo0oo WMO Integrated Global Observation System (WIGOS) WMO Information System (WIS) Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) others COMMISSION FOR HYDROLOGY PROGRAMES/PROJECTS

Commission for Hydrology The WMO Flood Forecasting Initiative (FFI) Overall Objective of global/regional activities Improve the capacity of meteorological and hydrological services to jointly deliver timely and more accurate products and services required in flood forecasting and warning and in collaborating with disaster managers, active in flood emergency preparedness and response.

DataCommunicationForecast & Warning Decision Support NotificationCoordination Actions Hydrological Observations Data transmission Flood Forecasting Decisions Appropriate Individuals & Groups Preparedness, Response and Decisions Evacuation and Rescue operations a Critical Chain of Events and Actions Commission for Hydrology Flood forecasting, warning and response system Flood forecasting, warning and response system

Commission for Hydrology COMPONENTS OF THE WMO – FFI OVERVIEW STRATEGY AND ACTION PLAN ACTIVITY PLAN IN SUPPOERT OF THE SAP FLASH FLOOD GUIDANCE SYSTEM ASSOCIATED PROGRAM ON FLOOD MANAGEMENT PUBLICATIONS PROJECTS INTERNATIONAL FLOOD INITIATIVE DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS

Commission for Hydrology Publications Technical Regulations, volume III: Hydrology 2006 Manuals [ International Glossary of Hydrology – with UNESCO ] Guidelines / guidance material especially the Guide to Hydrological Practices 2008 Technical documents

Commission for Hydrology documents - continued

Various technical reports Various reports from operational hydrology series CHy XIII Annex 1 to resolution 1: A quality management framework in hydrology Technical material for water resources assessment Climate and information requirements for water management LINK TO WMO PUBLICATIONS - DETAILS

Examples of how in practice hydrology assesses disaster risk and the data and techniques involved © RAF Benson

Real-time river flood ensemble forecasting source: UK Met Office & NERC based on precipitation data and forecasts, with catchment hydrological models calibrated based on past river flow data record precipitationriver flows

Flood inundation extents/ maps based on long river flow records, statistical analyses, hydraulic modelling

Projecting river flow for drought development awareness source: Environment Agency, England based on river flow records, catchment precipitation, catchment hydrological modelling, calibrated on past records

Long-term drought frequencies source: European Environment Agency Relative change in minimum river flow with return period of 20 years compared with

Some key cross-cutting issues Hydrological modelling and forecasting o Sparsity/ availability and quality in large areas of Hydrological and Meteorological data o Uncertainty / robustness /error evaluation/ scales o Non-stationarity Quality management/standards Capacity Building: o education, o technology transfer, o Information transfer/ dissemination source: DHI

CONCLUDING REMARKS Level to which hydrological risks are currently managed varies greatly world- wide and with the specific risk – this is in part a function of assessment abilities; Hydrological risks are closely linked to climate variability and change; hydrometeorology! Anthropogenic influences significant: land-use and land-cover changes Both standard and non-standard data and methods are used in hydrological risk assessment: suites of hydrological standards may be more appropriate than single standards; Realistic aim: a world-wide hydrological risk awareness by practitioners o on linkages to climate variability, human activities – settlements, cultural and economic o on the range of available hydrological techniques /solutions at different levels, o on use of hydrological information to reduce disaster risk further information:

Thank you for your attention CHy