Project Reference: APN2006-07NMY
International Integrated Water Data Access and Transfer in Asia (IIWaDATA) Project

UPDATED PROPOSAL
Cover Page
1. Project Leader: Dr. Toshio Koike, Professor (University of Tokyo, Japan)
Dr. Chu Ishida (CEOS/JAXA, Japan)
2. Project Reference: APN2006-07NMY
3. Project Title
The International Integrated Water Data Access and Transfer in Asia (IIWaDATA)
Project, focusing on water cycle research and water resources management, will run from2005-2008 and will require USD 50,000 per year for fiscal years 2006 and 2007, of which USD
43,000/year will be required from APN and USD 7,000/year secured from other sources. The
funding will be used to support research and related activities that are essential for achieving
the project goals including the bringing together of scientists, data engineering experts, andnational governmental agency representatives from developing Asian countries to work on the
project and the linking with other bodies in the international community.
4. Project relevance to the APN Science Agenda
The Project will establish water data sharing and exchange policies and data management
strategies in the Asian region that will enable (1) integrated data access and transfer among
Asian national research groups and between these groups and international organizations suchas WMO and UNESCO, and (2) effective transfer of observation information and scientificknowledge to water resources policy- and decision-making groups. In particular, the Projectwill examine existing technologies and develop new tools for (a) enhanced data collecting andsharing, (b) improved detection and prediction of variations in the Asian water cycle, and (c)science information fusion and transformation for application to water resources management
issues at local to regional scales. These capabilities will aim toward building up
national/regional capacity to conduct water cycle research in a more efficient, coordinatedmanner and to exploit research results for solving societal issues associated with the water
cycle features in Asia. In this way the IIWaDATA effort will contribute to APN activities insupport of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) especially within thecontext of GEOSS Work Packet Two Year (2006-2007) Target #042.
5. Regional collaboration and leverage of support being sought(1) The University of Tokyo (UT) will contribute USD 80,000 to establish an IIWaDATA Task
Team (ITT) and to hold an initial workshop (Nov 2005) to prepare work packages and reports
for use at two working and demonstration sessions (FY 2006 and 2007) for which funds arebeing requested. (2) The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), which is partially
funded by ICSU, contributes USD 35,000/year for travel expenses of climate data experts fromdeveloping and developed countries around the globe to attend similar workshops andmeetings. A number of such experts will be invited to attend the proposed working sessionsand WCRP will contribute by providing support to experts from regions outside Asia. (3) Other
support has been contributed by Japan (UT, JAXA, JMA) the USA (UCAR/NASA/NOAA) andEurope (ESA, MPI) in the range of a total of USD 300K/year to develop and maintain prototype
integrated data systems of the type proposed for implementation in Asia through this proposal.
These systems will be studied and their existence will provide leverage for the development of
the proposed Asian scheme, through information, knowledge and data exchange that can beshared in-kind during and after the establishment of the IIWaDATA project system. In addition,
the advanced data management software tools of the aforesaid existing systems will be also
provided to facilitate development of the targeted scheme in the Asian region.

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Project Reference: APN2006-07NMY
International Integrated Water Data Access and Transfer in Asia (IIWaDATA) Project

