The Powerof Partnership

Public andPrivateEngagementin Hydromet
Services

G LO BA L FAC I L I T Y F O R DI SA ST E R R E D U C T IO N A N D R E COV E RY

Cover/Back cover: Andrey VP. Above: sdecoret.

The Powerof Partnership

Public andPrivateEngagementin Hydromet
Services© 2019 International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank
1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433
Telephone: 202-473-1000;
Internet: www.worldbank.org

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iii

Table of Contents
Foreword .............................................................................................................................................................

vii

Acknowledgements.............................................................................................................................................

viii

Abbreviations .....................................................................................................................................................

x

Executive Summary.............................................................................................................................................

xiii

1. Introduction.........................................................................................................................................

1

1.1 Initial position.................................................................................................................................

1

1.2 Research approach..........................................................................................................................

2

1.3 Structure of the report.....................................................................................................................

4

2. Setting the scene..............................................................................................................................

5

2.1 Hydromet value chain .....................................................................................................................

5

2.2 Economics of the hydromet value chain .........................................................................................

10

3. Case studies.........................................................................................................................................

15

3.1 Overview..........................................................................................................................................

15

3.2 United States...................................................................................................................................

16

3.3 United Kingdom...............................................................................................................................

20

3.4 Japan................................................................................................................................................

25

3.5 Myanmar..........................................................................................................................................

28

3.6 Indonesia.........................................................................................................................................

32

3.7 Ghana...............................................................................................................................................

36

3.8 Germany and Israel: Policy changes related to data access............................................................

41

3.9 Transnational perspective of international weather companies.....................................................

44

3.10 Models and examples of public-private engagement......................................................................

45

4. Hydromet value chain development and public-private engagement .........

47

4.1 Aspects common to all scenarios ....................................................................................................

48

4.2 Reference scenarios ........................................................................................................................

52

4.3 Good practices.................................................................................................................................

58

5 Conclusions and Recommendations.....................................................................................

63

5.1 Conclusions .....................................................................................................................................

63

5.2 Recommendations...........................................................................................................................

65

5.3 Next steps and need for further research........................................................................................

67

iv / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

Annex: Scenario construction .......................................................................................................

69

References 		 .....................................................................................................................................................

82

List of Figures
Figure 1:

Simplified hydromet value chain and key enablers ..................................................................................

5

Figure 2:

Sector balance diagram used in this report ..............................................................................................

9

Figure 3:

Sector balance and maturity in U.S. hydromet value chain .....................................................................

17

Figure 4:

Sector balance and maturity in U.K. hydromet value chain .....................................................................

21

Figure 5:

Sector balance and maturity in Japan hydromet value chain ..................................................................

25

Figure 6:

Sector balance and maturity in Myanmar hydromet value chain ............................................................

29

Figure 7:

Sector balance and maturity in Indonesia hydromet value chain ...........................................................

33

Figure 8:

Sector balance and maturity in Ghana hydromet value chain..................................................................

37

Figure 9:

Putting interlinked issues into a coherent structure that can be used in planninga hydromet value chain improvement project ..........................................................................................

Figure 10:

47

Frame (top), scenario (bottom), and their respective components give structure to complex
interlinked issues .......................................................................................................................................

69

Figure 11:

Iterative approach to painting a picture in four iterations.......................................................................

69

Figure 12:

Frame components .....................................................................................................................................

71

Figure 13:

Chosen options define a strategy that forms part of a scenario...............................................................

74

Figure 14:

Expected outcomes define a realization that forms part of a scenario....................................................

79

List of Tables
Table 1:		Preliminary classification of markets and strategies of hydromet services.............................................

3

Table 2:

Overview of the interviews conducted during the study..........................................................................

3

Table 3:		Elements of hydromet value chain and classification of their maturity level..........................................

7

Table 4:

Two key enablers of the hydromet value chain and classification of their maturity level ......................

8

Table 5:		Classification of goods ...............................................................................................................................

11

Table 6:

General typology of meteorological services using economic criteria as defining criteria ....................

11

Table 7:		Examples of services and their categorization to illustrate the typology of hydromet services ............

12

Table 8:Overview of selected indicators of selected countries .............................................................................

16

Table 9:Core values for providing hydromet services (common to all scenarios) ................................................

48

Table 10:

General value drivers (common to all scenarios) .....................................................................................

48

Table 11:Given situation (common to all scenarios) ...............................................................................................

48

Table 12:

Pros and cons of supplier-customer type options for public-private engagement(common to all scenarios) .........................................................................................................................

49

Table 13:

Pros and cons of partnering type options for public-private engagement (common to all scenarios) .

50

Table 14:

Strategic governance options and decisions (common to all the scenarios)...........................................

50

Table 15:

Strategic public services funding decisions and options (common to all scenarios)..............................

51

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / v

Table 16:

Reference scenarios formed by combining frames capturing different given situations,
possible strategies, and desired realizations (or future situations) ........................................................

52

Table 17:

Specific givens in Jump-start .....................................................................................................................

53

Table 18:

Specific value drivers in Jump-start ..........................................................................................................

53

Table 19:

Specific definition of success in Jump-start ..............................................................................................

53

Table 20:

Specific strategic decisions and options in Jump-start ............................................................................

54

Table 21:

Strategic actions and goals for accompanying measures in Jump-start ..................................................

55

Table 22:

Realization outcomes aspired to in Jump-start ........................................................................................

55

Table 23:

Specific givens in Strengthen ....................................................................................................................

56

Table 24:

Specific value drivers in Strengthen .........................................................................................................

56

Table 25:

Specific definition of success in Strengthen .............................................................................................

56

Table 26:

Specific strategic decisions and options for Strengthen ..........................................................................

56

Table 27:

Realization outcomes aspired to in Strengthen ........................................................................................

57

Table 28:

Specific givens in Optimize .......................................................................................................................

57

Table 29:

Specific value drivers in Optimize .............................................................................................................

57

Table 30:

Specific definition of success in Optimize ................................................................................................

58

Table 31:

Strategic actions and goals for accompanying measures in Optimize ....................................................

58

Table 32:

Value chain outcomes aspired to in Optimize ..........................................................................................

58

Table 33:

Good practices to foster the development of a sustainable hydromet value chain
or are in the way of successful public-private engagement .....................................................................

Table 34:

61

Reference scenarios formed by combining frames capturing different given situations,
possible strategies, and desired realizations (or future situations) ........................................................

70

Table 35:

Setup of tables that list frame items, available options, or possible outcomes .....................................

70

Table 36:

Values .........................................................................................................................................................

71

Table 37:

Givens .........................................................................................................................................................

71

Table 38:

Value drivers ..............................................................................................................................................

72

Table 39:

Definition of success ..................................................................................................................................

73

Table 40:

Governance options and associated decisions .........................................................................................

75

Table 41:

Options for funding public services and associated decisions ................................................................

76

Table 42:

Options for capacity building and associated decisions ..........................................................................

77

Table 43:

Options for technical approach for public services and associated decisions .......................................

78

Table 44:

Strategic actions and goals for accompanying measures ........................................................................

79

Table 45:

Value chain realization outcomes of various uncertainties......................................................................

80

Table 46:

Capacity realization outcomes of various uncertainties ..........................................................................

81

Tornado touchdown. Photo: clintspencer.

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / vii

ForewordT

he needs of societies for more accurate and reliable weather, climate, and hydrological («hydromet») information
are at the highest levels today. Weather events–including hurricanes, heat waves, floods, and droughts–jointly cause
more economic damage and loss of life than any other disaster. Around the world, better warning systems, bettermeteorological and hydrological services, and customized service delivery can help prepare for and reduce the costof weather events, minimize loss and damage, and build socio-economic resilience. Reliable hydromet services are in highdemand in weather-dependent sectors like aviation, agriculture, shipping, transport, energy, and tourism. As the effects ofclimate change modify the patterns and intensity of natural hazards and as rapid urbanization and population growth increase
vulnerability, adequate hydromet services are increasingly a very high value proposition.
For over a decade, the World Bank has invested in the modernization of National Meteorological and Hydrological Services(NMHSs). Some countries have been more successful than others with sustaining and multiplying the outcomes of theseinvestments. We have also witnessed that many countries are struggling to keep up with the ever-increasing demand for moresophisticated services to protect lives and assets as well as to support economies.
Over the same decade, advances in technology and innovation have widened the scope of products and services that can beused to improve weather data, warning systems, and hydromet information. Private-sector actors are playing an importantrole and along with the academic community are helping to push the frontiers of knowledge, investing in innovative solutions
that deliver more reliable forecasting and more efficient and diverse services. The dynamics between the public, private, andacademic sectors have been evolving, creating more opportunities than ever to join forces to deliver the socio-economic benefitsof a more informed and resilient world.
This report looks at the current landscape of partnerships and analyzes the experience from eight countries that have exploreddifferent approaches to partnership as they seek to strengthen the provision of hydromet services. Not surprisingly, theseexperiences show that collaboration across public, private, and academic actors in this field is changing rapidly, can be complex
and challenging, but is worth the effort. The report offers ideas about lessons learned so far as countries attempt to structure abalanced model that builds on an awareness of comparative advantages, a shared commitment to improving global public goodsin the service of strengthening global resilience.
We are grateful to everybody who shared their experiences and worked with us in writing this report, and look forward toworking with you to identify, and cross together, the next frontiers.

Julie Dana
Practice Manager, Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery

viii / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

AcknowledgementsT

his report provides guidance to regulators,
hydromet service providers, and private actors
as well as development practitioners to achieve
successful public-private-academic engagements.
It is based on a systematic analysis of the various forms
taken by private-public engagements in hydromet services
in different countries. The report was prepared by a WorldBank team led by Makoto Suwa, Senior Disaster Risk
Management Specialist, including Anna-Maria Bogdanova,
Operations Officer; Guillermo Siercke, Disaster Risk
Management Specialist; and Daniel Kull, Senior Disaster
Risk Management Specialist, and benefited from theguidance and reviews provided by Vladimir Tsirkunov,
Lead Specialist; David Rogers, Lead Consultant; and Alan
Thorpe, Visiting Professor, University of Reading, U.K.
Stefan von Grünigen, econcept AG; Christoph Ramshorn,
Manage Your Options B.V.; Christian Vogler, econcept AG,
and; Thomas Frei, Research and Consulting conductedprimary and secondary research and drafted the document.
Their activities included developing the iterative scenariobased approach for the study, consultation with numerous
private entities, government agencies, development
partners, and other stakeholders.
We are grateful to our international, regional, andnational public-sector partners for availing their time
for interviews and reviews, including: David Grimes,
former President, the World Meteorological Organization(WMO); Gerhard Adrian, President, WMO and President,
Deutscher Wetterdienst, Germany; Celeste Saulo, WMO
First Vice-President and Director, Argentinean National
Meteorological Service;
Michael Staudinger, WMO
President for the Regional Association VI and Director,
Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik, Austria;
Dimitar Ivanov, Executive Assistant to the SecretaryGeneral on Public-Private Partnership, WMO; Sue Barrell,
Chief Scientist, and Group Executive, Science andInnovation, Bureau of Meteorology, Australia; MichaelTanu, Director General, Ghana Meteorological Agency;
Simon Allotey, Director General, Ghana Civil Aviation
Authority; Hubert Osei-Wusuansa, Director, Hydrological
Service Department, Ghana; officials of the Meteorology,

Climatology and Geophysics Agency, Indonesia, including
Dwikorita Karnawati, Head; Bagus Rachmat Rievan, Head of
Sub Division for International Cooperation; Noer Nurhayati,
Head of Centre for Public Weather Services; Agie Wandala
Putra, Head of Sub Division for Weather Prediction; Berton
Panjaitan, Deputy Director for Prevention, National Agency
for Disaster Countermeasure, Indonesia; Novie Andriani,
PPP Specialist, Junior Planner (legal), Indonesian Ministryof National Development Planning, Special Task Force for
Upstream Oil and Gas Business Activities, Indonesia; Avner
Furshpan, Director of Climatology, Israel Meteorological
Service; Japan Meteorological Agency representatives,
including Tatsuya Kimura, Director Public Awareness andPartnerships Division; Yoshiaki Kanno, Senior Coordinatorfor International Cooperation; Satoshi Ogawa, Deputy
Director, Office of International Affairs; Miki Inaoka,
Deputy Director, Disaster Risk Reduction Team 1, Global
Environment Department, Japan International Cooperation
Agency; Jae-Gwang Won, Director, International
Cooperation Division, Korea Meteorological Administration;
Kyaw Moe Oo, Director General; Khin Cho Shein, Deputy
Director General; Tin Yi, Director; and Ye Nyein, Directorof DMH Yangon Branch Office, Department of Meteorology
and Hydrology, Myanmar; Moses Beckley, Director General,
Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency; Sani Abukabar
Mashi, Director General, Nigerian Meteorological Agency;
Benjamin Oghenah, Deputy Director, National Emergency
Management Agency, Nigeria; Jørn Kristiansen, Director of
Department for Model Forecast, Norwegian Meteorological
Institute, Norway; Bruce Truscott, Head International, Paul
Davies, Chief Meteorologist, and Bernd Eggen, Copernicus
Climate Service Coordinator, Met Office, U.K.; Neil Jacobs,
Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Environmental
Observation and Prediction, and Taylor Jordan, Special
Advisor, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
U.S.; Courtney Draggon, Director, International Affairs
Office, National Weather Service, U.S.; Philip Tettah Padi,
Engineer, System Planning Unit, Volta River Authority,
Ghana; Mouhamadou Bamba Sylla, Research Director, andSeyni Salack, Responsible Hydrometeorology, West African
Science Service Center on Climate Change and AdaptedLand Use; and Qing Yuan Pang, Assistant Director (Disaster

