Summary report on
The 4th International Coordination Group (ICG) Meeting of the GEOSS Asian Water
Cycle Initiative (AWCI)
held
at the Kyoto Research Park, Kyoto, Japan, 6 – 7 February 2009.
(final draft: 30 March 2009)
1.1 Background of GEOSS AWCI (http://monsoon.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/AWCI)The GEOSS Asian Water Cycle Initiative (AWCI) is a regionally cooperative contribution to the GEO
socio-benefit area: “Improving water resource management through better understanding of the water
cycle”. It has been established based on the regionally common and sharable ideas on the water-related
issues in Asia and their natural and socio-economical backgrounds and in recognition of the need for
accurate, timely, long-term, water cycle information as a basis for sound and effective water resources
and risk management and with regards to the ongoing initiatives pursuing to meet this need.
The AWCI that involves 18 participating countries develops an information system of systems forpromoting the implementation of integrated water resources management (IWRM) through data
integration and sharing and improvement of understanding and prediction of the water cycle variation asa basis for sound decision making of national water policies and management strategies.
The objectives for AWCI are:
• To develop Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) approaches;• To share timely, quality, long-term information on water quantity and quality, and their variation asa basis for sound national and regional decision making;• To construct a comprehensive, coordinated and sustained observational system of systems, suchas prediction systems and decision support capabilities, under the GEOSS;• To develop capacity building for making maximum use of globally integrated data and information
for local purposes as well as for observation and collecting data.
The AWCI is a new type of an integrated scientific challenge in cooperation with meteorological andhydrological bureaus and space agencies. Its unique features include:•
Effective combination of the architecture and data and the capacity building;•
Advanced data infrastructure availability including a river basin meta-data registration system, adata quality control interface, and data-integration and downscaling methods;•
A clearly described data sharing policy agreed among the participating countries;•
Strong linkage among science communities, space agencies, and decision makers;•
Well coordination between the research communities and operational sectors with clear strategy
for transferring scientific achievements to operational use;•
Effective cooperation with international projects and cooperative frameworks.
The Fourth GEOSS AWCI ICG meeting was planned and undertaken to accelerate the GEOSS/AWCI
coordination, especially on “Data Integration” and “Capacity Building” and to move ahead with
implementation of AWCI in accordance with the strategy outlined in the Implementation Plan that wasagreed on at the 3rd Asian Water Cycle Symposium in Beppu, Japan, December 2007. The meeting
agenda reflected and discussions followed-up on the outcomes of the Third GEOSS AWCI ICG meetingthat was held in Beijing, China, November 2008. The outcome of those discussions is summarized in thisreport. All of the presentation material provided by the participants at the meeting, including abstracts oftalks and posters is available on the Internet through the meeting home page at: http://www.editoria.utokyo.ac.jp/awci/4th/presentation.html.

1.2 Executive Summary of Main Issues/Conclusions and Actions
The meeting was held in conjunction with the 3rd GEOSS Asian Pacific Symposium that took place at thesame venue, 4 – 6 February 2009 and included a special parallel session on “Water Cycle in the Asiaoceanic region” and a special interdisciplinary session on “Toward Actual Collaboration among Climate,
Water Cycle, and Disasters” that were closely related to the AWCI activities.