The Main Body of the Full Proposal
Description of the proposed project- BackgroundIn recognition of the need for accurate, timely, long-term, water cycle information as abasis for sound and effective water resources and risk management and with regards to theongoing initiatives pursuing to meet this need, we are proposing the IIWaDATA project thataims to develop a sustainable scheme for water cycle data collecting, sharing, exchanging, andmanagement at the regional level in Asia in cooperation with national governments, institutes
and research communities and also international organizations that would be consistent withthe global framework of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), especially
its Water theme component.
The GEOSS 10-year Implementation Plan has recognized benefits of integrated datasystems for achieving one of its major goals: “Improving water resources management
through better understanding of the water cycle” and identified the WCRP CoordinatedEnhanced Observing Period (CEOP) project as a prototype of such an integrated global system.
In addition to the advanced data collection, management, archiving, integration anddissemination functions, CEOP is also pursuing development of specific tools for information
fusion and transfer in order to bridge the gap between science and water resourcesmanagement communities and thus to make water cycle research achievements serviceable
for solving societal issues.
In this context, the IIWaDATA project plans to utilize the achievements of CEOP andsimilar international projects as well as related existing capabilities developed by individual
countries and regional research groups in Asia as a basis for developing an adequate schemethat will reflect specific aspects of the Asian region and will meet particular requirements ofnational and regional research and water management communities.
- Objectives
The key guiding goals of the IIWaDATA efforts are:(1) To improve knowledge and enhance prediction of the Asian water cycle variation
through integrated observation systems and advanced data management andprocessing capabilities that will assure an easy access to relevant data in the proper
format and to the desired extent to research communities;(2) To make a contribution toward the sustainable human development in the region
through development of methods and tools for effective transformation of global
and regional observation information and scientific knowledge into information
relevant for local water resources and risk management and facilitated transfer ofsuch information to national policy- and decision-making groups.
To achieve its key goals IIWaDATA aims to meet the following objectives:(i) Establishment of a mutual consensus among the Asian countries that will define
data sharing and exchanging policy and responsibilities for data processing,management and archiving;(ii) Establishment of an observation convergence strategy in the Asian region;(iii) Development of effective tools for enhanced data collecting and data management
including: software for data processing, quality control and format conversion,
sophisticated database systems, and other tools;(iv) Development of advanced technologies for data integration and data dissemination
to research groups including: data integration systems based on Internet
technologies and capable of integrating data from various sources such as satellite,
in-situ, and model output data, metadata schemes following ISO standards, etc.;(v) Development and implementation of specific tools and methods for facilitatedtransformation of observation data and scientific knowledge into water resources
and risk management relevant information including: advanced downscaling
methods to successfully introduce the impact of the global climate change on water
cycle processes at the local scale, technologies for information fusion to link
together various features of the water cycle and other aspects of the Earth system