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / ix

Monitoring & Analysis), ASEAN Coordinating Centre for
Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management (AHA
Centre), Indonesia.
Experiences and insights of the private sector shed lighton key issues to consider for successful public-private
engagements and were shared with us by: Brian Day,
former President, Association of Hydro-MeteorologicalEquipment Industry (HMEI); Jim Anderson, President,
HMEI and Senior Vice President, Earth Networks; Jenny
Prosser, Senior Insights Manager, Global System for Mobile
Communications Association; Dennis Schulze, Chairman
PRIMET and Chief Met Officer, MeteoGroup; Jonathan
Porter, Vice President, and Mat Alto, General Manager,
Business Services, Accuweather; Sergiy Braylyan, Global
Business Development Manager, Baron Critical Weather
Intelligence; Jakub Nugraha, Sr. Assistant Vice President,
Central Asia Insurance; Tom Copping, Managing Director,
Varysian Networks; Godwin Senam Cudjoe, CTO, andKwabena A. Frimpong, Director of Operations, Esoko; Rizy
Putri Amalia, Account Manager, and Milug B. Trisarjono,
Principal Consultant, ESRI, Indonesia; Laura Elolo Atsyor,
CEO, Gulfshield Offshore Services Limited, Ghana; Marco
Hartmann, Project Manager, HKV Consultants; Lizzie
Merril, COO, Ignitia; Soshi Iwata, Senior Engineer, andKomei Yamaguchi, Deputy General Manager, Japan Weather
Association; Patrick Benichou, Chairman, Meteo France
International; Karl Gutbrod, CEO, meteoblue AG; Ruwin
Pandithage, Business Unit Manager, General Manager
Adcon, OTT Adcom Telemetry, Ghana; Nyo Khaing, Director,
and Ye Myint Tun, Director, Shwe Chan Thar Engineering,
Myanmar; Sun Wynn, Director, Suntac Geomatic Services,
Suntac Technologies, Myanmar; Hans Martin Hoegh
Henrichsen, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, and Min Thu,
Business Sustainability, Telenor, Myanmar; Mark Ottaway,
CEO, TOA Systems Inc., U.S.; Frank Annor, CEO, TransAfrican HydroMeteorological Observatory (TAHMO) andNick van de Giesen, TAHMO Co-founder and Professor at
TU Delft; Daisuke Abe, COO, and Toki Toya, International
Adviser, Weather News Inc. (WNI); Captain Ngwe Lin,

General Manager, and Thant Htoo Aung, Section Leader,
WNI Myanmar Branch, Operation Center Yangon, Myanmar;and Rika Nakayama, General Manager, Business Intelligence
Department, Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications,Isabelle Pelletier Tardy, Bureau of Economic Geology,
Austin, Texas.
Academic perspectives were provided by: Ahmed Balogun,
Professor, Federal University of Technology Akure, Nigeria;
and David Parsons, President’s Associates Presidential
Professor, The University of Oklahoma, U.S.
In addition, the report benefited from in-depth review
from the World Bank colleagues Stephane Hallegatte,
Lead Economist; Naohisa Koide, Senior Disaster Risk
Management Specialist; Greg Browder, Lead Water
Resource Management Specialist; and Jack Hayes, Lead
Consultant.
Special gratitude is extended to the following World Bank
colleagues who kindly shared data and inputs for thecountry case studies: Jolanta Kryspin-Watson, Daryl Fields,
Henrike Brecht, Eisse Wijma, Zuzana Stanton-Geddes, Yong
Jian Vun, David Tucker, Khin Aye Yee, Mae Myat Moe, Irma
Hutagalung and Carl Christian Dingel.
Finally, the team is grateful to team is grateful to Julie Dana,
Practice Manager, Global Facility for Disaster Reduction
and Recovery, for her constant support at all stages of thisproject.
Editorial services were provided by Pasquale Franzese andDarcy Gallucio.
This report could not have been developed without thefinancial support of the Japan-World Bank Program for
Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Management in Developing
Countries, which is financed by the Government of Japanand receives technical support from the World Bank Tokyo
Disaster Risk Management Hub.

x / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

Abbreviations
Abbr.

Definition

AI

Artificial Intelligence

API

Application Programming Interfaces

AWS(s)

Automatic Weather Station(s)BAPPENAS

Ministry of National Development Planning (Indonesia)

BEIS

Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (U.K.)

BMKG

Meteorological, Climatological and Geophysical Agency(Indonesia)

BNPB

National Disaster Management Authority (Indonesia)

CAA

Civil Aviation Authority

CEO

Chief Executive Officer

DMH

Department of Meteorology and Hydrology, National Meteorological and Hydrological Service (Myanmar)

DPT

PSI Data Team (U.K.)

DRM

Disaster Risk Management

DWD

National Meteorological and Hydrological Service (Germany)

ECMWF

European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts

ECOMET

Economic Interest Grouping of the National Meteorological Services of the European Economic Area

ESA

European Space Agency

EUMETSAT

European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites

FAQ

Frequently Asked Question

GBP

Great Britain Pound

GCAA

Ghana Civil Aviation Authority

GDP

Gross Domestic Product

GFDRR

Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery

GFS

Global Forecast System

GIS

Geographic Information System

GMet

Ghana Meteorological Agency

GTS

Global Telecommunications System

GWE

Global Weather Enterprise

HQ

Headquarters

ICAO

International Civil Aviation Organization

ICT

Information and Communication Technologies

IIGF

Indonesia Infrastructure Guarantee Fund

IMO

International Maritime Organization

IMS

Israel Meteorological Service

IOT

Internet of Things

JICA

Japan International Cooperation Agency

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / xi

Abbr.

Definition

JMA

Japan Meteorological Agency

JMBSC

Japan Meteorological Business Support Center

KNUST

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (Ghana)

MLIT

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism (Japan)

MOU

Memorandum of Understanding

NASA

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (U.S.)

NCAR

National Center for Atmospheric Research (U.S.)

NCAS

National Centre for Atmospheric Science (U.K.)

NCEP

National Centers for Environmental Prediction (U.S.)

NEXRAD

Next Generation Weather RadarNGO

Non-Governmental Organization

NMHS(s)National Meteorological and Hydrological Service(s)NOAANational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (U.S.)

NWP

Numerical Weather Prediction

NWS

National Weather Service (U.S.)

PPE

Public-Private Engagement

PPP

Public-Private Partnership

PRIMET

European Trade Association for Meteorological Service Providers

PSI

Public Sector Information

R&D

Research and Development

SMS

Short Message Service

TAHMO

Trans-African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory

U.K.

United Kingdom

U.S.

United States

USD

United States Dollar

VGF

Viability Gap Fund

VRA

Volta River Authority (Ghana)

WASCALWest African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land use

WIGOS

WMO Integrated Global Observing SystemWIS

WMO Information System

WMO

World Meteorological Organization

WNI

Weathernews Inc.

WRF

Weather Research and Forecasting

WXBC

Weather Business Consortium (Japan)

Photo: Kinwun.

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / xiii

Executive Summary
MotivationEffective weather, climate, and hydrological services (hydromet services) are critical to protect lives and property and toenhance socio-economic benefits. However, NMHSs are facing serious challenges in responding to increasing societal andeconomic demands. The issue is more severe in low- and some middle-income countries where due to lack of resources,
basic infrastructure, technical capacity, and visibility within their governments, timely provision of hydromet services
and of adequate response are major difficulties. At the same time, in developed countries, technological advances and opendata policies have significantly enlarged the role of the private sector in the provision of hydromet services. Leveraging privatesector capabilities without jeopardizing the provision of public hydromet services is a key condition to maximize socio-economic
benefits. There is thus much interest among countries and stakeholders to explore the best ways of maximizing the public-private
engagement (PPE) opportunities in their development projects.
This study provides guiding principles for PPE and a shared understanding among public, private, and academic stakeholdersof the hydromet value chain and its economics. The study is based on evidence collected through the analysis of eight countries
selected as case studies (Ghana, Indonesia, Japan, Myanmar, U.K., U.S., Germany, and Israel) and interviews with more than 50
stakeholders from the public, private, and academic sectors.
This study is designed to answer the following key questions:■■■■

What are the characteristics, advantages, challenges, and potential risks of the various PPE models in the hydromet sector?
What are the available options for developing countries that wish to streamline and augment public and private engagement
to strengthen the provision of hydromet services, and, accordingly, the conditions necessary to succeed?

Key concepts
Hydromet value chain
The analysis is based on a simplified hydromet value chain, which is represented in the figure below along with its key enablers.
In the country case studies, the level of development (or «maturity»”) of the hydromet value chain elements is assessed as is
the relative importance of the contributions of the public, private, and academic sectors. These elements define, along with

Institutional capacity
Research and development
Education and training
Observations

Numerical
weather
prediction

Generate
forecasts

Issue official
warnings

Tailoredservices

Data aggregation; data and information dissemination
Infrastructure; specifically power and ICT

Business data
integration

xiv / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

the relevant regulatory framework, the country-specificboundary conditions for PPE.

hydromet value chain—especially, but not only in developing countries—even though they are by now well
documented (e.g. WMO 2015a). Consequently, development of the whole value chain is often not prioritized,
potential benefits are not realized, and regulatory policies are mainly discussed with respect to their effects on
the NMHS alone or related public entities.

Economic principles
The services generated within the hydromet value chain
consist predominantly of data and information andtherefore exhibit specific economic properties which must
be taken into consideration when framing PPE in a given
country. Hydromet services can be divided into «public»
services, which are not likely to be adequately provided
by market mechanisms, and «non-public» services,which could be provided by the private sector. Examplesof public hydromet services include operating a nationwide surface observation network or providing generalweather forecasts; examples of non-public services include
customized services for specific users and the provisionof weather and risk indices for insurance companies.
However, the characterization of a service as public service
does not necessarily mean that it must be provided by apublic entity such as an NMHS; for example, some public
services can be provided by the private or academic sector,
albeit under the supervision of a regulator.

Scenarios

■■

■■

■■

PPE options must be assessed in their country-specificcontext. Three reference scenarios articulate how thebest options change depending on the context:
■■

■■

■■

Scenario «Jump-start» for value chains of low maturity: Take advantage of private-sector capacity to jump
start the value chain while laying the foundation for asustainable NMHS.
Scenario «Strengthen» for intermediate value chains:
Strengthen and focus the NMHS on providing public services, thus laying the foundation for the private sector toefficiently provide non-public services.
Scenario «Optimize» for advanced value chains:
Optimize the cost of public services by leveraging synergies with the private sector.

Main conclusions■■

The socio-economic benefits of hydromet services
are underestimated: Governments tend to underestimate the socio-economic benefits of a well-developed■■■■

Economic principles should guide models of service delivery: The economic properties of hydromet
services must be strongly considered in the design ofthe regulatory framework governing the service delivery
models. This study discusses key economic principles
and provides guidelines for choosing the optimal service
delivery model for different types of hydromet services.
Government commitment to the hydromet domain
is a smart investment for safeguarding the public:
The private sector can flourish when governments support a public entity to provide public hydromet services.
A government may receive support from development
partners to start the process, but ultimately the government is responsible for sustained (through operations
and maintenance) public hydromet services.
Understanding the characteristics of a hydromet value chain is essential for developing PPE: To
leverage PPE in any given country, it is indispensable
to understand the whole hydromet value chain in thatcountry. The three aspects are crucial: maturity of thehydromet value chain (how mature is the hydromet value chain and each element of the value chain in a given
country); sector balance (to what extent do the public,
private, and academic sectors contribute to the hydromet value chain); and policy framework which shapes thehydromet value chain.
The approach to hydromet value chains varies considerably among countries: The case studies show
considerable differences not only between developed
and developing countries, but also between countries
with similar levels of development.
Developing PPE requires a systematic approach:
The study identifies several good practices to foster thedevelopment of a sustainable hydromet value chain or of
successful PPE. These good practices are in the area ofgovernance, funding of public services, capacity building, development support, and sustaining technical infrastructure and expertise. While referring to these good

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / xv

practices, country-specific action plans to build andstrengthen the hydromet value chain need to be developed (e.g. based on the three reference scenarios mentioned above).
■■

■■

■■

■■

The academic sector is an important vehicle for PPE
growth in the hydromet domain: Research and development ensure the ability to innovate value chain elements pushing boundaries of the entire global weather
enterprise. Taking advantage of scientific advances andapplying them in the specific context should be regarded as one of the critical enablers of the hydromet value
chain while availability of human resource with required
skillsets increases its sustainability.
Key elements of the regulatory foundation for PPE
are the NMHS mandate and the data access policies:
The mandate and the duties of the NMHS, as well as allpolicies regarding data access, are the key regulatory
aspects relevant to PPE. If the role of the NMHS is notclearly defined and if there is no clear distinction between public and non-public services, the developmentof the value chain and vibrant and purposeful cooperation between the public and private sectors is hindered.
Consistency of severe weather warnings is critical: The coexistence of public and private weather information providers can lead to inconsistent warnings
with low perceived quality and (thus) low effect. This isa much-debated topic and a key challenge in the relationship between the public and private sectors. Strong
coordination or regulation where applicable (e.g. by
establishing mandatory standards for visualization andclassification of warnings) and careful consideration of
the communications of warnings and the degree of public trust are needed to ensure consistency and thereby
the effectiveness of the system. In particular, official
warnings must be easily recognizable as official.
Development projects should focus on improving the whole value chain in an inclusive manner:
Many development projects focus primarily on NMHS
infrastructure and capacity, thereby losing sight of the
impacts of the value chain. While these effects may be
inherent to the framework of development cooperation,
it would be beneficial to explore possibilities to reshape
the setup of future development projects. The findings ofthis study can inform this process and help to align the
incentives of future projects.