A brief executive summary of the AWCI ICG meeting and GEOSS AP water-related sessions is given inthis section, further details follows in sections 2.1 and 2.2 below.
Expanded collaboration among Water Cycle, Climate, and Disaster SBAs
Through the presentations and discussions of the GEOSS AP Symposium special “water” sessions, apossibility for expanded collaboration among the AWCI current activities focused on water cycle issues
and other, closely related socio-benefit areas of GEOSS was sought. Water cycle and Climate related
Disasters were identified as a suitable theme for such cooperation that is also common to all of the AsiaPacific countries and the AWCI participating countries as it was reported at the meeting.
Four target topics and fields were defined based on the outcomes of the country reports on disasters that
could be considered as the main areas for cooperation. These include:
1. Typhoon, cyclone, and induced floods
2. Drought
3. Cold surge
4. Snow, glaciers, and GLOFAWCI progress and issues
The GEO Secretariat, APN and MEXT representatives highlighted that the AWCI organization,
approaches, and activities are fully in accord with the GEO and APN principles and with the MEXT
mission in terms of water resources and as such has full support of their respective organizations.
The AWCI meeting included several scientific talks that introduced some new findings and advanced tools
and methods that could be exploited in the AWCI activities.
A good progress was reported in the AWCI demonstration projects data and metadata submission.
Explanation and demonstration of the data and metadata upload system and data quality control tools
was provided during the meeting and well acknowledged by the participants.
The AWCI capacity building program has also progressed. The UNU group developed an on-line
repository (http://unufms.net:8080/seaside/gcs/AWCI) that will facilitate effective planning of CB activities.
Several seminars/workshops took place in 2008 and their outcomes were reported. The AWCI working
groups held breakout sessions and proposed concrete activities in the 2009 – 2010 timeframe. A possible
water quality study in cooperation with other groups was discussed during a special panel discussion anda framework and basic features of such study were proposed.
Conclusion
The participants concluded that: “Data information, science and technology, cooperation framework, andthe members are now ready to expand interdisciplinary cooperation that would bring mutual benefits”.
Particular steps were proposed to step forward:- Countries and organizations will submit proposal on the targeting topic(s)- A three-day workshop will be held in the September – October 2009 timeframe to discuss:
1. Sharing Societal Needs, Scientific Ideas, Observation Capability, Modeling Capability,
Experiences
2. Seeking Data Sharing Possibility: Data Policy, Meta Data Generation and Data Infrastructure
3. Establishing Cooperation Framework under GEO- Forming a Task Team for drafting an Implementation Plan
- Discussing the draft at the 4th GEOSS AP Symposium in Bali, Indonesia, 2010

2.1 Water Cycle in the Asia-Oceanic Region
Floods are very serious common problems in the Asia-Oceanic region. More than 80% of the loss ofhuman lives by flood in the world occurs in this region. The expansion of urbanization is accelerating theflood economic damages considerably. Since many countries in the Asia-Oceanic region locate in thetectonic zones, landslides and mudflows are also common natural disasters. The Asian summer monsoon
usually provides rich water environment. At the same time, its large seasonal and inter-annual variation
sometimes leads to severe drought damages in the water consuming societies. The global warming ischanging the water cycle. Heavier rainfall events and larger interannual variations are predicted. Global
climate change is considered to make considerable impacts on such a vulnerable region, where thepercentage of completion of river developments is still critically low in contrast to the high potential waterrelated hazards.
The objective of this breakout session was to summarize the water-related disasters in the Asia-Oceanic
region, and to identify impacts of the climate change on the vulnerable water environment.
The session agenda
09:00-09:10
09:00-09:10

Opening Water Cycle Breakout Session
Data Sharing for a Transverse GEOSS Third Asia-Pacific Symposium

09:10-09:40
09:20-09:50

Outlook of the Water Cycle in the Asia-Oceanic region
Water-related Disasters in the Asia-Oceanic Region

09:40-12:00

Short country reports on “Recent Signs of Water-related Disasters”
GEOSS/AWCI participating countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Japan,
Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand,
Uzbekistan, Vietnam

Douglas Cripe(GEO Secretariat)

Kaoru Takara (KU/DPRI)