2Project Reference: APN2006-07NMY
International Integrated Water Data Access and Transfer in Asia (IIWaDATA) Project
and thus provide sound information for decision makers, visualization tools to help
to translate the scientific information, etc.
-Strategy
The proposed project is conceived as a regional Asian water cycle initiative that iscontributing to GEOSS and is fully compliant to the GEOSS framework. Accordingly, theimplementation of the free data access and transfer policy will proceed within the context of
the GEOSS 10-Implementation Plan and, in particular, following the strategy outlined in the
GEO 2006 Workplan, Section 3.1.2 Architecture and Section 3.1.3 Data Management. The
IIWaDATA project involves both GEO member countries and participating organizations, andcountries that have not joined this group yet. The activities aiming at implementation of thefree data access and transfer policy that will be undertaken as part of the proposed IIWaDATA
project will, therefore, include: efforts to encourage further countries to join GEO and endorse
the GEOSS 10-Implementation Plan, providing forum for dialogue and resolution of issues atregional level, advocate the adoption of a common data policy defined by GEOSS. The benefitsof participation in the envisioned System that will be part of GEOSS will be demonstrated atmeetings and workshops organized by the IIWaDATA project as well as at other suitable
events such as conferences and meetings organized by organizations and projects that haveagreed to participate in the IIWaDATA and/or GEOSS initiatives. For this purpose,demonstration projects have been nominated out of the projects presented at the Asian Water
cycle Symposium (First Workshop of the IIWaDATA initiative) that include, for example, theCoordinated Enhanced Observing Period (CEOP) project, the Thailand Hydroinformatics
Platform on Prototype Area project, Contributing Project to GEOSS Climate Information System
for Agriculture in West Sumatera, and others.
The data system targeted by the proposed IIWaDATA initiative will be based on theCentralized and Distributed Data Integration Functions that have been developed as a part of
the CEOP project in order to provide easy access to and enable basic analyses of data collected,
managed and archived under the CEOP framework. These Systems, that were opened to public
in 2005 and also demonstrated at the Asian Water Cycle Symposium, are available at:
http://jaxa.ceos.org/wtf_ceop/ and http://monsoon.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ceop-dc/ceop-dc_top.htm
for Distributed and Centralized Systems, respectively. The description of these two systems isprovided in the CEOP Newsletter #9 that published in February 2006 and available through the
CEOP Homepage (http://www.ceop.net).
The IIWaDATA project plans to expand the current CEOP systems by including otheralready existing on-line data servers and archives, and new archives that are intended to be
developed following the CEOP data management and archiving scheme, which has been
identified in the GEOSS 10-year Implementation Plan Reference Document as a prototype data
integration system. The strategy to achieve such a System was proposed and agreed to at the
Asian Water Cycle Symposium (First IIWaDATA Workshop). The first step is to make aninventory of available data archives and data integration systems. Further, a team of data
management and IT experts, including those who have also been involved in development of
the CEOP system, will work on bridging these archives and systems and the current CEOP
system using such technologies that will assure all of the aspects of Interoperability asemphasized by GEOSS. Metadata design is one of the key aspects of the Interoperability. A
group of experts has been approached to participate in the IIWaDATA project to deal with thedevelopment, homogenization and application of metadata schemes that will be compliant to
the ISO standards and suitable for the collected data.
In addition, effort will be made to link existing schemes focusing on observation andscientific information fusion and transformation into the information relevant for the water
managers to the overall System and to develop new tools of such functions based on theneeds identified through discussions at the workshops and System users’ requirements
provided to the developers.
Detailed Work Plan
(1) Establish the pool of potential IIWaDATA Task Team (ITT) members - Experts fromThailand, Japan, China, India, Mongolia, Pakistan, Viet Nam, Bangladesh, Indonesia,
Philippines, and possibly other countries joined the initial workshop (Tokyo, Japan, 2-4 Nov
2005). Each country was asked to send up to two multi-disciplinary scientist/technicalrepresentatives as well as an intergovernmental/agency representative. A number of regional
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Project Reference: APN2006-07NMY
International Integrated Water Data Access and Transfer in Asia (IIWaDATA) Projectwater resources representatives and a corresponding set of international representatives werealso invited. The total number of participants exceeded 160 persons, including 60 internationaland more than 100 domestic (Japanese) participants.
(2) Initial meeting – At a plenary session, the Project Leaders introduced thebackground, objectives and final goals as well as benefits for national research and water
management groups; a demonstration of existing systems such as those developed as part of
CEOP were provided by the host country (Japan); tools from other ongoing projects(observation, data management, data integration, information transformation) were also
demonstrated. Each country and regional organization made a brief presentation focusing on
survey of existing data sharing, exchange, and management, schemes.
(3) Set the ITT membership – One representative of each country was nominated toparticipate in follow-up coordination meetings and teleconferences as well as in report drafting
and related tasks. The outcome is an ITT core group of 15 persons that are a cross-section of
the national/international/disciplinary range of the entire attending group.
(4) Follow-up to the initial meeting – From 11/2005 to 9/2006, confirmation of the ITT
membership and preparation for the kick-off Teleconference among Project Leaders and the
ITT that will be held in June/July 2006. The kick-off event will be followed by regularteleconferences to discuss partial results of the running survey of existing capabilities andvariety of data policies.
(5) The ad-hoc ITT workshop will be held in Bangkok, Thailand, 25 September 2006, atthe occasion of the International Workshop for Earth Observation in Water Management
Services (Bangkok, Thailand, 26 – 28 September 2006), which is part of the capacity building
activities framework of the Integrated Global Water Cycle Observations theme (IGWCO) of
IGOS-P organized by the IGWCO and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The ITT
members will clarify the IIWaDATA structure and strategy.
(6) Follow-up to the ITT workshop – From 9/2006 to 1/2007, the ITT members will
prepare the inventories of available data and tools relevant to the IIWaDATA initiative, draft
overview of data policies in the region as well as the Implementation Plan of the initiative. The
series of regular teleconferences will continue(7) The First IIWaDATA working session (venue: Tokyo, Japan, 15-17 January/2007) –APN funds will be used to support further development of the main IIWaDATA elements and toensure work has progressed on research-quality datasets and data management tools andmethods, as planned during the period following the initial workshop. This support will provide
the basis for organizing the first working session, at which the elements of the sustainable setof IIWaDATA data sharing and exchange techniques (IIWaDATA-SET) for Asia will be proposed.
(8) Follow-up to the first working session – A report on the outcomes of the firstworking session and first draft of the IIWaDATA-SET document will be provided by the end of
March 2007 (Project Leaders and ITT). APN Funds will be expended in support of focusedactions, initiated during the period from 1/2007 to 1/2008, and leading to the final drafting of
the IIWaDATA-SET document and related national and international agreements for sustaining
the primary elements of the International Integrated Data Access and Transfer in Asia scheme.
(9) The Second working session (venue: TBD, 1/2008) – The same organizing approachas used for the first working session will be applied. At this session, nominated ITT members
will introduce the developed IIWaDATA scheme to national representatives. Breakout sessions
will be organized to finalize any remaining issues. A final plenary will be held to endorse the
IIWaDATA-SET document and to formally close the IIWaDATA project.
(10) Follow-up to the second working session – A report on the outcome of the second
working session will be drafted and the IIWaDATA-SET document published and distributed.
Relationship to the APN’s Second Strategic PlanIIWaDATA will provide advanced technologies for data integration and data access andtransfer among research groups in Asia and other international science communities including:data integration systems based on Internet technologies and capable of integrating data fromvarious sources such as satellite, in-situ, and model output data; metadata schemes following
ISO standards; distributed and centralized data archives based on accepted standard
interfaces such as GrADS Data Server (GDS) and on separate super-computer capabilities,
with standardized access schemes; algorithms and data visualization and integration softwarefor down-scaling data from global to regional and local scales; and output formats and4Project Reference: APN2006-07NMY
International Integrated Water Data Access and Transfer in Asia (IIWaDATA) Projectproducts including model intercomparison results that can be easily interpreted and applied by
all classes of users.
These specific deliverables will contribute directly to the mission, core strategies andvision identified in the APN’s Second Strategic Plan. This claim is reflected in the fact the tools
proposed by the IIWaDATA project are already being prototyped in broader International
projects such as GEWEX and CEOP and require only specific integration to meet the special
needs of water cycle research, applications and policy in Asia. The funding requested from APN
will be used by IIWaDATA to identify, explain and predict changes in the Asian water cycle inthe context of both natural and human components. The work will include an initial assessmentof existing capabilities and will examine, by application of down-scaling methods, where thepotential vulnerabilities to human and natural systems exist. Also, by entraining science,technical and governmental groups, IIWaDATA will reach out to policy makers to provide tools,
which will enable policy options for appropriate responses to climate change that will also
contribute to sustainable development.
Contribution to APN’s Agenda’s
Science Agenda - IIWaDATA will focus on specific science issues related to climate,atmosphere/land interactions, and impacts of water cycle variability on resources as a way ofaddressing capabilities for sustainable development. By using APN funding to invest in asurvey of existing methods and the development of new tools and methodologies related tothese scientific and societal issues, IIWaDATA will contribute to the improvement of theeffectiveness of transfers of scientific knowledge to the decision-makers in the Asian region asa contribution to the APN’s science agenda.
Policy Agenda – By cooperating with other institutions and bodies that address issues
relating to science policy interactions such as WMO, ICSU, IOC, UNESCO, and others,
IIWaDATA is embracing a specific APN strategy formulated under its Policy Agenda.
Institutional Agenda – By setting up a cooperative scheme of regular international
teleconferences and working throughout each year between major working sessions IIWaDATA
will be establishing a sustainable scheme for enhancing year-round communications between
member countries, liaison functions, Project Leaders, relevant secretariats and the globalchange community at large, and thereby will be contributing directly to a main element of the
APN Institutional Agenda.
1. Regional Collaboration