Recommendations
Country-specific strategy
1.

Develop country-specific approaches to foster PPE,
starting from one of the reference scenarios «JumpStart», «Strengthen», or «Optimize».

2.

Develop an overall strategy at the country level tomaximize socio-economic benefit of the full hydromet
value chain.

Institutions and policies
3.

Support the development of a transparent legal andregulatory framework.

4.

Properly and sustainably fund the NMHS according to
its role.

5.

Aim for an open and free access to all data and public
services produced by public entities.

6.

Consider minimal regulation of the non-public hydromet services market.

7.

Minimize the role of public entities in the provision of
non-public hydromet services. If non-public hydromet
services are provided by public entities or state-owned
companies, an independent regulator must ensure a level playing field between the private and public sectors.

8.

Ensure the consistency and effective communicationof severe weather warnings, either by designating asingle authoritative voice for issuing warning or by
fostering a better coordination between the issuers of
warnings.

Dialogue and awareness-raising9.

Develop a structured, continuous, and open dialogue
between the public, private, and academic sectors
to promote trust between the sectors, to clarify theboundary between public and non-public services andto sustain the hydromet value chain.

10. Invest in awareness-raising, especially concerning thesocio-economic benefits of hydromet services and thebenefits of using hydromet information for businesses.

Development projects
11. Shape future development projects based on recommendations 1 to 10, for instance:xvi / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

■■

■■

■■

Use scenario-based planning to align stakeholders andcreate project plans that can be easily adapted to changing circumstances.
Embrace a lean start-up approach, especially for low-maturity value chains.
Prioritize and support the review or the development ofsound policy frameworks.

■■■■

Build the commitment of governments by cost-benefit
analyses showing the hydromet value chain impact andby supporting the NMHS in raising its profile.
Focus the incentives for development partners on sustainable hydromet value chain impact rather than investment volumes.

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 1

1. Introduction
1.1 Initial position

M

eteorological and hydrological hazards jointly cause more economic damage and loss of life than any otherdisaster (see, for example, Munich RE 2017 and WEF 2019). Improving weather, climate, and hydrological services(together constituting «hydromet services»)—or creating them in the first place—is an important prerequisite toincrease the world’s weather and climate resilience. Hydromet services and products play a crucial role in countries
facing impacts of extreme weather, harsh climate, and climate change, allowing them to improve protection of lives and property
and to maximize socio-economic benefits. Against this backdrop, demands for more elaborate hydromet services have been
increasing across the globe. However, NMHSs, which are normally public-sector entities mandated to provide meteorologicaland hydrological services, are facing serious challenges in responding to such increasing demands—especially in low- and somemiddle-income countries—due to lack of resources, basic infrastructure, technical capacity, and, among other reasons, visibility
within their own government.

Over the past 40 years, the ability to observe and predict hydromet events has greatly improved. Hydrometeorologicalweather events are now being predicted on spatial and temporal scales that more closely match society’s need forhydrometeorological information. Five-day forecasts today are as good as one-day forecasts were in the 1980s (Bauer et
al. 2015). The resolution of global numerical weather prediction modeling systems has been doubling every eight years
and is currently in the range of about 9–15 kilometers. The implementation of ensemble weather forecasts1 that provide
probabilistic information has extended these potential gains in lead time, allowing the development of more reliable
early warning systems. Our ability to observe the atmosphere has also experienced corresponding advances allowing thepossibility to better «nowcast» weather systems.
The potential roles of and dynamics in GWE have been evolving rapidly in recent years. While the private sector
has been part of the hydromet value chain for a long time, its role has been growing in recent years. New business
opportunities for the private sector have been rapidly emerging thanks to the previously mentioned advances in forecast
systems along with the rapid development of information, measurement and telecommunication technologies, artificial
intelligence (AI), and machine learning, along with the availability of and ability to communicate large hydromet andassociated data sets. The private sector has become increasingly aware of the socio-economic benefits for individuals andcompanies derived from these advances. These changes have led to new companies developing services within and along
the hydromet value chain2 and to large, established tech companies entering the hydromet market. NMHSs, on the other
hand, often face budgetary constraints and have to rethink the scope of their activities.
In many developing countries, the hydromet value chain is not well developed. In order to maximize future socioeconomic benefits from developing hydromet services, it is almost imperative today that these countries consider how to
strategically embrace the benefits of a growing private sector without jeopardizing the provision of public services. This entails
a comprehensive view of the hydromet value chain rather than just focusing on a country’s NMHS.

1

An ensemble weather forecast is a set of forecasts that presents the range of future weather possibilities. Multiple simulations are run, each with a slightvariation of its initial conditions and with slightly perturbed weather models. These variations represent the inevitable uncertainty in the initial conditions
and approximations in the models. They produce a range of possible weather conditions (https://www.ecmwf.int/en/about/media-centre/fact-sheetensemble-weather-forecasting). Multi-model ensembles take this one step further by combining the results from a range of different simulation models(http://content.meteoblue.com/en/time-dimensions/forecast/meteograms/multimodel-ensemble).
2 The hydromet value chain summarizes all activities, by private, public, and academic entities, generating or using hydrological and/or meteorologicalinformation. This report uses a simplified version of the hydromet value chain, described in detail in Chapter 2.1.

2 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

Studies have been conducted on how to best modernize
a country’s hydromet services (e.g. Rogers et al. 2019;
Rogers and Tsirkunov 2013; Gunasekera 2004; and WMO
2014), and many discussions, panels, and workshops
have been organized on how to best leverage publicprivate engagement (e.g. at the WMO3). This study builds
on these recent activities and shifts the focus from
improving individual players to improving the overallvalue chain.
The study’s primary objective is to provide guidanceon public-private engagement in hydromet services.
Its development is based on a comparative analysis of publicprivate engagements in countries that represent possible
ways to organize hydromet services. The study analyzes
the characteristics, advantages, challenges, and potential
risks of different PPE models and lays out options in given
circumstances. Countries which currently provide only basic
hydromet services and are considering modernization of
their hydromet infrastructure and services can benefit froma better understanding of the interaction between the public
and private sectors and from lessons learned from the long
history of public-private engagement by many NMHSs.

1.2 Research approachThis study was designed to answer the following key
questions:■■■■

What are the characteristics, advantages, challenges,
and potential risks of different PPE models in the hydromet sector?
What are the available options for developing countries
that wish to strengthen the provision of hydromet services by streamlining and augmenting PPE, and what
are the key success factors for developing and sustaining PPE?

As this study shows, the conceptualization andunderstanding of the value chain and its components
varies among stakeholders at the national and global
levels. Prescribing universal solutions is not plausible,
as characteristics of optimal public-private engagement
depend on the specific country context. However, there are
3

general principles and key success factors that apply inmost contexts. Strategizing PPE, to determine the optimal
implementation of these key success factors, requires an indepth analysis and understanding of a country’s value chain.
A shared understanding of the hydromet value chain
and its economics emerged as one of the importantgoals of the study. This study first collected evidence
through case studies and interviews. It then organized theinformation into articulated scenarios.

1.2.1 Case studies of selected countries andadditional interviews
The way countries handle PPE and shape theirhydromet value chains varies. In order to capture
this variability, the study gathers empirical evidence byanalyzing case studies. The case studies were developed
using materials gathered through deskwork and interviews,
provide the necessary specificity, and combine objective
and subjective information to help understand theunderlying issues.
The selection of countries aims at covering a broad
spectrum of the different ways in which countries organize
their hydromet services and includes both developed anddeveloping countries. The countries were selected basedon: (i) a preliminary classification of their hydromet
services markets and strategies into three categories
depending on the level of state control (state-dominated,state-biased, and open; see Table 1 for details); (ii) theirpotential to provide pertinent information; and (iii) expert
consultations.
Six countries were selected for in-depth case studies:
Ghana, Indonesia, Japan, Myanmar, U.K., and U.S. In addition, two more countries (Germany and Israel) were analyzed focusing on specific issues, such as the impacts ofchanges to data access policies.
Additional interviews with experts and stakeholders from thepublic and private sectors complement the analysis. These
interviews provide insight into the perspective of transnational
weather companies and international organizations.

https://public.wmo.int/en/our-mandate/how-we-do-it/partnerships/Public-Private-Academic%20Sectors%20Engagement.

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 3

A total of 58 explorative and half-structured interviews andmeetings with experts and stakeholders from the public andprivate sectors were conducted. They were conducted faceto-face during on-site visits or international conferences orvirtually (Table 2).

Scenario construction
The evidence from the case studies and interviews is
structured based on methods from decision engineeringand scenario-based planning. This structured picture isbuilt around the notions of «frame» and «scenario».
Framing a project describes its context. Constructing a
scenario with its constituent strategy and realization isa way to systematically map out available options andTable 1StrategyMarket observations

State-biased

Open

State keeps full control of thehydromet information and recovers asmuch of the cost as possible.

State controls the market but takes
advantage of the private sector insome areas.

Maximize the benefits that the private
sector and competition can bring.

State monopoly.

State dominates the hydromet market.

Open competitive market.

Private hydromet services do not
act independently, because the state
defines their tasks and regulates theirbusiness activities.

The national weather service is themost powerful weather provider
because its product portfolio covers
and influences the whole market; it
is often subsidized. Private weather
services are scarce, and in someinstances, the national weather service
tries to drive them out.

National weather provider focuseson public services. Private weather
services act independently and provide
mostly non-public services.4

Overview of the interviews conducted during the study. Many interviews were attended by two or more persons.

Group

Remarks

Public sector

Most public-sector interviewees were executive or technical staff of NMHS and DRM organizations

31

Private sector

Representatives of national and international companies

19

OthersIndependent experts, academia, industry associations, and WMO

8Total number
4

Frame and scenario are like maps that can be studied tonavigate a complex problem space. They are a useful basis
to identify common and conflicting stakeholder interests,
identify good trade-offs, and plan projects that face large
uncertainties. While this report cannot present specificplans for a particular improvement project, it aims to lay afoundation on which such plans can be built. The notionsof frame and scenario are further explained and applied in
Chapter 4; additional detail is provided in the annex.

Preliminary classification of markets and strategies of hydromet services.
State-dominated

Table 2possible outcomes. In a specific scenario, chosen options
make up a strategy, and expected outcomes make up arealization or «future world» (see Figure 9 in Chapter 4).
Options capture what can be done; outcomes describe
what could happen.

See Chapter 2.2 for a definition of public and non-public services.

# Interviews58

4 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

1.3 Structure of the reporttrying to improve a country’s hydromet services, andthe options available to them. This takes the form ofreference scenarios informed by the case studies’
findings, interviews with stakeholders, and the background knowledge of the study team.

The report is structured as follows:
■■

■■

■■

■■

Chapter 1 presents the introduction, objective, andresearch approach.
Chapter 2 sets the scene and introduces the technicaland economic concepts which form the basis for consistent treatment of the issues discussed in this report.
The case studies, which make up most of the comparative country analysis, are documented in Chapter 3. Thisis the evidence underpinning the structured picture in
Chapter 4.
Chapter 4 synthesizes a structured picture of thecontext and the issues that development practitioners
and hydromet value chain stakeholders face when■■■■

Conclusions and recommendations are summarized in
Chapter 5.
The annex provides further detail on the reference scenarios presented in Chapter 4 and can serve as a starting
point for planning development projects, with practical
options considered in a project’s context.

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 5

2. Setting the scene
This chapter discusses a notional hydromet value chain and introduces many of the concepts used in this study.

