Maldives / South-Asia
Maldives is a small island developing

decision-making

state, located in the Indian Ocean. Itactivities. It will support the sustainableconsists of about 1190 small islands, withuse of natural resources, protection anda population of 515000 people. Average

maintenanceelevation of the islands are 1 meter above

rehabilitation of damaged regions as well.

MSL. More than 99% of Maldives area isSince we have joined GEO quite recently,

sea. We are in the most disaster-prone

there has not been much activities as ofregion in the world. Many islands andnow

similar low-lying coastal communities ofengagements

the region are exposed to specific types ofactivities in the Maldives.

hazards. Which included Tropical Cyclone,

Weathermonitoring

Heavy rain and Flooding, Extreme humid

capacityofheat waves, drought, Strong winds, roughService:seas, swell wave surges, earthquakes and 5 Meteorological Observatories

tsunami to mention few. Global warming 43 Automatic Weather Stationand climate change is expected to further

 1 Radio Sonde (upper air) observation,

increase its magnitude and frequency

butforof

wedevelopment

key

areas,

andtheanticipate

moreinIntelligence

EarthandMaldives

GEO

Forecasting

MeteorologicalDaily

hence will exaggerate its impact on the 1 Doppler Weather Radar

communities and human settlements. To

 3 Tide gauges

add on to it, rapid economic growth and 1 Weather studio

population expansion over the coming

 1 Satellite picture receiving system

decades, along with the impacts of climatechange, will increase the exposure andvulnerability of the region to disasters.

(CMACast system) 2Long-range

Lightning

Detection

sensors.

Multi-hazard early warning systems are 2 Seismometersamong WRF and WW3 NWP local area model

themosteffectiveways

tominimizing the impact of severe naturalrun

withhazards and disasters.

resources.

limitedcomputational Internet based access to other regional

GEO Activities in Maldives.
The Government of Maldives has signed

and international NWP and Satellite

an agreement with the Group of Earthderived products.

Observations(GEO)

toproducethe Weuse

satellite

products

fromfirst-ever ecosystem atlas of the Maldives.

CMACast (FY Satellite products fromThe Global Ecosystem Atlas AcceleratorChina), Indian Satellite products fromfor the Maldives project aims to aid in

IndianMeteorologicalDepartment

website,GSMaPGlobalRainfall EnhancementofNWP

modeling

capacity and pilot demonstration ofobservation from JAXA website.
The Early Warnings for All Initiative

Impact Based Forecasting in one(EW4ALL) of the UN Secretary General

selectedisland

has a bold vision of a world in which every

supportedby

individual is protected by life-saving Early

Adaptation Project.

intheMaldives,

USAID

ClimateWarning Systems (EWS) by 2027.

We are working very closely with the 4Maldives is one among the first 30

pillars of Executive Action Plan nationallycountries to get support

lead by National Disaster Management

under thisinitiative.

Authority,

For a strategic and coordinated approach

Information Technology and Maldivian

to achieve these objectives of the EW4All,

Red Crescent Society. We also collaborate

Maldives has published its Early Warningwith regional meteorological offices andfor All Road Map .

various

4TU

U4T

Upcoming

programsandprojects

toNational

regionalandservice in the Maldives.

Warning Capacity in the Maldives:

Main Challenges:

existingfiveobservation

stationsasmaininternational

Thereisnopropermechanismfor

theaccessing LEO Data, especially ASCAT

Basicwind data. These are very important to(GBON)

estimate sea state based on prevailing

requirement, funded under Systematic

wind speed over ocean where there is huge

Observation

data gap of in-situ observation.

complianceof

Observation

Network

perfororganizations for enhancement of weather

enhance weather observation and Early Upgrading

CenterGlobalFinancing

Facility(SOFF).

We also have limited expertise on BigData EstablishmentofEarlyWarning

handling and data visualization for localBroadcasting System (EWBS) underapplication.

Digital

Television

operation, maintenance and calibration ofCapacity

observation instrument. This is partly due

Improvement Project supported by theto its remote location in different islands

Government of Japan.

separated by ocean. We need to explore

Terrestrial

Broadcasting

Operational

 Expansion of RADAR coverage area
underGrant

Aid

projectof

theGovernment of Italy.
 Upgrade and expansion of RADAR
network under ADB supported project.

theThereapplicability

technology

andareofchallenges

remotesatellite-basedinsensing
EarthIntelligence observations to fill the data
gaps in the data sparse area in andaround Maldives.