Opening
The session was opened by Dr. Douglas Cripe, GEO Secretariat, who has stressed the importance ofIntegrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) for coping with water-related disasters and thenecessity of data sharing for the IWRM practices. The GEOSS data sharing principles include:- There will be full and open exchange of data, metadata, and products shared within GEOSS,
recognizing relevant international instruments and national policies and legislation.
- All shared data, metadata, and products will be made available with minimum time delay and at
minimum cost.
- All shared data, metadata, and products being free of charge or no more than cost of reproduction will
be encouraged for research and education.
- All new members of GEO are required to endorse the Plan and therefore these Principles.
Dr. Cripe further reiterated that GEOSS is about:- Ensuring Access for All- Making Basic Data Sets Available- Developing End-to-end Services- Coordinating and Sustaining Observing Systems
Outlook of the Water Cycle in the Asia-Oceanic region
Prof. Kaoru Takara, Kyoto University, Disaster Prevention Research Institute, gave an overview of the
major types of water-related disasters in Asia-Oceanic region that include: Floods, Landslides, Extended
droughts, Tropical Cyclones, Typhoons. Floods are major disaster in the world and in Japan and humid
areas in Asia the level of floods has been increasing in past 2 decades. Prof. Takara pointed out thatthough many mechanisms causing the disasters have been clarified, there is still plenty of remaining
issues that require further geoscience research. He also emphasized that IWRM practices and publicawareness are critical for preventing water-related disasters and resulting damages.
Short country reports
In this session, the AWCI country representatives introduced the major water-related risks in theircountries and provided overview of the recent disasters and possible trends in their occurrence. In total,
15 reports were given including following countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Japan,
Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uzbekistan, andVietnam. Floods were identified as the most severe and most common disasters that all countries are
suffering from. Also common features of floods in different regions were identified. The representatives
also introduced methods and systems used for floods and other disasters predictions, risk management,
and impact mitigation. While in some countries, advanced integrated systems are being made operational,
other countries still have high needs for capacity building in this area.
The main presentation and discussion points of the Water Cycle in the Asia-Oceanic Region session weresummarized in the Table 1 below. The common issues and available/needed capacities suggested
possible areas for closer collaboration including the effective framework established through the GEOSSAWCI. The strategy of such expanded collaboration was discussed at the following interdisciplinary
session “Toward Actual Collaboration among Climate, Water Cycle, and Disasters”.
Table 1: The session summary table. Yellow color indicates items highlighted by individual
country representatives

2.2 Toward Actual Collaboration among Climate, Water Cycle, and Disasters SBAs
Climate observation and prediction systems provide data and information that is broadly useful to theWater Cycle area. The Water Cycle SBA/projects then combine then own data with outputs from Climate
systems/projects, producing integrated data sets and other derived products, which can in turn be passed
on to other societal benefit areas, for example, Disasters SBA. In this way, a comprehensive
understanding of issues in the Disasters area can be gained through interoperable use of data andinformation from the other areas. As the managers of Climate systems react to this broader market for
their outputs, they become more attuned to making products that are responsive to these broader user
requirements.
GEOSS will be able to provide opportunities for such interconnection between various societal benefit
areas. To accelerate to share implementation experiences, as well as their data product availability andrequirements of contributing systems, it was discussed how to cooperate and coordinate among different
societal benefit areas, Climate, Water cycle and Disasters, and to make plans for carrying the ideas into
actions.

The session agenda
13:00-13:10
13:00-13:10

Opening “Climate-Water Cycle-Disasters” Joint Session
Breakout Session Design

E. Nakakita

13:10-15:00
Short reports on “What is on-going and/or planned?”(10min each)- Climate Projection
A. Kitoh (MRI)- Applications of Climate Models to Water-related Disaster
E. Nakakita (KU/DPRI)- GEOSS-WCRP collaboration in MAHASRI and HARIMAU M. Yamanaka, J. Matsumoto (JAMSTEC)- Recent change in global sea surface layer salinity detected by Argo float array - Footprint ofenhanced hydrological cycle
S. Hosoda (JAMSTEC)- Abnormal hydrological condition and disaster due to Arctic
T. Ohata (JAMSTEC)- Water Productivity Mapping using Remote Sensing to solve Global Food Crisis P. Thenkabail (USGS)- Global Mapping ProjectY. Fukushima (MLIT/GSI)- Sentinel Asia and SAFE
T. Moriyama (JAXA)- ICHARM Commitments to enhance regional cooperation in Asia and PacificK. Fukami (ICHARM)- Water for the World
T. Wiener (IEEE)- WCRP/GEWEX/CEOP
S. Williams (NCAR/EOL)
15:00-15:20