2.1 Hydromet value chain
The analysis is based on the concept of a hydromet value chain, shown in Figure 1 with its key enablers. This is a simplified
notional value chain, tailored to this study. It does not cover the specifics of hydrological services, which are out of the scopeof the analysis.
Figure 1: Simplified hydromet value chain (yellow) and key enablers (grey). The value chain should be read left to right. Due tosimplification, there is no strict sequence; for example, «Issue official warnings», «Tailored services», and «Business data
integration» can be independent of each other. Institutional / organizational enablers are depicted above the value chain,technical enablers below.

Institutional capacity
Research and development
Education and training
Observations

Numerical
weather
prediction

Generate
forecasts

Issue official
warnings

Tailoredservices

Business data
integration

Data aggregation; data and information dissemination
Infrastructure; specifically power and ICT
In the study’s analysis, the hydromet value chain elements and enablers are defined as follows. Note that enablers arefurther divided into institutional / organizational enablers and technical enablers:

2.1.1 Hydromet value chain elements
■■

■■

■■

■■

Observations: This subsumes all observations, including the operation of manual and automatic weather stations, upper air
stations, remote sensing, aircraft-based sensors, Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, etc. No distinction is made here between
high-quality observations used in data assimilation and other observations (e.g. used in post-processing of numerical weather prediction results).
Numerical weather prediction (NWP): The creation, operation, and maintenance of numerical weather prediction systems,
including global and limited-area models.
Generate forecasts: The manual or automatic evaluation of available data, including NWP outputs to generate weather forecasts. This includes post-processing of NWP outputs such as to increase forecast quality with the help of model output
statistics.
Issue official warnings: The issuance of official warnings which can lead to emergency procedures (e.g. evacuations). Note thatthe dissemination of official warnings is not included in this element: it is included in the data and information dissemination.

6 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

The role and possible risks of non-official warnings issued
by private weather providers is a much-debated topic, as
the coexistence of public and private weather-information
providers can lead to a confusing multitude of inconsistent
warnings (e.g. different severity levels or different types ofvisualizations for the same event). The issue is becoming
more important with the increase of private providers andchannels to access weather information and warnings andin some cases, to even refine the warnings with additional
observations. Since the differences between the officialhydromet services and private actors and any behind-thescene communications are not always transparent to the
public, the public trust in official warnings can be weakened
by inconsistent warnings.
Weyrich et al. (2019) examined the influence of inconsistent
warnings from multiple providers in Switzerland. They
showed that people use different warning providers;warnings are often perceived as inconsistent; and thequality of consistent warnings was evaluated morepositively than the quality of inconsistent warnings.5■■

Tailored services: The design and delivery of hydromet
products and services are tailored to inform operational decisions. For example, deliver agricultural forecaststhat help farmers to determine when to plant, fertilize,
or apply pesticides. For the purposes of this report,
tailored services also include issuing and disseminating warnings that do not have official status alerts (e.g.
alerting farmers to changes to an earlier forecast as well
as disseminating official warnings).
Note that the economics of the hydromet value chain
discussed in Chapter 2.2 distinguishes between «targeted services» and «industry-specific services», bothof which are subsumed in «tailored services». However,the distinction becomes important when deciding whereto draw the boundary between public and non-public
services.

■■

5

Business data integration: Industry-specific forecast
services where up-to-date business data are integrated with weather information. Examples include supply
chain optimization for beverage distribution.

2.1.2 Institutional / organizational enablers
■■

■■

■■

Institutional capacity: The capacity of public, private,
and academic institutions to co-design, co-implement,
and co-manage the hydromet value chain.
Research and development: The capacity to innovate value chain elements. Research and development are muchinterlinked with the cooperation between the public andacademic sectors. One of the challenges of such cooperation is the different timescales: the long-term objectivesof applied research and the short-term operational needs.
Education and training: The capacity to develop individual and organizational skills needed in the hydromet
value chain.

2.1.3 Technical enablers■■■■

Data aggregation; data and information dissemination:
The ability to collect data (e.g. from automatic weather
stations) and to make the data available where needed.
Likewise, the ability to disseminate data and the derived
information to where they are needed. Notably, this includes the dissemination of official warnings.
Infrastructure, specifically power and Information andCommunication Technology (ICT): Required infrastructure in support of the hydromet value chain. Of specificinterest are the availability of electrical power and suitable ICT systems.

The maturity of hydromet value chains and their elements
differs vastly among countries and affects boundary
conditions for potential public-private engagements. At thesame time, the relative contribution to the value chain fromthe public, private, and academic sectors is an importantfactor. It defines the dynamics between those three sectors
and thus provides important information on the country. In
the case studies, the level of development (i.e. maturity) of
the hydromet value chain and its elements and the relative
contribution of the public, private, and academic sectors
to the value chain are qualitatively assessed to provide
the country context. In order to sustainably optimize thevalue chain, assessing its overall maturity and that of its
elements helps to direct improvement efforts.

The Swiss case is interesting, because there are different providers of severe weather warnings in Switzerland, and the warnings regularly differ invisualization and text. For example, for the same heavy rain event on November 2017 in the southern part of Switzerland, Weyrich et al. (2019) identified
four warnings, all issued by Swiss providers, that differed in color, text, and predicted amount of rain.

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 7

Table 3 defines maturity levels for the purposes of this study.
Note that a country’s ability to issue and disseminate official
warnings is used as an indicator for the overall maturity of
its value chain. Each row in Table 3 should be considered as
independent of the others, at least in principle. In particular,

Table 3the table does not imply that a country’s hydromet value
chain can be defined as advanced only if all its components
are advanced.
Table 4 defines maturity levels for two key enablers: (i)research and development and (ii) education and training.

Elements of the hydromet value chain and classification of their maturity level. Note that this classification refers to thevalue chain, not a specific organization (e.g. an NMHS).
Levels of Maturity
Advanced

Intermediate

Low

Not available

Entirevalue chain

Socio-economic benefitsof hydromet services arewidely realized.
Official warnings havestate-of-the-art accuracy
and reach everybody affected.

Some socio-economic benefits of hydromet services
are achieved.
Official warnings havemixed accuracy and/or
do not reach everybody
affected.

Very few or no socioeconomic benefits ofhydromet services areachieved.
There are only very basic
official warnings and theyreach a minority of the people affected.

No benefits
are derived
from hydromet
services.
There areno official
warnings.

Observations
and theirusage

Adequate coverage withground-based and upper-air
observations.
Access to most satellite
data. All data available
timely where needed.
Participates in the receiving
and sharing of observations
for the global observing
network. Effective use ofobservations in nowcastinghazards.

Gaps in the nation’sobservational network.
Relevant satellite datasometimes not received
and/or well utilized. Shortcomings in the receiving,utilization, and sharingof observations fort the
global observing network.
Difficulty in nowcastingsome hazards.

Very sparse coverage ofground-based observations
and difficulty in using
observations to nowcast
hazards. Satellite data
hardly available andpoor participation in the
global observing network.
Nowcasting of hazards ispoor and not timely.

No groundbased
observations.
Satellite data
not available.
Nowcasting
capabilities are
not present.

Numerical
weather
prediction

NWP codes created and/or innovated with local
resources.
Models achieve state-ofthe-art skill, run regularly. Models run at global,
regional, and local scale(if it adds value). Modelensembles and multi-model
ensembles quantify forecast
uncertainty. Model output
readily available.

Access to and effective
use of international global
models. Downscalingof global systems and/or regional NWP models
set up and operated withlocal resources. Capable oflocally integrating and postprocessing and output fromglobal and local/regional
systems.

Access to NWP output frominternational sources onlyin the form of limited maps
and diagrams generated
elsewhere. Local resources
operate a local NWP modelor down-scaling set up by athird party. Global models
often outperform local
systems.

Poor accessto and limited
usage ofinternationalmodels. No
capability todownscaleor run local
NWP models
or participate
in regional
efforts.

Generate
forecasts

Generate forecasts froma mix of global, regional,
and local NWP output.
Add NWP results obtained
from elsewhere to enhance
the forecast in specificsituations. Add local
expertise and statisticalpost-processing to improve
the forecast.

Generate forecasts from a
mix of local NWP output
and NWP results obtained
from elsewhere. Add local
expertise to improve theforecast.

Generate forecasts
primarily from NWP results
obtained from elsewhere.

No forecasting
capability.

8 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

Table 3cont.
Levels of Maturity
Advanced

Intermediate

Low

Not available

Issue official
warnings

Official warnings havestate-of-the-art accuracy
and reach everybody
affected. The warning
system is resilient.

Official warnings havemixed accuracy and/or
do not reach everybody
affected.

Only very basic official
warnings and they reacha minority of the people
affected.

No official
warnings.

Tailoredservices

A large variety of tailored
forecast products andservices regularly used byorganizations. Needs for
new services are quickly
identified and met.

Some tailored forecast
services regularly
used by organizations.
Considerable time required
to meet new needs.
Significant dependence
on international services/
products.

No significant developmentof new services.
Significant dependence
on international services/
products.

No activities.

Business
data
integration

Widely used operational
decision making basedon continuous data
feeds combining weather
forecasts, real-time weather
information, and real-timebusiness data.

Weather and business data
integration used by someorganizations. Individual
projects evaluate advanced
approaches.
Possible significant
dependence oninternational resources.

A few projects evaluate
whether integrating
weather and business data
could be beneficial.
Significant dependence oninternational resources.

No activities.

Table 4

Two key enablers of the hydromet value chain and classification of their maturity level.
Levels of Maturity
Advanced

Intermediate

Low

Not available

Researchanddevelopment

Efforts in place locallyto evaluate data quality,
NWP skill, and forecast
accuracy. Basic and appliedresearch efforts relevant toall aspects of the forecast
system (observations, NWP,
post-processing, societaluse) to maintain a state-ofthe-art forecast system.

Efforts in place locally toevaluate data quality, NWP
skill, and forecast accuracy.
Applied research to advancesome aspects of the forecast
system but limited local
innovation.
International research
partnerships.

Detailed evaluation of thecomponents of the forecast
systems done sporadicallyor by others. Innovations
developed elsewhere areadapted slowly at the local
level.

No activities.

Educationand training

Ongoing efforts in place
locally to maintain welltrained work force and apipeline of new employees
are available, as needed,across the relevant sectors.
Effective partnerships exist
between the academic,
public, and private sectors
and specialized users
to ensure forecasts andproducts are state-of-the-art
and well-utilized.

Periodic efforts to train awork force in place throughexternal partnerships,
but some difficulties inmaintaining a pipeline of
new employees. Some gaps
in the partnerships between
the academic, public,
and private sectors andspecialized users.

Struggle to maintain awell-trained work force
as external partnerships
are ineffective and local
academic sector is quite
limited and/or partnerships
between the sectors do notexist.

No activities.

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 9

Figure 2: Sector balance diagram used in this report.

Observations
Observations

Numerical
Numerical
weather
weather
prediction
prediction

Color coding
for sectors
and maturity

Generate
Generate
forecasts
forecasts

Value chain
Academia
PrivatePublicAdvanced

Tailored
Tailoredservices
services

Business
Business data
data
integration
integration

Size coding for
relative importanceof sector
Intermediate

Figure 2 provides an example of how the analysis isvisualized in a hypothetical country. This diagram
simultaneously shows the maturity of each hydromet
value chain element and the relative contribution fromthe public, private, and academic sectors to each elementin that country. In this example, all value chain elements
are advanced, and in most elements, both the public andprivate sectors contribute substantially while the academic
contribution is notable in most elements. Further, official
warnings are issued exclusively by public sector entities,
while dissemination of such warnings could be taken up by
the private sector as well.
A weather forecast per se has limited commercial
value until its implications are understood and acted
upon in the context of a particular business, process,or activity. Weather observations are a costly service whilemost revenues are created at the customer end of the chain,through valuable products or services. The aggregatedsocio-economic benefit,6 however, does not follow thesame pattern. Basic weather forecasts and especially
official warnings can induce a high socio-economic benefit(e.g. by reducing the morbidity or reducing health-care andsafety costs). Issuing official warnings has a special placein the value chain, as in many countries it falls within a
6

Issue
Issue official
official
warnings
warnings

Low

NotableSubstantial
Dominant

N/A, unknown

government’s remit to safeguard lives and property.7
Additionally, the relatively lower cost at the customer endof the value chain is only possible if global data sets and theresults of global forecasting centers are available. Further,
the production of warnings and tailored products require
higher qualification and incur a significant «hidden» costelement attached to training and sustaining a high-quality
workforce.
Observation networks, observation data management,
and large numerical weather prediction systems run as
public services (i.e. information, funded by governments,
provided free at the point of use) continue to form the
backbone of the larger hydromet services around the world.
The academic sector plays an important role in innovationand capacity building. At the same time, private-sector
capabilities are increasing, and not only in providing
specialized information to the public and specific users but
also in becoming more competitive in elements traditionallydominated by the public sector. Many developed countries
leverage private-sector capabilities in various forms of
public-private engagement; other countries could benefit
from adopting such approaches. There are many trade-offs
to consider, and the simplified value chain allows us to lookat them in a systematic way.

