Interim Report for CAPaBLE Project
Project Reference Number: CBA2008-12NMY-Ishida
Part One
1. Project Title“The Global Earth Observation System of Systems Asian Water Cycle Initiative Observation
Convergence and Data Integration (GEOSS/AWCI/OCDI)” for water cycle research and water resourcesmanagement under climate change in Asia.
2. Project Leader Details: Name, Institution, Email Address, Website
Mr. Chu Ishida, Japan Aerospace Cooperation Agency (JAXA), Japan, ishida.chu@jaxa.jp,
http://www.jaxa.jp
Dr. Toshio Koike, Professor, University of Tokyo, Japan, tkoike@hydra.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp
3.

Collaborating CountriesThe GEOSS/AWCI/OCDI involves many Asian countries including but not limited to: Bangladesh,
Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Lao, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan,Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Vietnam.
4.

Non-technical summary (500 words)
In recognition of the need for accurate, timely, long-term, water cycle information as a basis forsound and effective water resources and risk management and with regards to the ongoing initiatives
pursuing to meet this need, the GEOSS/AWCI/OCDI project was initiated. The project follows-up on thedata focus of the IIWaDATA project (ARCP2007-02CMY) and is contributing to the development of asustainable scheme for water cycle data collecting, sharing, exchanging, and management at the regional
level in Asia in cooperation with national governments, institutes and research communities and alsointernational organizations.
The GEOSS/AWCI/OCDI project involves 19 participating countries and 18 river basins in theAsia-Pacific region, and develops an information system of systems for promoting the implementation ofintegrated water resources management (IWRM) .
Through a series of meetings, the IIWaDATA project established a mutual consensus among theparticipating countries and international organizations that defines data sharing and exchanging policyand responsibilities for data processing, management and archiving. This strong cooperative frameworkhas evolved into a large regional initiative recognized by the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) as a
GEOSS activity: GEOSS Asian Water Cycle Initiative (AWCI). The GEOSS/AWCI/OCDI project has beenfurther significantly contributing to the development of the Data Integration and Analysis System (DIAS)
that was launched in 2006 as part of the Earth Observation and Ocean Exploration System, which is oneof five National Key Technologies defined by the 3rd Basic Program for Science and Technology of Japan.
Part Two
1. Project Objectives
The aim is to develop an information system of systems for promoting the implementation of
integrated water resources management (IWRM) through data integration and sharing as a basis forsound decision making of national water policies.
The project contributes to the AWCI objectives that include:
1. To develop Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) approaches;
2. To share timely, quality, long-term information on water quantity and quality, and their variation as abasis for sound national and regional decision making;3. To construct a comprehensive, coordinated and sustained observational system of systems, such asprediction systems and decision support capabilities, under the GEOSS;
4. 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.
2. Relevance to the APN’s Science and Policy Agendas

Science Agenda – GEOSS/AWCI/OCDI focuses on specific science issues related to climate,atmosphere/land interactions, and impacts of water cycle variability on resources as a way of addressing
capabilities for sustainable development. By surveying existing and the development of new methods
related to these scientific and societal issues, GEOSS/AWCI/OCDI will contribute to the improvement of
the effectiveness of transfers of scientific knowledge to decision-makers in the Asian region.
Policy Agenda – By cooperating with other institutions and bodies that address issues relating toscience policy interactions such as WMO, ICSU, IOC, UNESCO, and others, the project is embracing aspecific APN strategy formulated under its Policy Agenda.
3. Work undertaken and results to date
A kick-off plenary meeting, that included AWCI International Coordination Group (ICG) members,
was held at the occasion of the 4th Conference of the Asia Pacific Association of Hydrology and Water
Resources (APHW), in Beijing, China, 3-5 November, 2008. A full day special session on AWCI was held on
5 November and the 3rd meeting of the AWCI ICG followed at the same venue on 6 November. The 3rdAWCI ICG meeting reviewed the progress of the AWCI activities, with a focus on the AWCI Demonstration
Projects (DPs) for 18 river basins in the participating countries. It was decided to establish the fourth WG
on Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation. WGs identified priority activities and agreed to develop theirimplementation plan at next ICG meeting in Kyoto. In addition, two related capacity building workshops
were held in Indonesia (July) and Bangladesh (August) that addressed rainfall downscaling, hydrologicalmodeling, flood risk management, etc.
The 4th AWCI ICG meeting was held on 6-7 February 2009, in Kyoto, in conjunction with the 3rdGEOSS Asian Pacific Symposium. In the GEOSS AP Symposium special “water” sessions, a possibility for
expanded collaboration among the AWCI current activities focused on water cycle issues and relatedsocio-benefit areas of GEOSS were sought. Four target topics: 1. Typhoon, cyclone and induced floods, 2.
Drought, 3.Cold surge and 4. Snow, glacier and GLOF were identified. The 4th AWCI ICG meeting
acknowledged a good progress in the AWCI Demonstration Projects data and metadata submission, anddata quality check activities. A good progress was also made in the AWCI capacity building program. An
on-line repository system on the AWCI capacity building activities of member organizations wasdeveloped by UNU. The AWCI WGs discussed their concrete activities in the 2009-2010 timeframe.
The 5th AWCI CG meeting was held on 15-17 December, in Tokyo. A very good progress of the AWCI
Demonstration Projects was reported as shown in the following summary table:

Expanded activities of the AWCI WGs for the climate disaster areas; 1. Typhoon, cyclone andinduced floods, 2. Drought and 3. Snow, glacier and GLOF were discussed. It was agreed to develop animplementation plan for these activities. It was also agreed to proceed with filling the AWCI capacity
building repository with member organizations requirements and resources, and registering necessarycapacity building modules. The training workshop on the application of remote sensing products on
drought monitoring in Asia was also held on 17-18 December.
4. Self evaluation against project objectives
The project has been very successful in executing the AWCI Implementation Plan(http://monsoon.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/AWCI/) and expanding its activities to cope with the climate change
issues in the Asia-Pacific region. Meta-data and data collection and data quality check are progressing
well. Development of training modules and their integration for the demonstration projects are being
implemented. Applications of newly developed distributed hydrological models to the demonstration
river basins showed significant advantage of such modeling technique for water resource managementand disaster risk reduction.
5.

Publications (to date and/or pending): None

6. Acknowledgments
In addition to the support from APN, which made this project possible, we would like to thank thefollowing organizations and institutions for their scientific and technical contribution as well as financial
and in-kind support to the activities undertaken by this project and for their continued collaboration withAWCI: Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT), Japan; University of Tokyo,
Japan; Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Japan; United Nations University (UNU); theInternational Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM), Japan; Asian Institute ofTechnology (AIT), Thailand; Kasetsart University, Thailand.