Break

15:20-17:30
14:50-15:20
15:20-17:30

Direction of Alliance’s Efforts
Data and Information Sharing Approach
Discussion for Implementation
 Target Topics and Fields:
Typhoon and Cyclone/Drought/Cold Surge/Snow and Glacier Regional Coordination Framework Linkage to Global Coordination Framework
 Building capacity
 Planning Strategy

17:30-18:00
17:30-17:50
17:50-18:00

Closing “Climate-Water Cycle-Disaster” Joint Session
Session Summary
Concluding Remarks

R. Shibasaki
All

T. KoikeGEO Secretariat

Opening
The session was opened by Prof. Eiiji Nakakita, Kyoto University, Disaster Prevention Research Institute,
who explained the purposes for organizing this interdisciplinary session among different societal benefit
areas and its design and objectives. He has emphasized that all the GEO SBAs are naturally related but
in particular in case of Climate, Water Cycle and Disasters, the mutual connections are substantial andthe interdisciplinary approach towards addressing the pressing issues would be beneficial for all groups.
Short reports on on-going/planned activities related to the Climate, Water Cycle and Disasters SBAs
A total of 11 talks were given in this session as listed in the session agenda that introduced various ongoing and planned activities that either were truly interdisciplinary dealing jointly with the Climate, Water
Cycle and Disasters SBA issues or could be exploited in more collaborative way to address other SBA
issues than originally designed for. The introduced activities included projects focusing on climate
projection methods and climate scenarios impacts assessment; projects on further research into theclimate changes and their impacts on regional and global level; projects on advanced mapping
technologies and their capabilities; integrated observation and data integration systems projects; andprojects focusing on capacity building and enhancing cooperation in the region.
Direction of Alliance’s Efforts
This session was opened by Prof. Ryosuke Shibasaki, University of Tokyo, who emphasized theimportance of proper metadata without which data sharing would be very difficult. He explained the basic
principles for making data and data products interoperable and mentioned the example of the metadata
structure definition based on ISO-19115 that is being used for DIAS, CEOP, and AWCI projects. He also
highlighted the need to develop metadata registries offering tools that enable data providers to generate
metadata on their data in an effective manner. It was pointed out that GEO Architecture and Data
Committee has inputted a task in their Task plan on metadata registry and ontology to support data
providers as well as metadata design development.