The term «aggregated socio-economic benefit» is used to capture the total rise in economic welfare which is induced by using hydromet data, products, andservices in a country or region.
7 Disseminating official warnings is as important as issuing them; in this report, dissemination of official warnings is subsumed under data and information
dissemination (Figure 1).

10 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

2.1.4 International Requirements
International requirements as stipulated by WMO and otherinternational organizations such as the International Civil
Aviation Organization (ICAO) and International Maritime
Organization (IMO) obligate their Member States to fundand produce certain information and to provide services
needed at the international level. For example, the ICAO’s
Chicago Convention requires each contracting State toprovide aeronautical meteorological services which arehighly standardized. The International Convention on Safetyof Life At Sea (SOLAS), which is managed by IMO, mandates
States to organize and provide certain services for shipping.
These elements are important when considering the level ofmaturity and scope of the NMHS or other agencies involved.

2.2 Economics of the hydromet value
chainServices generated within the hydromet value chain
can have significant economic implications (see, forexample, Gunasekera 2004) which must be taken
into consideration. The main considerations include:(i) effective public-private engagement which takes the
economic implications of public goods into consideration;(ii) technological advances, which have shifted some
economic conditions (e.g. cost of automatic weather
stations and availability of nanosatellites); and (iii)
stakeholder interaction, which may benefit from clearer
definition of notions such as «public good», «public
interest», and «public service».

2.2.1 Cost structure and efficiency gains
Hydromet information (e.g. forecasts and official
warnings) is expensive to produce but relatively cheap
to reproduce. This is because large fixed costs (e.g.
infrastructure and personnel costs for the observation
network, ICT and NWP facilities, and research anddevelopment (R&D) expenditures) are incurred to
produce the information. Once the information is
produced, the cost of disseminating it is relatively low.
Three key economic principles pertain to this study.

Economies of scale
If the cost per unit of output decreases with increasing
scale (quantity) of production, economies of scale areoccurring. In economic terms, this means that for each
additional unit of output, its marginal cost is beneath its
average cost. Due to their cost structure (high fixed costs,
low variable costs) most hydromet services exhibit
strong economies of scale. Note that part of the reason
why regional cooperation is so important for establishingcost-effective meteorological services is because of theeconomies of scale.

Economies of scope
Economies of scope occur if the gain in efficiency comesfrom the variety of output and not from the scale ofproduction. If economies of scope occur, the average costs
can be lowered by producing more types of products at thesame time or within the same organization. Economists
speak about positive spillover effects: The inputs needed to
produce product A have a positive effect on the efficiency of
product B’s production. In the hydromet context, economies
of scope are often realized if the same infrastructure(e.g. observation networks and supercomputers) andskillset (e.g. data handling, modeling, and forecasting)are needed to produce different hydromet services (e.g.
general weather forecasts, official warnings, and tailoredservices). Note that both infrastructure and skills areneeded to generate economies of scope. For example,
designing, producing, delivering, and supporting a tailoredhydromet service can require an organization and skill
profile very different from those required to operate a good
public weather service (e.g. personnel trained in marketingand sales that understand customer needs and are able
to develop, pitch, and support marketable products;
fast product development cycles rather than scientificprocesses; and facilities for individual customer support).
The dependency on skills is often underestimated when
discussing economies of scope in the hydromet services
context (see, for example, the typology of hydromet
services in Section 2.2.3).

Natural monopolies
In most industries, the total average cost (sum of fixed
and marginal cost per unit of output) falls with increasing
output until a minimum is reached and then increases
again. This behavior is typically due to the interaction
between efficiency gains through economies of scaleand efficiency losses because of the complexity of largeorganizations. However, industries with small and roughly

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 11

constant marginal costs exhibit a different cost structure:
within reasonable boundaries, the total average cost will
always decrease with increasing production, and thus theminimum cost is reached at a maximal output level. Suchindustries are often referred to as natural monopolies.
Note that natural monopolies can occur because of otherreasons (e.g. very high market entrance barriers). A simpler
and more general definition of a natural monopoly is anindustry in which production by multiple suppliers iscostlier than production by a single supplier. Examplesof natural monopolies include network-based industries
such as electricity supply, water supply, railroads, or gas
pipelines.
Often the «upstream end» of the hydromet value
chain, especially the observation network, is assumed
to have natural monopoly characteristics. While thismay have been true in the past, the situation is notthat clear anymore. The massive technological advancesin the hydromet domain drive down cost and lead totechnological substitution effects and new business models.
For example, with today’s ready availability of automaticweather stations, the costs of operating an observation
network are lower than 50 years ago. As another example,
a future technological substitution could be the use of
sensor data from cars or mobile phones to complement
observation stations (some countries have already started
incorporating sensor data).

2.2.2 Public and other goods
Economists classify goods using the concepts of «rivalry»and «excludability». A good is rivalrous if its consumption
Table 6by one consumer prevents simultaneous consumption byother consumers. A good is excludable if consumers can beprevented from accessing it. The four possible combinationsof rivalry and excludability result in four classes of goods
as shown in Table 5.
Table 5Classification of goods.
Excludable

Non-excludable

Rivalrous

Private goods(e.g. apples)

Common goods(e.g. fish stock)

Nonrivalrous

Club goods(e.g. streaming
service)Public goods(e.g. free-to-air
television)

Public goods are an example of market failure,8 because
they exhibit positive externalities (economic benefits)
for which the producer is not compensated through theprice mechanism. Therefore, public goods are often
insufficiently produced by a free market. Also, public
goods should not be confused with public interest.
The term «public good» refers to the classification of
goods and means non-rival and non-excludable goods,
regardless of a good’s importance to the public.

2.2.3 Typologies of hydromet services
Hydromet services are often grouped into categories.
This study uses the categorization in Table 6 (based on
Gunasekera 2004), which uses the economic principles
mentioned above to define the type of service.

General typology of meteorological services using economic criteria as defining criteria. For instance, services which are
generally non-rival, excludable, and exercise economies of scale and scope are defined «targeted services».

Type of services

Economic characteristics
non-rival

Basic systems

non-excl.

economies ofscale

economies of
scope

nat.
monopolymost

Basic services
Targeted services
Industry-specific services
Value-added services
8

Market failure occurs when the allocation of goods by a free market is not efficient, leading to welfare losses. This can occur for all type of goods.

12 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

Table 7 provides examples of hydromet service categories.
The categorization is illustrative, and many grey areas
exist; for example, the light red boxes suggest an alternative
categorization of the service. Note that «targeted services»and «industry-specific services» together correspond to the«tailored services» element of the hydromet value chain(Figure 1).

Public services
The free market is unlikely to provide services withpublic good and natural monopoly traits sufficiently(«basic system» and «basic services» in the typology)
because such traits can lead to market failure. Therefore,
there is a need for strong regulation and intervention by
public entities to ensure the availability and quality of suchservices. Within this report, those services are referred
to as «public services». The differentiation between
public services and non-public services is, however, notclear-cut. There will be always gray areas with room forinterpretation and country-specific preferences (see, forexample, the last paragraph of Chapter 2.2.4). When facing
Table 7The characterization of a service as public service
does not necessarily mean that it must be provided
by a public entity such as an NMHS. Some public
services can also be produced by the private sector under
the supervision of the public sector and/or a regulator. For
example, the public sector contracts a private company toproduce a specific service.
The production of public services can be funded throughtaxes or fees. The difference between a fee and a tax is thata fee is paid for specific goods or services rendered by thegovernment, while a tax has no direct connection to thebenefits received.

Non-public services
For all other services («non-public services»), competitionis likely to generate considerable benefits As in the

Examples of services and their categorization to illustrate the typology of hydromet services. Light red boxes 			suggest a second possible categorization.

ServiceBasicsystems

Surface observation network
Classic satellites
New generation of satellites9
Basic numerical weather prediction
modelsPublic weather forecasts
Extreme weather warnings
Climate information
Forecasts for specific user groups(e.g. pilots, mariners, farmers)
Information provided to shipping companies, airlines, …
Personalized weather advice
Services for media
Services that integrate customer’s business data (e.g. ship routing, powerplant
management)
9

the issue of whether a specific service should be consideredpublic or non-public, decision makers may also consider if
competition is likely to increase innovation and to lead tobetter or less-expensive services for the consumer.

Nanosatellites which are much less expensive to deploy and to run.

Basic
services

Targeted
services

Industryspecificservices

Value-added
servicesThe Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 13case for public services, non-public services are notnecessarily provided exclusively by the private sector.
Therefore, the regulator must ensure a free market and alevel playing field for all competitors. This is especially
important if the public sector is producing non-public
services alongside public services.

2.2.4 Guidelines for choosing the optimal
service delivery model
The delivery of hydromet services along the hydromet
value chain can be organized in different ways. The
model chosen for a specific country depends not only on
the economic principles discussed above but also on the
country-specific situation and priorities. The following
guidelines can help countries to navigate the issues and to
decide on the optimal service delivery model.

tion by multiple suppliers is costlier than production
by a single supplier?10■■

Services which are of public interest and which show public
good characteristics or natural monopoly features should
be considered public services. In the typology introduced
earlier, public services include «basic systems» and «basic
services».
Step 3
Determine the form of service provision for public
services■■

Step 1
Define which services should be provided by thehydromet value chain
This has to be done by considering the country-specificpublic interest and the potential socio-economic benefit
those services provide. Some aspects of the public interest
are equally important for most countries (e.g. safeguarding
lives and property); others differ from country to country.
For instance, country-specific public interests can bedependent on geographical features (e.g. a landlocked
country does not need marine forecasts), economic
priorities (e.g. agriculture, fisheries, and off-shore drilling),
or geopolitical requirements (e.g. worldwide operating
armed forces).

Are economies of scale and/or scope to be expected?

Choose between a «do-it-yourself» option and a «contracting-out» option for the provision of public services: Whichpublic services should be produced by the NMHS andwhich public services should be contracted to the private sector? Beside strategic considerations, decisive
factors may also include the feasibility of sustainablelong-term contracts with the private sector and the costof service provision. Even if some services are contracted to the private sector, the public sector must ensure
the provision and the quality of public services. Hence,
the NMHS (if it has regulatory duties) or another regulatory body must be able to provide the necessary technical and organizational oversight.
For the part of the basic system with strong natural
monopoly supply features, a regulated private monopoly
could be an alternative to the production by the NMHS,
although such practice is not common for hydromet
services today.

■■

Step 2

Determine the funding mechanism for public services: taxes or fees. Fees are applicable only if a clearly defined
sub-set of the population uses the services/products.

Assess which services are public services
and which are not

Step 4

The assessment should be based both on supply- anddemand-side characteristics:

Organize the form of service provision for non-public
services

■■
■■

■■

Does a service have public good characteristics?
Is there public interest in providing the service (e.g. public safety and security)?
Is there a natural monopoly in the sense that produc-

Three approaches can be identified for the provision of
non-public services:■■

Provision by the private sector without any hydromet-specific regulation;

10 This will be a conceptual exercise and not a precise calculation. In practice, natural monopolies are rare (e.g. train network, high voltage transmission grid).

In the hydromet domain, the basic surface observation network and classic satellites might have natural monopoly properties.

14 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services■■■■

Provision by the private sector with some form of hydromet-specific regulation (e.g. licensing and quality
requirement); andProvision by a public entity complying with competition
policy and competitive neutrality to ensure a level playing field.

The last option may provide a government the bestvalue for money. However, it is very challenging from an
institutional perspective, as a regulator must ensure alevel playing field between the private and public sectors.
This is especially challenging if public and non-public
services are produced within the same organization.
Moreover, from a regulatory perspective, it is a complex
task which requires strong institutions and a developed
legal framework. This point is particularly critical for
most developing countries where institutions and thelegal framework may not be adequate yet.

While the economic principles discussed in thischapter provide an important and useful guideline,
there is room for interpretation and weighting ofarguments. In general, using only economic principles
would underestimate the complexity of the topic andthe role of country-specific preferences; the existing
institutional, legal, and administrative environment;
and the current allocation of responsibility in a specificcountry. Those factors must be taken into consideration
when choosing the optimal service delivery model: for a
specific country, this choice cannot be dictated by a single
institution or by experts but has to be developed througha political process informed by sound economic principles
and fact-based evidences.

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 15

3. Case studies
This chapter elaborates on the hydromet value chain in six selected countries as per the selection criteria describedin Chapter 1. Information was gathered about the essential services, the actors (public and private alike), the users, andthe channels of information distribution. The legal and policy frameworks and other factors that shape service delivery ingeneral and public-private engagements in particular were included in the scope of the case studies.
In countries where data or services are provided by private companies, the study examines their relations andinteractions with the NMHS and any impediments to private-service provision. Illustrative examples of public-private
engagement were collected to better understand the role of the involved actors, the business model, the involvement of
the NMHS, and the impact of the engagement on the market. A transnational perspective of weather companies which
operate and/or provide services in many countries complements the country case studies.
The details vary among countries according to the extent and ready availability of pertinent information. The chapters on
Germany and Israel focus solely on their recent policy changes, to gain additional insights into the regulations of data accessand scope of services rendered by the NMHS.
The countries’ order of appearance reflects the fact that the developed countries are used as reference and therefore are
mentioned ahead of developing countries.