The IIWaDATA Project will contribute to improved regional collaboration, by involving as
many Asian countries as possible in a large opening workshop and two other large working
meetings including but not limited to: Japan, China, Thailand, Mongolia, Pakistan, India,
Vietnam, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Philippines. Dr Yaoming Ma from China, Dr Gombo Davaa
from Mongolia, and Dr Tien Sribimawati from Indonesia whose CVs are listed below along withDrs Koike and Ishida are IIWaDATA collaborators that will apply knowledge gained in current
international and regional efforts to assist IIWaDATA to specifically tailor some existing tools
and strategies to meet the special needs of water and energy cycle research, applications andpolicy in Asia. Once the effective links functioning as desirable for achieving the targets of the
IIWaDATA project have been established, the efforts will be made to entrain further
participants, focusing on the key water sources of Asia, e.g. Himalayan region.
2. Relationship to the Human Dimensions of Global Change

By providing better information as a contribution to water resources management the
IIWaDATA Project will help to prevent and mitigate water-related events and their impacts onhuman and economic components of the region. Data systems, products and tools will also be
provided that can benefit efforts toward sustainable water resources within the region.
3. Capacity Building for Global Change Research

In keeping with the APN guiding goals, the proposed integrated data scheme and thetools for information transformation, will contribute to the development of a unique database,easily accessible by national and international research groups that will allow for advanced

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Project Reference: APN2006-07NMY
International Integrated Water Data Access and Transfer in Asia (IIWaDATA) Project
research devoted to the Asian water cycle and its variability under the changing global climate.
The developed tools, enabling to conduct various studies, will be available for researchers.
4. Scientific Contribution of each Participating Country