The session further continued through the planning strategy discussion for cooperation/coordination that
resulted in identification of next step activities. Four target topics and fields were defined based on theoutcomes of the country reports on disasters that could be considered as the main areas for cooperation.
These include:
1. Typhoon, cyclone, and induced floods
2. Drought
3. Cold surge
4. Snow, glaciers, GLOF
The discussion on each of the above target topics included the four items: (i) regional coordination
framework; (ii) linkage to global coordination framework; (iii) building capacity; and (iv) planning strategy,
considering the on-going and planned activities introduced in the previous session. The enthusiastic andproductive discussion brought plenty of ideas and suggestions for enhanced cooperation.
In case of Typhoon and cyclone theme, the focus should be on integrated data systems that would enable
data and information sharing on a real- or near real-time basis that is critical for early warning anddisaster management. Also the need to advance the research into the mechanisms of the typhoon andcyclone phenomena within the context of larger scale situation was mentioned. Oceanographic data areof high importance and thus closer collaboration is needed with oceanography groups.
The importance of a regional approach to the drought issues was emphasized as droughts are usuallyaffecting larger areas. Collaboration with agriculture experts is desirable.
The basic mechanism of Cold Surge was explained and its role in heavy rain events in some areasemphasized. The effect of local processes in connection with large-scale circulation is crucial in case of
Cold Surge and needs to be further studied. A collaborative study between science communities andoperational sectors maybe needed.
Regarding the Snow, glaciers, and GLOF theme, it was reported that certain databases exist in the
Himalayan area and further cryospheric observation network and database for the Asian region is being
developed through joint research projects. What is needed to be developed are prediction models of snow
and ice mass changes and early warning systems for disasters associated with GLOF and othercryosphere-related events.
In general, it was concluded that good and relatively comprehensive datasets would be available for:1. Integrated Water Resources Management focus in each country
2. Regional activities focused on the four target topics for which regional coordination framework isvery important.
In addition, it was emphasized that it would be mutually beneficial to share ideas and policies on
adaptation and disaster management on common issues. A matrix was developed showing possible
cooperation linkages that is shown in Table 2.
Conclusion of the two Water-related sessions
The “Water Cycle in the Asia-Oceanic Region” and “Toward Actual Collaboration among Climate, Water
Cycle, and Disasters” sessions were concluded with the message that: “Data information, science andtechnology, cooperation framework, and the members are now ready to expand interdisciplinary
cooperation that would bring mutual benefits”.
The group has proposed planning strategy with a particular steps that will be undertaken before the next,th
4 GEOSS AP Symposium:- Countries and organizations will submit proposal on the targeting topic(s)- A three-day workshop will be held to discuss:
1. Sharing Societal Needs, Scientific Ideas, Observation Capability, Modeling Capability,
Experiences
2. Seeking Data Sharing Possibility: Data Policy, Meta Data Generation and Data Infrastructure
3. Establishing Cooperation Framework under GEO- Forming a Task Team for drafting an Implementation Planth
- Discussing the draft at the 4 GEOSS AP SymposiumTable 2: Cooperation Linkages

2.3 The 4th International Coordination Group Meeting of the GEOSS AWCI ICG
To accelerate the GEOSS/AWCI coordination, especially on “Data Integration” and “Capacity Building”, byreviewing and sharing the updated status of the GEOSS, the AWCI demonstration projects, and therelated sciences.
The session agenda
Friday, 6 February 2009:
13:30 – 14:00
1. Opening by Guest Speakers
1.1 Hirota Tani, MEXT
1.2 Linda Anne Stevenson, APN
1.3 Douglas Cripe, GEO Secretariat
14:00 – 14:20

2. GEOSS/AWCI Overview and Meeting Objectives

T. Koike

14:20 – 15:00
3. Science Interaction Session – Land Use
3.1 Paddy Field Monitoring by Satellite
W. Takeuchi
3.2 Global Irrigated Area Map (GIAM) and Global Map of Rainfed Cropland Areas (GMRCA)
P. S. Thenkabail
15:00 – 15:20 Break
15:20 – 17:30
4. “Capacity Building” Implementation Plan Development
4.1 Plenary session; Objectives and guidance
4.2 Breakout sessions- Floods WG

S. Herath and C. Ishida
All

4.3
17:30

- Drought WG- Water quality WG- Climate Change WG
Plenary session; WG reports and coordination

ADJOURN

Saturday, 7 February 2009:
9:00 – 9:40
5. Scientific Reports
5.1 Land-Lake-Atmosphere Interaction and its Effects on Local Water Use
5.2 WEB-DHM and IWRM
9:40 – 10:30
6. Data Management (1)6.1 GEOSS/AWCI data archiving update
6.2 Data loading and quality check

K. Tsujimoto
L. Wang

K. Tamagawa
E. Ikoma

10:30 – 10:50 Break
10:50 – 12:00 6. Data Management (2)6.3 Thailand Hydroinformatics System
6.4 Data Infrastructure – present situation and future prospects
6.5 Meta-data Registry

S. Malaikrisanachalee
M. Kitsuregawa
H. Kinutani

12:00 – 13:00 Lunch
13:00 – 14:30 7. Special Panel Session on “Promotion of Water Quality Study”
H. Furumai, and Flood/Drought/Climate Change WG Chairs
14:30 – 15:00 8. Summary and Way Forward