3.1 Overview
Table 8 provides an overview of basic indicators in the analyzed countries. The analysis and the conclusions are notbased solely on those indicators. This is especially true for indicators related to the NMHS budget because:
■■

■■

■■

NMHSs’ mandates vary considerably. For example, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) covers seismology and volcanology
in addition to meteorology but not hydrology; the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysical Agency of Indonesia (BMKG)
covers meteorology and seismology but not volcanology.
The budgets reported to WMO, which are mainly used here for comparability reasons, may be underestimated due to contributions by other agencies and regional governments. For example, in some developed countries, the task of producing
weather forecasts and warnings is often split among agencies, while in developing countries this is often not the case. In
addition, these budgets may be affected by considerable exchange rate fluctuations.
The NMHS funding mechanisms are very heterogeneous throughout the sample of countries.

Hence, while it is not possible to compare NMHS budgets in detail, Table 8 provides useful insights about the nature andmagnitude of the differences among countries. The right-most column depicts the ranking of a country in the World Bank Group«Ease of Doing Business» (2017). A high ranking means the regulatory environment is conducive to starting and operating local
companies.

16 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

Table 8Overview of basic indicators in selected countries (in order of appearance in this report).
Data sources (accessed September 2018): (a) http://wdi.worldbank.org/table/2.1; (b) http://wdi.worldbank.org/table/4.2;(c) https://www.wmo.int/cpdb > converted to USD; (d) https://www.wmo.int/cpdb; (e) http://www.doingbusiness.org/en/
rankings; and (f) personal communication.
NMHS
budget NMHS number
per capita
of staff)dGDPb

GDP per
capitaNMHS
budgetc

Million2017

USD billion
2017

USD
2017

USD million
div.

USD
div.

Numberdiv.

190 total countries
2018

U.S.

325.7

19,390.6

59,5351,00011

3.07

4,402

8

U.K.

66.0

2,622.4

39,733

298

4.52

1,997

9

Japan

126.8

4,872.1

38,424

593

4.68

5,027

39

Indonesia

264.0

1,015.5

3,847

165

0.63

4,748

73

Myanmar

53.4

69.3

1,298

1.7

0.03

843

171

Ghana

28.8

47.3

1,642

6.2 (f)0.22 (f)380 (f)114

Germany

82.7

3,677.4

44,467

385

4.66

2,336

24

Israel8.7

350.9

40,333

5

0.57

n/a

49

Country

11

Total
Populationa

This is a significant underestimation as many agencies, besides the NWS, contribute to the task.

Each sub-chapter begins with a short summary of themain findings and a diagram summarizing the maturityof the country’s value chain and its components. Thebalance between the public and private sectors and therole of academia are depicted as well. The maturity ofeach sector is assessed as advanced, intermediate, low,or not available, following the classification in Table 3.
The importance of each sector in the provision of services
is qualitatively categorized as notable, substantial, or
dominant; the relative size of shapes in the diagramsreflects this categorization and cannot be interpreted as aquantitative measure.

3.2 United States
3.2.1 Overview and Summary
The overall maturity of the hydromet value chain in the
United States (U.S.) is advanced, and both the private andpublic sectors play a major role in the first four elements ofthe value chain (Figure 3). Academia plays an important rolein the U.S., not only for education, training, research anddevelopment, and innovation but also for elements of thehydromet value chain. Public services (for a definition see
Chapter 2.2.3) are provided by the National Weather Service
12
13

Ease ofBusiness Ranke(NWS) and other agencies under the National Oceanic andAtmospheric Administration (NOAA). Following a policy
framework which emphasizes free and open data access,the private sector clearly dominates tailored services andbusiness data integration. Business data integration is at
an intermediate stage of development.
The role of the NWS and other agencies involved in thehydromet value chain is explicitly regulated and restricted to
public services. The agencies are fully funded by the public
and no direct cost recovery is pursued. Therefore, hydromet
agencies’ PPE focuses on customer-supplier relationships.
The production of some data sets is already outsourced to theprivate sector, and NOAA is considering increasing outsourcing(e.g. in the fields of cloud services for high-performancecomputing and space-based observation systems).

3.2.2 Services, users, and providers
The United States has a large and active hydromet value
chain serviced by government agencies, large and small
private companies, and academic institutions.12 In 2017,
the market value of the U.S. weather industry was estimatedat USD 9 billion, with revenues ranging from USD 2 billion
to USD 4 billion.13

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/im/metdir.htm.
https://www.weather.gov/media/wrn/calendar/EnterpriseStrategySession_2017.pdf.

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 17

Figure 3: Sector balance and maturity in U.S. hydromet value chain.

Observations
Observations

Numerical
Numerical
weather
weather
prediction
prediction

Color coding
for sectors
and maturity

Generate
Generate
forecasts
forecasts

Value chain
Academia
PrivatePublicAdvanced

Intermediate

NOAA is a government agency under the U.S. Department of Commerce. NWS is part of NOAA and is organizedin nine National Centers for Environmental Prediction(NCEP). NWS covers every aspect from weather, ocean, andclimate prediction to space weather prediction:
1.

Aviation Weather Center2.

Climate Prediction Center

3.

Environmental Modeling Center4.

National Hurricane Center

5.

NCEP Central Operations

6.

Ocean Prediction Center

7.

Space Weather Prediction Center

8.

Storm Prediction Center

9.

Weather Prediction Center

The Aviation Weather Center provides aeronauticalmeteorological services. The National Hurricane Center,
Storm Prediction Center, Ocean Prediction Center, andSpace Weather Prediction Center provide official warnings
for their respective areas of operation. NCEP Central
Operations runs NWP models and prepares NCEP products

Low

Business
Business data
data
integration
integration
NotableSubstantial
Dominant

N/A, unknown

for dissemination. A key product used worldwide is thefreely available Global Forecast System’s (GFS) output.14
NWS field operations and forecasts (including aviation) are
done both at NCEP and at the 122 weather forecast offices,
13 river forecast centers, and 21 center weather service
units.15 NOAA operates a large website communicating
its work, providing educational material and access toweather forecasts. NWS’ yearly budget amounted to around
USD 1 billion in 2012.16
Operational weather prediction in the U.S. is supported
by a large research enterprise, including sevenresearch laboratories overseen by NOAA’s Oceanic andAtmospheric Research Division. The mission of theseresearch laboratories is to integrate research, technology,
and services to understand and predict changes that occur
in the atmosphere, oceans, and inland waters. NOAA also
supports 16 Cooperative Institutions through partnerships
with 42 universities and research institutions to further their
mission in these areas. Research related to atmospheric andhydrological systems also takes place at the National Center
for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), National Aeronautics andSpace Administration (NASA), and Department of Energy(DoE) laboratories and within the university community
through support of various federal agencies. The efforts

http://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/products/gfs/.
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/organization.php.
16 https://www.weather.gov/media/wrn/calendar/EnterpriseStrategySession_2017.pdf.
15

Tailored
Tailoredservices
services

Size coding for
relative importanceof sector

Essential services and channels of communication

14

Issue
Issue official
official
warnings
warnings

18 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

in the U.S. also include unique partnerships, such as theNorthwest Regional Modeling Consortium that involves
universities, the National Weather Service, and a variety
of users focused around high-resolution regional modelingundertaken at the University of Washington.
The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)«provides scientists across the U.S.—and the globe—with ahost of tools, from community models to research aircraftto supercomputers to workshops».17 NCAR also provides
training and support to academia, the government, and theprivate sector in the U.S. and internationally. NCAR’s open
source Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) numerical
weather prediction system has an extensive worldwide
community of registered users (a cumulative total ofover 39,000 in over 160 countries).18 NCAR is a federally
funded research and development center. The National
Science Foundation is the majority financial investor; otherfinancial agencies and non-federal sources are minority
investors.
Additionally, extensive academic research is conductedby U.S. universities and government laboratories suchas NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the DoEsponsored Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, among
others. Federal departments and agencies provide publicsector hydromet services (i.e. Dept. of Defense, Dept. ofAgriculture, Dept. of Transportation, and U.S. Geological
Survey) and numerous federal agencies support research
related to hydrometeorology.

NWS forecasts and data are in the public domain and thus
available to anyone for free in accordance with U.S. law. In
2005, the NWS Duties Act was proposed to prohibit NWS
from freely distributing weather data if the data could
be provided by the private sector. The bill was widely
criticized by users of NWS services, especially by emergency
management officials who rely on NWS for information
during emergencies (e.g. fires, flooding, and severe weather).
As a result, the NWS Duties Act was not adopted.
The most recent and important act governing NWS
activities is the Weather Research and Forecasting
Innovation Act of 2017. This legislation aims to improve
NOAA’s weather forecasts and official warnings, both for theprotection of lives and property and for the enhancementof the national economy. The act also covers topics such as
future weather satellite data needs, gaps in Next Generation
Weather Radar (NEXRAD) coverage, and improvementsin the transfer of advances in research and development
to NWS operations.19 U.S. Code § 2074 makes it illegal tocounterfeit weather forecasts or official warnings.20

Data policy
The U.S. government has a comprehensive open data
policy (U. S. Government 2016). According to U.S. policies,
agencies must apply the following principles concerning
open data:■■

3.2.3 Legal and policy framework
The principal statutory authority governing NWS is
the National Weather Service Organic Act of 1890.
The law directs NWS to collect meteorological data,
provide meteorological forecasts, and produce a
range of meteorological services. The Weather Service
Modernization Act of 1992 served to modernize thetechnology and operations of the National Weather Service(NWS); it requires the Secretary of Commerce to «certifythat the modernization process will not degrade local
weather services».

17

https://ncar.ucar.edu/what-we-offer.
https://www.mmm.ucar.edu/weather-research-and-forecasting-model.
19 https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/R44838.html.
20 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2074.
21 https://project-open-data.cio.gov/policy-memo/.
18

■■

■■

Public. Consistent with the Office of Management andBudget’s Open Government Directive,21 agencies must
adopt a presumption in favor of openness to the extent
permitted by law and subject to privacy, confidentiality,
security, or other valid restrictions.
Accessible. Open data must be made available in convenient, modifiable, and open formats that can be retrieved, downloaded, indexed, and searched. Formats
should be machine-readable. To the extent permitted bylaw, these formats should be non-proprietary, publicly
available, and without restrictions on their use.
Described. Open data must be described fully so that
consumers have sufficient information to understandthe data’s strengths, weaknesses, analytical limitations,

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 19

security requirements, and how to process them. This
involves the use of robust, granular metadata, thoroughdocumentation of data elements, data dictionaries, and,if applicable, additional descriptions of the purpose of
the collection, the population of interest, the characteristics of the sample, and the method of data collection.
■■

■■

■■

■■

Reusable. Open data must be made available under anopen license that places no restrictions on their use.

to additional processing, to the extent practicable andwithin resource constraints.
■■■■

Complete. Open data must be published in primaryforms, with the finest possible granularity that is practicable and permitted by law and other requirements.
Timely. Open data must be made available as quickly asnecessary to preserve the value of the data.

■■

Managed Post-Release. A point of contact must be
designated to assist with data use and to respond tocomplaints about adherence to these open data requirements.

Regulation of public-private engagements
Different policies govern the roles of the private
and public sectors in the hydromet value chain.22
Important principles of the partnership between the
public and private sectors are documented in NOAA’s 2007
«Policy on Partnerships in the Provision of Environmental
Information». The policy is dedicated to strengthening thepartnership between the public, private, and academic
sectors. The following extracts23 present the main aspectsof the policy regarding public-private engagement and theconsequences of the data policy discussed above:
■■

■■

■■

22

NOAA has a responsibility to foster the growth of thiscomplex and diverse enterprise as a whole to serve thepublic interest and the U.S. economy.
NOAA will not haphazardly institute significant changes
in existing information dissemination activities, or introduce new services, without first carefully considering
the full range of views and capabilities of all parties aswell as the public’s interest in the environmental information enterprise.

■■■■

NOAA recognizes that cooperation, not competition,with the private sector and academic and research entities best serves the public interest and best meets thevaried needs of specific individuals, organizations, andeconomic entities.
NOAA will take advantage of existing capabilities andservices of commercial and academic sectors to support efficient performance of NOAA’s mission and avoid
duplication and competition in areas not related to the
NOAA mission.
NOAA is committed to open consultation with all who
are affected by NOAA’s environmental information services and will use appropriate mechanisms to encourage the maximum practicable and timely input from andcollaboration with interested persons and entities on
decisions affecting the environmental information enterprise.
NOAA will promote the open and unrestricted exchangeof environmental information worldwide and seek toimprove global opportunities for developing the enterprise.
NOAA recognizes that open and unrestricted dissemination of high quality publicly funded information, as appropriate and within resource constraints, is good policy
and is the law.

The formal framework now embodied in NOAA and NWS
policies follows six informal principles, developed by NWS
in 2001 to maximize fairness and openness. According
to NWS, the six informal principles can still be helpful ininterpreting these policies or addressing issues not coveredin the formal policy.24 In this context, it is also important
to mention the «Fair Weather» report (National ResearchCouncil 2003), which has been fundamental in providing
a basis for PPE in the U.S. with policy and engagement
recommendations.

