Training workshop on Satellite precipitation estimation and applications held for scientists and government officials in Central Asia

A training workshop on “Satellite precipitation estimation and applications for scientists and government officials in Central Asia” was held on 27-30 Sep 2021. Water professionals from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan were trained in the use of real-time (e.g., for floods & droughts, water supply...) & historical (e.g., for climate change adaptation) satellite-based precipitation products to foster regional water security. The products included iRain, RainSphere, and the Data Portal from which the underlying datasets for these and other products can be downloaded.

The workshop was held virtually, via Zoom, and was organized by UNESCO's regional office in Almaty, Kazakhstan; UNESCO's Intergovernmental Hydrological Program; the Center for Hydrometeorology & Remote Sensing (CHRS), University of California, Irvine; the UNESCO Chair in Water Management in Central Asia, German-Kazakh University, Almaty; and the International Center for Integrated Water Resources Management (ICIWaRM), which functions as the global technical secretariat of G-WADI.

The training was bilingual, with English-Russian translation of all 310 slides (above), plus simultaneous interpretation. Sixty-one Central Asian scientists & engineers participated, of which 32 (52%) were women and 29 (48%) were men. Forty participants finished their final presentations (above, for example) and received certificates of completion.