T. Koike

Opening
The meeting was opened by representatives of Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, andTechnology, Japan (MEXT), Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN), and GEO
Secretariat. Mr. Hirota Tani, MEXT, emphasized the Ministry’s recognition of the importance of water
resources issues and expressed Ministry’s support of the data integration and analysis efforts andcapacity building activities that are being undertaken by GEO and GEOSS AWCI. Dr. Linda A.
Stevenson, APN, mentioned that APN strongly supports activities of GEOSS AWCI that was initiated witha significant contribution of an APN funded project. Currently, three projects under AWCI are financially
supported by APN through ARCP and CAPaBLE. Dr. Stevenson advised the participants that APN’s
budget would be increased and APN planned to allocate the additional funds to enhance activities inclimate change theme, in particularly training sessions on downscaling the global information for local use.
Dr. Douglas Cripe, GEO Secretariat, highlighted the principles for GEO capacity building that include: (i)focus on user needs; (ii) building on existing efforts and best practices; (iii) fostering collaboration andpartnership; (iv) enhancing the sustainability of earth observations; and (v) holistic approach: consider all
the SBAs at the global, regional, and local levels.
GEOSS/AWCI Overview and Meeting Objectives
The opening talks were followed by introduction of the meeting objectives and the GEOSS AWCI
overview given by the AWCI leader, Prof. Toshio Koike, University of Tokyo. Prof. Koike summarized
the outcomes of the 3rd GEOSS AWCI ICG meeting that was held in Beijing, 6 November 2008 and wasconnected to the 4th Conference of the Asia Pacific Association of Hydrology and Water Resources(APHW). At this occasion, a special AWCI session was held as a part of the APHW conference thatrd
introduced scientific work related to the AWCI activities. The 3 AWCI ICG meeting sessions included
demonstration project update reports, AWCI activity reports (GEOSS current status, undertaken capacity
building activities, and working group reports), establishing a new working group on “Climate Change
Impacts and Adaptation”, metadata and data archiving and data quality check demonstration, andrdcapacity building implementation strategy discussion. The 3 AWCI ICG meeting outcomes included:
1. New AWCI working group on climate change impacts and adaptation was established, the CoChairs are Prof. Deg-Hyo Bae, Korea, and Prof. Mafizur Rahman, Bangladesh.

2. The metadata and data upload system is ready the actual data and metadata provision bycountries has begun but it is desirable to expedite this process in accordance with thethdemonstration projects implementation plan. Progress would be reported at the 4 AWCI ICG
meeting in Kyoto, February 2009.
3. Capacity building strategy focuses on the identified 3 target groups: (i) researchers/scientists, (ii)professional/practitioners, and (iii) administrative/local government officers; and follows 3
approaches towards the capacity building pilot projects (PP) proposed and agreed earlier: (i)country based PP; (ii) training module based PP; and (iii) country data plus training module based
PP. The ICG members are expected to introduce concrete proposals by the Kyoto meeting,where actual plans will be discussed.
In addition, Prof. Koike gave an overview of the “water” breakout sessions that took place as a part of the
GEOSS AP Symposium on Thursday 5 February and introduced the outcomes of these sessions andimplication for further AWCI development.
Scientific sessions
The meeting included two scientific sessions. The first one focused on land use issues and introduced themethodology for paddy field monitoring using satellite data and the global maps of irrigated and rainfed
croplands. The outcomes of these efforts might be very useful in various AWCI projects. The second
scientific session scheduled a talk on land-lake-atmosphere interaction at a local scale and a talk on
applicability of an advanced distributed hydrological model for the IWRM purposes. These talks were also
very inspiring for the AWCI project planning.
“Capacity Building” Implementation Plan Development
The session was opened by Mr. Chu Ishida who summarized the past developments of the AWCI
integrated capacity building strategy that was formulated based on the outcomes of capacity needs andavailable resources surveys. The objective is to show the applicability of available data, information,models, algorithms, and systems at AWCI demonstration basins in order to overcome water issues.
Modules available from resource organizations include:-