To advance the environmental information enterprise,
NOAA will provide information in forms accessible to the
public as well as underlying data in forms convenient

https://www.noaa.gov/work-with-us/partnership-policy.
https://www.corporateservices.noaa.gov/ames/administrative_orders/chapter_216/216-112.html.
24 https://www.weather.gov/coo/policydocs.
23

20 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

NWS increasing use of private sources of data, which havemore restrictive (re)use and redistribution policies thandata produced by public entities, is sparking a new debate
around the open and unrestricted dissemination of data,
especially for the academic community.25 An additional
challenge is the international availability of observations
taken by the private sector that are useful for global
numerical weather prediction.

3.2.4 Funding
NWS annual budget is approximately USD 1 billion andis provided by the federal government;26 no direct cost
recovery is pursued. NWS provides the foundation to
enable businesses to derive economic value from weather
knowledge, very roughly estimated at USD 13 billion acrosssectors (National Weather Service 2017).

3.2.5 Public-private engagement
Following policy changes, NOAA started to stayout of the commercial exploitation of weather data(including NWP results) in the early 2000’s.27 Publicprivate engagement focuses on supplier relationships andcooperation in the field of R&D. There is an ongoing debate
on what roles the private and public sectors should playwithin the (U.S.) weather enterprise.28 Part of this discussion
is fueled by the fact that some private companies, adopting
new technological possibilities, have shifted or expanded
their activities to include parts of the hydromet value chain
which were traditionally considered public services. For
instance, companies have launched their own weather
satellites or run their own weather models which theyclaim can compete with NOAA’s GFS or with European NWP
models. At the same time, the production of some data sets
is already outsourced to the private sector, and NOAA is
considering increasing outsourcing (e.g. in the fields ofcloud services for high-performance computing and spacebased observation systems).
The inter-agency (NCAR, NOAA, Dept. of Defense,and Dept. of Transportation) development of theopen source WRF model is an example of academic-

25

public-private engagement, considering its widespreadinternational use and large user community.
Another area of cooperation between the public and private
sectors is aeronautical meteorology, where NCEP services
air traffic control and private companies help airlines
optimize their operations. All services are coordinated to
avoid conflicting information leading to misalignment of air
traffic control requirements and airline operational plans.

3.2.6 International cooperation
There is strong cooperation between the U.S. andmany other countries. For example, developing the open
source WRF model with over 39,000 accumulated users
from more than 160 countries benefits public and private
users around the world and has also benefitted from thecontributions of a large international community. NWS is
mandated to coordinate and monitor bilateral agreements
for cooperation in meteorology and hydrology between the
U.S. and other countries and to coordinate with WMO.

3.3 United Kingdom
3.3.1 Overview and Summary
The overall maturity of the hydromet value chain in the
United Kingdom (U.K.) is advanced. The NMHS (Met
Office, U.K.) is the dominant weather provider; its services
portfolio covers the entire value chain (Figure 4). A
distinctive feature of the Met Office in comparison to many
developed countries (e.g. Germany, Japan, and U.S.) is that
the Met Office operates as a «Trading Fund». A Trading Fundis a legal framework that enables an organization within
the public sector to handle its own revenues and expenses
according to targets set by its owners. In that sense, aTrading Fund acts more like a business without being a
corporation. This means that the Met Office is required
to operate on a commercial basis and to meet targets
approved by its owner, the U.K. Department for Business,
Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).29 This may be oneof the reasons why the Met Office dominates the hydromet
market in the U.K., although one large and several niche

See for example: https://spacenews.com/tempers-flare-when-meteorologists-discuss-commercial-weather-data/; Serra et al., 2018.

26 https://weather.com/science/news/2018-02-13-trump-national-weather-service-budget-cut-jobs.
27

NOAA had already limited its commercial involvement and developed a policy to reduce the friction that existed with the private sector.

28 https://www.forbes.com/sites/marshallshepherd/2016/06/07/when-it-comes-to-u-s-weather-forecasting-private-public-or-both/#1a2860663a37.

29 Day-to-day ministerial oversight and the formal business ownership role are delegated to the Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research andInnovation.

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 21

Figure 4: Sector balance and maturity in U.K. hydromet value chain.

Observations
Observations

Numerical
Numerical
weather
weather
prediction
prediction

Color coding
for sectors
and maturity

Generate
Generate
forecasts
forecasts

Issue
Issue official
official
warnings
warnings

Value chain
PrivateIntermediate

private providers exist. The Met Office plays an active roleinternationally and supports many countries in their effort
to build and maintain NMHSs. The U.K. academic sector
makes significant contributions to the state of the art inweather and climate analyses and predictions.

3.3.2 Services, users, and providers
Essential services and channelof communication
The Met Office is the U.K.’s national weather service,offering most of the spectrum of the hydromet value chain,including weather and climate data that it licenses. The Met
Office provides weather and climate-related services to thearmed forces, government departments, the public, civil
aviation, shipping, industry, agriculture, and commerce.
The Met Office develops, runs, and maintains its own«Unified Model» which is a suite of NWP models.30 In
addition, it operates a weather and climate website andapps for smartphones with comprehensive information
targeted at the general public.
The international private weather company MeteoGroup31
operates in the U.K. and offers solutions for a number ofindustries, including shipping, offshore, transport, media,

Low

32

NotableSubstantial
Dominant

N/A, unknown

and energy, as well as the consumer app business. Withan estimated turnover of EUR 15 million in the country,
the company’s revenues represented around 60 percentof the U.K.’s total private market (i.e. revenues generated
by privately owned companies) in 2016 (Gutbrod and
Schludecker, in preparation). Notably, in 2016, MeteoGroup
competed for and won the valuable BBC (British
Broadcasting Corporation) contract for weather forecasts,
replacing the Met Office which had held the contract fornearly 100 years.32 Other hydromet service companies
operate in the areas of agriculture, energy, insurance,
marine services, and other sectors. Some operate smallscale weather sensor networks. Overall, they do not havea significant market share but cover niches which are notoccupied by the big players; generally, these companies
appear to have yearly earnings of less than EUR 2 million(Gutbrod and Schludecker, in preparation). For example,
a company provides legal weather services, historical
weather data, forensic meteorology, and expert witness
services to the legal profession and all those involved incriminal or civil litigation. The Met Office no longer provides
expert witness services.

30 https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/modelling-systems/unified-model.
31

Business
Business data
data
integration
integration

Size coding for
relative importanceof sector

Academia
PublicAdvanced

Tailored
Tailoredservices

The company was acquired by TBG-AG, a Switzerland-based private holding company in 2018.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/17/meteogroup-replaces-met-office-as-bbcs-new-weather-forecaster/.

22 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

Official Warnings
As the U.K.’s mandated public weather service, theMet Office is responsible for issuing official weather
warnings, including potential impacts of severe
weather. Official warnings are issued by the National
Severe Weather Warning Service and are communicated
via the Met Office website, TV, newspapers, and social
media. Flood warnings are not issued by the Met Office, butby the Environment Agency. The two agencies have formeda collaborative «Flood Forecasting Centre».33 Privatecompanies are allowed to further disseminate official
warnings via their platforms and apps.

Observation network
The Met Office operates and maintains a modern andsophisticated measurement and observation network.
Its synoptic stations cover the entire U.K., and stations
within the network are separated by an average of about 40
kilometers.34 In addition, supplementary stations provide alimited range of data to meet specific requirements, suchas climate modelling, measurements of temperature and/or wind parameters at a customer’s site, and dense rainfall
networks to aid water management and flood forecasting.
The Met Office operates a network of marine observation
systems,35 initiates official warnings, and prepares routine
forecasts for dissemination on behalf of the Maritime &Coastguard Agency. The Met Office also operates many
radar systems. The current system upgrade is jointly
funded by the Met Office and the Environment Agency as
a business relationship between government departments.
The general public can make contributions to observation
data, using the Weather Observations Website36 to enter
observation data from around the world.

Role of academic institutions
The Met Office has built a strong network for scientificcollaboration formed by academic and research
relationships with centers of excellence and leading
33

universities, by combining skills and capabilities andby aligning research and development programs.37 The
U.K. parallel to NCAR in the U.S. is the National Centre
for Atmospheric Science (NCAS). NCAS is an independent
organization funded by the Natural Environment ResearchCouncil and distributed across many U.K. universities.

3.3.3 Legal and policy framework
Trading Fund
The Met Office, as established under U.K. law, has thedistinct feature of being a Trading Fund38 as describedin 3.3.1. The Secretary of State of the Department for
Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy has oversight
responsibility. However, day-to-day ministerial oversightand the formal business ownership role are delegated to
the Minister of State for Universities, Science, Researchand Innovation.39
The funded operations of the Met Office are set out in
Schedule 1 to the Meteorological Office Trading Fund Order.
Several other regulations govern how the Met Office interacts
with its customers, including other government agencies.
According to its 2018 Annual Report,40 the Met Office
is organized in two reportable business segments(Government Services and Business Group) and provides
competed41 as well as non-competed services to publicand private-sector customers. Most non-competed services
relate to the Met Office’s role as the U.K.’s National
Meteorological Service and its support to the Ministryof Defense and other government departments. These
services are further divided into «public task» and «nonpublic task» activities, with the former being defined by
the Met Office’s Public Weather Service Customer Group.42
To ensure a fair and level competition between the Met
Office and the private sector, the Met Office’s «public task»
activities are ring-fenced and separated from its competed,«non-public task» activities. For instance, data or productsthat are required for the commercial services of the Met

http://www.ffc-environment-agency.metoffice.gov.uk/.

34 https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/guide/weather/observations-guide/uk-observations-network.
35 https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/specialist-forecasts/coast-and-sea/observations/.
36 https://bom-wow.metoffice.gov.uk/.
37

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/collaboration.

38 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1996/774/contents/made.
39 https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/who/management.

40 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/met-office-annual-report-and-accounts-2017-to-2018.
41

Competed services are subject to competition with the private sector.

42 https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/what/pws/pwscg/faqs.

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 23

Office business segments are supplied on the same terms
and conditions that apply to external customers. This is
expected to ensure that the requirement to operate on
a commercial basis does not skew the free market, forexample through cross-funding.

Data policy
In general, observation data, NWP model output, andforecast data and products are made commerciallyavailable, some for a fee meant to cover the cost of providing
the data, others at market prices. The Met Office Open Data
Policy43 lays out how the Met Office determines which data
are available for free, which are available for a nominal
fee, and which can be purchased at market prices. Met
Office Open Data are licensed under the U.K.’s Government
License for public-sector information. The Open Data Policy
classifies data into three categories: «open», «managed»,and «internal». Due to challenges impacting the release ofdata, such as technological hurdles, funding requirements,and license terms of background data, a set of eight criteria
was defined to classify the data.
The Met Office provides certain data for free via a web services
or for download. In 2011, the web service «DataPoint»44
was introduced upon request of the government to provide
access to open data. DataPoint provides access to a rangeof data sets free of charge (e.g. single site forecasts, historicand live observations, mountain forecasts, pressure charts
and map layers, and satellite map layers). Today, DataPoint
has approximately 20,000 registered users, of which 70
percent located in the U.K. and 30 percent based overseas.
Compared to the U.S. or Germany, the free data are limited tosingle locations and a small number of maps. The Met Officemakes significant volumes of data freely available to theresearch community through mechanisms such as the British
Atmospheric Data Centre45 and the British Oceanographic
Data Centre.46 Much of the content on the Met Office website
can be reused under an Open Government License in linewith the website’s terms of use.

Ever-increasing volumes of data are challenging traditionaldelivery methods. The Met Office is developing alternative
solutions to meet the diverse needs of their users. It iscurrently transforming how third parties will access anddownload its reusable data sets in the future. Application
programming interfaces (API), which can offer scalability
by using a third-party cloud provider, is being considered.
The new data discovery and dissemination platform is
expected to go live in autumn 2019.
The U.K. Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) regulates aeronautical meteorological services (Civil Aviation Authority 2013).
CAA states: «within the U.K. there are a number of commercial organizations that create Met products outside thescope of ICAO Annex 3 or repackage Met information alreadyproduced and supply to industry as, or within, value added
services. Under current U.K. legislation there are no regulatory requirements in place for these commercial providers».
However, providers of all other services must be certified
by CAA.

Regulation of public-private engagements
The U.K. has acts and guidelines on public-private
partnerships (PPP),47,48 though none relates
specifically to the weather market. The existing acts
and guidelines focus on infrastructure projects, contract
management, private financing, and public procurement.
For instance, the U.K. Treasury issued a PPP policy andguideline in 2012. It provides guidance on assessing thevalue-for-money of privately financed projects and of
finance, procurement, and contract management.

3.3.4 Funding
The Met Of﻿fice is required to operate on a commercial
basis and to meet financial targets: for the financial
year 2017/18, its total revenues amounted to GBP 229.9
million and its operating profit to GBP 20.3 million.
The Business Group accounted for roughly 10 percent
of revenue and operating profit: the vast majority of therevenue was derived from public sector entities.