All participating countries will provide information about their water cycle observation
systems, data management strategies and data sharing policies as well as about relevant
research activities. Representatives will participate in negotiations about the data sharing
policy, and will concur on agreements for sustaining the system following the end of the
project. Experts from different countries as specified in the detailed work plan will work on
surveys of existing capabilities, write reports, and work on development of new tools.
5. Links to Policy and Sustainable Development Issues

The proposed scheme contains tools that will facilitate translation of observation
information and scientific knowledge for policy and decision makers in the arena of water
resources. These tools include functions such as data integration, information fusion, andvisualization tools based on Internet technologies and capable of integrating data from various
sources such as satellite, in-situ, and model output data; metadata schemes following ISO
standards. These tools will be able to provide output formats and products including modelintercomparison results that can be easily interpreted and applied by all classes of users
including but not limited to policy setting groups interested in sustainable development issues.
6. Relationship between Global Change Research Programmes and Networks

An integrated water cycle observation system as envisioned in this proposal will bring
together the capabilities of as many Asian countries as possible and will align the work in thesecountries with efforts being undertaken by a number of international projects such as thosethat are part of WCRP, which is also supported by WMO, IOC and ICSU. IIWaDATA can,therefore, be seen as a unique opportunity for the development of a unified Asian approach tothe improvement of the scientific foundation needed to achieve documentation of its water
cycle and to the meeting of goals for understanding and predicting variations in that cycle, asboth a contribution to and coordination among International bodies who are activity in the
Asian region.
7. Related Research Work

IIWaDATA is an attempt to position the Asian region to contribute to related
international research projects such as GEWEX and CEOP and ultimately to the GEOSS water
cycle scientific thrust. It understood that IIWaDATA needs APN support to accomplish this goalin a manner that is synergistic with and complementary to the APN’s own GEOSS initiative thatis being built largely around the need for capacity building. It is envisaged that the IIWaDATAGEOSS connection and the APN GEOSS initiative should, therefore, enable the Asian region to
be a major GEOSS contributor across both the scientific and capacity building arenas. In thiscontext the relevant reference documents are: The GEOSS 10-year Implementation Plan and
Implementation Plan Reference Document; GEOSS Work Packet Two Year (2006-2007) Target#042; The Coordinated Enhanced Observing Period - an initial step for integrated global water
cycle observation, WMO Bulletin 53 No. 2, pp.3-9, 2004, by T. Koike and the CEOP
Implementation Plan.

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Project Reference: APN2006-07NMY
International Integrated Water Data Access and Transfer in Asia (IIWaDATA) Project

3. UPDATED TIMELINEIIWaDATA Project Year 1 Timeline (April 2006 – March 2007)

Initial Meeting (Nov
2005) Report; Existing
Capabilities Survey;
International Task
Team Workshop

ITT Workshop, Bangkok

Data Collection and
Coordination
Integrated Data
Scheme formulated
and tested
First Working Meeting
Tools demo event

January 2007 Working
Meeting, Tokyo

Tool Development,
coordination/
Demo/Documentation
IIWaDATA-SET
formulation
Draft Year 1 Report
Year 1 Report

Event

Estimated No. ofParticipants

25 September 2006
Ramagarden Hotel,
Bangkok, Thailand

International Task Team
Workshop; associated with
the International Workshop
for Earth Observation in
Water Management Services(26 – 28 Sep 2006)20

15 – 17 January
University of Tokyo, Tokyo,
Japan

First Working Meeting; Tools
demo event

60

Date/Venue

Mar

Feb

Jan

Dec

Nov

Oct

2007

Sep

Aug

Jul

Jun

May

MONTH

Apr

2006

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Project Reference: APN2006-07NMY
International Integrated Water Data Access and Transfer in Asia (IIWaDATA) Project

IIWaDATA Project Year 2 Tentative Timeline (April 2007 – March 2008)

International Task
Team Workshop

ITT Workshop, TBD
Location in Asia

Tool Development/
Demo/Documentation
IIWaDATA – SET implementation initiation
Final Techniques
testedFirst Working Meeting
Tools demo event;
IIWaDATA – SET data
policy agreement
Final Techniques
Document Delivered

January 2008 Working
Meeting, TBD Location in Asia

Draft Final Report
Final Report
APN Reporting

Date/Venue
September/October 2007
TBD Location in Asia
January 2008
TBD Location in Asia

Event
International Task Team
Workshop;Second Working Meeting;Tools demo event

8

Estimated No. ofParticipants
20
60

Mar

Feb

Jan

Dec

Nov

Oct

2008

Sep

Aug

Jul

Jun

May

MONTH

Apr

2007