Data Integration System, quality control (CEOP)
Global flood alert system, hazard mapping (ICHARM)
Satellite Data, Mini-projects, Sentinel Asia (JAXA)
Flood hazard mapping, emergency manage (MRC)
Floods inundation modeling, rainfall downscaling (UNU)
Radar rainfall, real-time forecast (Sejong University)
Flood simulation, dam operation (University of Tokyo)

The location of the training modules is schematically shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Location of capacity building training modules

In addition, Mr. Ishida introduced present JAXA’s Capacity Building Activities for the Asia-Pacific Region
that include number of Mini-projects in cooperation with Geo-Informatics Center, Asian Institute ofTechnology (GIC-AIT).
The next talk, given by Prof. Srikantha Herath, UNU, reiterated the guiding principles of capacity
development and emphasized that the capacity development program is based on the local needs. The
AWCI capacity building activities are closely related to the AWCI demonstration projects and are pursued
through the framework of four working groups (Flood, Drought, Water Quality, and Climate Change). Prof.
Herath further reported on the UNU capacity building activities, especially training seminars andworkshops for scientists and researchers using country data. In support of the AWCI CB program, theUNU group has constructed an on-line repository that contains information on AWCI CB activities
including available training modules and is editable by all members. It provides a module information
template for organizations to provide information on available training modules. The site is available at:
http://unufms.net:8080/seaside/gcs/AWCI and countries were invited to propose hosting of workshop or
seminar in their country.
Breakout group sessions
After the two introductory talks, the breakout sessions on Flood, Drought, Water Quality, and Climate
Change took place. The groups were asked to discuss and formulate a concrete proposal for training
modules:
Flood WG proposed a workshop to be held at AIT, Thailand, in FY2009 that would last 2 days at least,
include GFAS and IFAS, and consider 10 – 20 participants. In addition training on rainfall downscaling
with WRF model was proposed for country representatives to be followed by local roving seminar.
Drought WG reported the need to continue the scientific discussion to finalize the details of the proposed
drought monitoring study, ecpecially to identify common drought indices. Accordingly, the group proposeda scientific workshop on drought research to be held in the September-October 2009 timeframe that will
be followed by a drought monitoring training workshop.
Water Quality WG reiterated its past activities and reported the need of recognition of the water quality
issues at “effective level” because without considering water quality, IWRM cannot be implemented. Alsoempahsized was the need of capacity building at the scientific level and improve water quality monitoring.
The group proposed following items for AWCI CB program: (i) identify hydrological models that could becoupled with water quality models, (ii) satellite data for watershed management monitoring, and (iii) an
on-going training initiative utilized to help water quality experts to use satellite data.
Climate Change WG was formed at the Beijing meeting in November 2008 and thus outlined its plans that
include (i) historical observation data analysis for finding the evidence of climate change and (ii) future
projections by GCM outputs from specific greenhouse gas emission scenarios, downscaling andhydrological model applications. The focus will be on assessment of the impact on food security andwater cycle. The near future action plan includes work with the flood working group regarding capacity
building for the data downscaling; preparation and submission of a project proposal; and workshop on thedeveloped methodology for the climate change and impact assessment.
Data Management
This session reviewed the status of the AWCI demonstration project metadata and data submission andalso provided a comprehensive guidelines for utilizing the tools designed for metadata and data uploadand data quality control that were developed by the University of Tokyo in cooperation with the DIAS
project. A good progress has been reported in terms of the demonstration project metadata and datasubmissions. The current status is summarized in the Table 3 below.
In addition to the AWCI data system detailed introduction and its use demonstration, Dr. S.
Malaikrisanachalee presented the Thailand Hydroinformatics System and its development andcapabilities. Furthermore, Prof. M. Kitsuregawa gave an overview of the present situation and future
prospects of data infrastructure. He introduced “cloud computing” and “elastic services” – newly emerging
terms in the IT community and emphasized the importance of data and care of data that has beenrecognized by scientists and experts in all the fields but still need to be fully appreciated by policy anddecision makers.
Special Panel Session on “Promotion of Water Quality Study”
This session was planned in order to promote the water quality study within the context of other AWCI
activities and was opened by a summary of Dr. Bilqis Hoque’s presentation from the previous day
emphasizing the idea to carry out an integrated study of flood and water quality. After that, Prof. HiroakiFurumai introduced their recent study on Water quality monitoring under dry and wet weather conditionsin the downtown of Hanoi city that could be expanded into the proposed integrated study of flood andwater quality.
Table 3: Status of the AWCI demonstration project metadata and data submisstion

