News

Climate Risk-Informed Decision Analysis (CRIDA) and related risk-based water management approaches were featured at the various events at the 25th Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP25). The CRIDA methology was jointly developed by UNESCO-IHP and its G-WADI major initiative, the International Center for Integrated Water Resources Management(ICIWaRM), the Alliance for Global Water Adaptation (AGWA), Deltares, the University of Massachusetts, and the World Bank, and was co-published by ICIWaRM and UNESCO.

G-WADI collaborators Phu Nguyen and Hamed Ashouri, both of the University of California, Irvine's Center for Hydrometeorology and Remote Sensing, have been co-awarded the 2019 WCRP/GCOS International Data Prize "in recognition of innovation and excellence in the preparation and provision of climate data." Michel Rixen, Senior Scientific Officer of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), stated that the Prize Committee “was greatly impressed by their strong profile and the high quality of their contribution to the development of climate data sets.”

On November 18 at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, a digital interactive exhibition titled “Droughts in the Anthropocene” was kicked off as a side event to the fortieth session of the UNESCO General Conference. The exhibition was displayed from November 18-27. It will also be displayed at the 25th Conference of the Parties (COP 25) of the UNFCCC. The exhibition uses case studies from around the world to showcase the social, environmental and cultural impacts of droughts and water scarcity.

Under the auspices of UNESCO and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, selected national practitioners in Eastern Africa met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 8th to 10th October 2019 to receive training on the application of state-of-the-art methods for drought monitoring and forecasting. Participants came from the Ministry of Water/Agricultural/Meteorological departments from IGAD and EAC Countries. The workshop was led by water experts and scientists from Princeton Climate Analytics (Princeton University (USA), UNESCO International Hydrology Programme (IHP) and others.

A “Regional Training Regional Workshop on Remotely Sensed Observation of Precipitation Using Artificial Intelligence” was held at the American University of Beirut (AUB, Lebanon) on 8-15 October 2019. It was organized by UNESCO’s Regional Bureau for Science for the Arab States in partnership with the Center for Hydrometeorology and Remote Sensing at the University of California, Irvine (CHRS) and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ESCWA). The instructors included Soroosh Sorooshian, Kuolin Hsu and Phu Nguyen of CHRS, along with Bisher Imam, Regional Hydrologistand Senior Programme Specialist for the Regional Bureau.

G-WADI has recently co-organized two courses on Climate Risk-Informed Decision Analysis (CRIDA) for Southern and Eastern African water resources professionals. CRIDA provides bottom-up, stepwise planning guidance for water resources planners, managers, and engineers interested in incorporating resilience into planning and operational decisions. Authors of the CRIDA approach are from ICIWaRM, UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programme, the Alliance for Global Water Adaptation (AGWA) and Deltares (Delft, The Netherlands). ICIWaRM is the Global Technical Secretariat of G-WADI.

Princeton University’s Latin America Flood and Drought Monitor, which UNESCO IHP and its G-WADI program, along with ICIWaRM, helped develop, has now been adapted for the first time to an individual country. The Chile Flood and Drought Monitor, developed by Princeton Climate Analytics, is a high-resolution and user-friendly platform that integrates local station information that provides historical, near-real time and forecast data. It uses satellite driven rainfall data to drive a vector-based river routing model.

In the 12th International Precipitation Conference, held on June 19-21, 2019 in Irvine, California, science and applications of G-WADI-associated precipitation and climate products (i.e., the PERSIANN family of products developed at the University of California, Irvine's Center for Hydrometeorology and Remote Sensing) were described in 13 presentations. Results from several western states of the United States, the North Pacific Ocean, the Tibetan Plateau, the Lake Kyoga basin of Uganda, and various global studies were presented.

G-WADI affiliated scientists helped organize and lead the Fifth Workshop on Water Resources in Developing Countries: Hydroclimate Modeling and Analysis Tools, held from 27 May – 7 Jun 2019. The venue and primary organizer was the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy.

G-WADI’s iRain app was featured at a session devoted to “Science and Society” on 5 March, 2019 as part of Mobile Learning Week at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. The overall focus of the week was on Artificial Intelligence and Sustainable Development.