After the introductory talks, the panel discussion took place that focused on the following items:- Idea on the integrated study of flood and water quality – case study is needed- Candidate basins
The proposed ideas for the water quality study included:
1. ICHARM has been carrying study on water quality degradation in diminishing water resourcesthat involves distributed hydrological model coupled with a module introducing pollution sources.
This model can be used for the AWCI water quality pilot study.
2. WEB DHM developed at the University of Tokyo can also be coupled with a water quality moduleor the model introduced by Prof. Furumai. A study is already being planned in the Hue river basin
in Vietnam.
3. The study should be carried out in the context of water quantity, i.e. flood/normal
conditions/drought.
4. Exploration of possibilities to use remote sensing data for water quality issues through enhanced
discussion with experts in this field. Remote sensing for inundation mapping.
5. Need to involve more water quality experts from AWCI participating countries to activate the water
quality study.
The candidate basin should fulfill the following criteria:- Longer data record in basin (climatology analysis desirable)- Reasonable size including urban area (pollution source)- Flood and drought conditions occurring in the basin- Hydrological model calibrated for the basin
It was concluded that possible candidate is the Hue river basin in Vietnam including Hue city urban area.
It has a reasonable size, hydrological and water quality studies have been carried out and hydrologicalmodel has been developed there. The issue may be with the water quality data, additional sampling in the
upstream of the Hue city is necessary.
thClosing of the 4 AWCI ICG meeting
Prof. Toshio Koike, UT, summarized the meeting including the message from the GEOSS AP
Symposium “water” sessions. He emphasized good potential for expanded collaboration between AWCI
current activities and Disasters and Climate Change SBAs of GEOSS.
The scientific talks introduced some new findings and advanced tools and methods that could be
exploited in the AWCI activities and great interest of participants in these methods/tools was shown inensuing discussions.
A good progress was reported in the AWCI demonstration projects data and metadata submission and the
AWCI representatives expressed their intention to continue in this effort at the same level. They
acknowledged the provided explanation and demonstration of the data and metadata upload system anddata quality control tools.
The AWCI capacity building program has been developing well and concrete training seminars are being
proposed. The on-line repository developed by UNU was found very useful and will facilitate effectiveplanning of CB activities. Several seminars/workshops took place in 2008 and their outcomes werereported. The AWCI working groups are at different level of development and thus have different needs
for capacity building programs. These needs were discussed and concrete activities proposed. A possible
water quality study in cooperation with other groups was discussed during a special panel discussion anda framework and basic features of such study were proposed.
In his closing remark, Dr. Douglas Cripe, GEO Secretariat, acknowledged the progress of the AWCI and
its openness to expand collaboration across other GEOSS SBAs. He highlighted that the AWCI
organization, approaches, and activities are fully in accord with the GEO principles and as such has full
support of the GEO Secretariat.
In conclusion, particular steps were proposed to step forward that include:- Countries and organizations will submit proposal on the targeting topic(s)- A three-day workshop will be held to discuss:
4. Sharing Societal Needs, Scientific Ideas, Observation Capability, Modeling Capability,
Experiences
5. Seeking Data Sharing Possibility: Data Policy, Meta Data Generation and Data Infrastructure
6. Establishing Cooperation Framework under GEO- Forming a Task Team for drafting an Implementation Planth
- Discussing the draft at the 4 GEOSS AP Symposium