43 https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/legal/open-data-policy.
44 https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/datapoint.

45 http://data.ceda.ac.uk/badc/corral/images/metobs/.
46 https://www.bodc.ac.uk/.

47 A PPP is defined as a cooperation between the public and private sectors for public-interest-infrastructure provision. PPP is a finance scheme and not atransfer of public obligations to the private sector.

48 https://ppp.worldbank.org/public-private-partnership/legislation-regulation/laws/ppp-and-concession-laws#examples.

24 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

In the same reporting period, the Met Office payed GPB 8.5
million as dividend to its owner. As a Trading Fund, Met
Office is not expected to lose money, but ultimately the
public is liable to cover losses. Since becoming a Trading
Fund, the Met Office has been profitable and has returned
dividends.

undertaking the scientific assessment of trial data,
discussing business model options for future provision, andrecognizing the emerging opportunities of small satellite
solutions for specific capabilities.

Big data infrastructure

Although the Met Office largely dominates the U.K. weather
market and the hydromet value chain, it engages withthe private sector. Examples of such engagements areillustrated below.

The cost of supercomputing and big data infrastructure
drives endeavors to closely collaborate with companies
like IBM52 and CRAY.53 These endeavors can develop new
solutions to handle the big data produced and shared dailyby the Met Office. This includes outsourcing solutions suchas computing-as-a-service.

Data sharing

3.3.6 International cooperation

The Met Office openly publishes Public Sector Information(PSI) which is available for reuse on the ECOMET49
website.50 ECOMET, in turn, directly notifies all members of
the European Trade Association for meteorological service
providers (PRIMET) of data that are available for reuse. The
Met Office’s PSI reuse catalogue includes live and historicobservations as well as numerical weather prediction
model outputs. The Met Office PSI Data Team (DPT)licenses PSI data to diverse market sectors. This includes,for example, renewable energy, with about 40 businesses
reusing the Euro 4 model output to drive their European
renewable energy forecasts. Most data sets listed in the
ECOMET catalogue are chargeable (information charge andhandling fees), with proceeds being used to offset the costof producing and delivering PSI data to the public weather
service. Additionally, DPT is the leading licensing agent for
the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts(ECMWF), licensing ECMWF’s data to a global customer base;it also licenses EUMETSAT’s51 data and ECOMET members’
data (80 percent of DPT’s users are based overseas).

The U.K. is a member of WMO and ECMWF and shares
observation data and NWP output with other member
states. The U.K. is also a full member of the European Space
Agency (ESA), EUMETNET, and EUMETSAT through whichmost of the U.K.’s contribution to the satellite componentof the Global Observing System is made (similar to the
NOAA/NASA mechanism in the U.S.). The Met Office works
closely with the U.K. Space Agency to support U.K. industry
interests. These are important given the geo-returnmechanisms through which ESA operates, with a significant
impact on the EUMETSAT contracts.

3.3.5 Public-private engagement

Engagement with the private sector for theprovision of observations
The Met Office works with the private sector to consider
the direct provision of satellite services. This includes

The Met Office has a large number of international researchcooperation projects to further-develop forecasting andclimate science.54 Furthermore, it supports developing
countries to develop NMHSs to access high-resolution models
at a global and regional level to enhance their national
forecasting skills.55 The Met Office is collaborating with thedevelopment partner community and is supporting NMHSs
in specific countries to build capacities and to sustainably
develop hydromet services. The Weather and Climate Science
for Service Partnership Programme56 is supported by the U.K.
government Newton Fund and comprises projects with Brazil,
China, South Africa, and several Southeast Asian countries.
The projects aim to build the basis for increasing the resilienceof vulnerable communities to weather and climate variability.

49 ECOMET is the Economic Interest Grouping of the National Meteorological Services of the European Economic Area (http://www.ecomet.eu).
50 http://www.ecomet.eu/component/e2etables/?view=e2etables&Itemid=241.
51

EUMETSAT is the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (www.eumetsat.int).
https://www.ibm.com/case-studies/met-office.
53 https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29789208.
54 https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/collaboration.
55 https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/services/government/international-development.
56 https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/collaboration/newton.
52

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 25

Figure 5: Sector balance and maturity in Japan hydromet value chain.

Observations
Observations

Numerical
Numerical
weather
weather
prediction
prediction

Color coding
for sectors
and maturity

Generate
Generate
forecasts
forecasts

Value chain
Academia
PrivatePublicAdvanced

Tailored
Tailoredservices
services

Business
Business data
data
integration
integration

Size coding for
relative importanceof sector
Intermediate

The WISER (Weather and Climate Information Services for
Africa) program57 is funded by U.K. Aid and aims to delivertransformational change in the quality, accessibility, anduse of weather and climate information services at alllevels of decision making for sustainable development in
Africa. The Met Office has been commissioned by the U.K.
government to act as fund manager for the East Africa
component of the program. It focuses on the Lake Victoria
Basin and surrounding region (Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya,
Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda) and on service delivery(e.g. seasonal forecasts and official early warnings),
directed by user needs which support poverty reduction
and development.

3.4 Japan
3.4.1 Overview and Summary
The overall maturity of the hydromet value chain in Japanis advanced, and both the private and public sectors playa major role in the first three elements of the value chain(see Chapter 3.4.2: Early warning system). The private
sector dominates tailored services and business data
integration. The situation in Japan is generally similar tothe situation in the U.S. (compare Figure 3 with Figure 5).
The role of the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) is definedby the Meteorological Service Act and focuses both on the
57

Issue
Issueofficial
official
warnings
warnings

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/what/international/projects/wiser.

Low

NotableSubstantial
Dominant

N/A, unknown

provision of public services and the promotion/regulationof the hydromet market. In comparison to similar countries(e.g. the U.S.), the NMHS assumes greater regulatory duties
and more roles in ensuring the quality of observed data
and forecasting services. Although the hydromet market
has been deregulated since the 1990s, the weather market
in Japan is still more regulated than the weather market in
the U.S. For instance, private forecasting service providers
must obtain a license from JMA to operate in Japan.
The provision of public services is part of JMA’s mandate
and is fully funded by the state. Through the Japan
Meteorological Business Support Center (JMBSC), JMA
provides most of the data, products, and information it
produces to the private sector at cost of dissemination forcommercial usage. In response to a low utilization rateof meteorological data in industry, the Weather Business
Consortium (WXBC) was established. As a joint effort ofthe public, private, and academic sectors, WXBC aims at
promoting the use of weather data for new businesses.
Through international cooperation, Japan is
supporting many low- and middle-income countries
in Asia and the Pacific Region sharing information,
providing capacity building on technical hydromet skills
and knowledge.

26 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

3.4.2 Services, users, and providers
Hydromet services in Japan are widely used by public
and private mass media, the central government, local
governments and authorities, the aviation and fishingsectors, and many other economic sectors.

Essential services and channels ofcommunication
JMA provides fundamental weather services such as
observations, forecasts, and numerical weather prediction(NWP) and monitors earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanos.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, andTourism (MLIT) has oversight responsibility for JMA. JMA
has supervision of the Japan Meteorological BusinessSupport Center (JMBSC), which is an incorporated
foundation. JMBSC disseminates most JMA data, products,
and information—including the gridded NWP data—on areal-time, cost basis to private business users.58 There areabout 300 registered end users.
As of January 2019, Japan had 74 private forecasting service
providers licensed by JMA to issue weather forecasts. The
private sector provides a variety of integrated services.
Licensed forecasting service providers, for example, offer
value-added forecasts to the general public and to specificusers in many economic sectors (e.g. mobile applications,which are not covered by JMA). Their services are essentiallybased on the data, products, and information disseminatedby JMA (through JMBSC). Among the private forecasting
providers are international companies. Some use the data,
products, and information generated by JMA together
with their own complementary observation infrastructureand forecasting services to meet specific user needs andrequirements (World Bank 2017a).

Early warning system
Japan is exposed to many natural hazards, including
earthquakes, typhoons, flooding, and tsunamis, andthe country’s early warning system is well developed.
Real-time information on evolving severe weather events
includes emergency warnings, warnings, and advisories.

JMA is mandated to act as the single authoritative voicewith respect to warnings59 and pushes them to government
disaster management agencies, local governments, themedia, and the public through various channels. However,the private sector plays an important role in disseminating
the warnings issued by JMA to end users.

Surface measurement network
JMA operates an observation network, including
geostationary meteorological satellites, and privatecompanies operate their own observation networks
to complement JMA’s observation networks. The privatecompanies’ networks include 1,300 automated weather
stations and 20 C-band Doppler radars. One of the privatecompanies, Weathernews Inc. (WNI), operates its own
surface observation instruments and compact X-band
Doppler radar stations for its commercial activities.

Role of academic institutions
JMA collaborates closely with the academic sector
in such areas as the development of NWP models60 andnew meteorological satellite products. The private sector
also collaborates with academia. For example, WNI has
partnerships with academic institutions, especially inresearch and development of compact satellites, compact
X-band Doppler radars, data analysis techniques, andartificial intelligence.

3.4.3 Legal and policy framework
In Japan, the main regulatory framework formeteorological services is the Meteorological Service
Act of 1952. The purpose of the act is «to ensure thesound development of meteorological services», whichis understood to include services provided by privatecompanies. It not only regulates the activities of JMA
but also includes rules for observations and forecaststhat private services have to follow. Further, the act is
intended to optimize commercial opportunities for private
meteorological services in Japan, such as provision at costof almost all JMA data, products, and information to theprivate sector. The act has been amended more than 30
times since 1952, with a 1993 amendment allowing private

58 To cover operating cost to run servers 24/7; data are free.

59 Note: Flood warnings for designated rivers with information on water levels or flow rates are issued in collaboration with national and prefectural riverauthorities (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and prefectures).

60 For example, JMA shares its models with academia to get feedback and also conducts joint research activities with academia; JMA has established a newadvisory body consisting of model experts to advise on a modelling and development strategy.

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 27

forecasting service providers to issue forecasts publicly61
and opening further deregulation.
Through the amendments, JMA has established a systemfor verifying observation equipment and for certifying
weather forecasters at private forecasting services
companies. The act articulates the role of JMBSC to support
the sound development of forecasting services by JMA. It
also stipulates that, any entity other than JMA conducting
meteorological observations intended for announcements
and disaster risk reduction must follow given technicalstandards and that, JMA must be notified of the installationof such observation stations and JMBSC must verify theobservations instruments.

Data policy
The Meteorological Service Act provides regulationand promotion mechanisms for the private sector with
an open data policy. Since 1995, JMA has provided mostof the data, products, and information it collects and/or
produces through JMBSC to the private sector at cost ofdissemination for commercial usage; further disseminationis allowed.

Assurance of service quality
Many provisions in the Meteorological Service
Act pertain to quality issues and requirements for
JMA and the private sector. In 1993, when forecasting
services by the private sector were allowed, the certified
weather forecaster system and a meteorological data andinformation dissemination system were established toassure quality. In addition, JMA provides training sessions
and ample guidance materials for private companies toeffectively utilize new and advanced data, products, andinformation. This helps to achieve higher user satisfaction
and/or cost-effectiveness.

Regulations on public-private engagement
The Meteorological Service Act clearly regulates theform of public-private engagement. It specifies theroles and responsibilities of JMA and relevant government
authorities, media, and private companies. The act’s long
history and many amendments have solidified the legal
background for public-private interactions.
61

3.4.4 Funding
JMA establishes, operates, and maintains observation
networks and fundamental systems, which are fully
funded by the government. JMA’s annual budget isapproximately USD 600 million. There are no fees, except
for aeronautical meteorological services. These feesare partly recovered by the governing ministry for civil
aviation (i.e. Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport,
and Tourism) and allocated to JMA.

3.4.5 Public-private engagement
Since the early 1990s, JMA has pushed forward its
open-data activities; it has disseminated its data andinformation through JMBSC since 1995. JMA does notprovide any commercial services and encourages privatecompanies to utilize JMA’s data, products, and information
for business use and to offer tailor-made services.
Nevertheless, sales of private weather service companies
in Japan have slowed since the early 1990s and remainedat around USD 270 million between 1998 and 2011.62 Notethat the two biggest companies (Weathernews and Japan
Weather Association) jointly occupy the majority of themarket share.
The public, private, and academic sectors established theWeather Business Consortium (WXBC) in March 2017 andits members include current and potential meteorological
data users. The purpose of WXBC is to promote the use of
weather data for new businesses and to take advantageof new technologies (e.g. utilization of big data alongwith meteorological data, artificial intelligence, and IoT
sensor networks) to improve economic outputs. JMA
functions as the consortium’s secretariat through JMA’s
newly established Office of Public-Private-Academic
Collaboration. WXBC offers seminars, training sessions,idea contests, and matching events based on decisions,discussions, and dialogue. As of February 2019, theconsortium had 566 members. A typical example of an
emerging commercial application is the project to exploit
geostationary meteorological satellite Himawari imagery63
to effectively harvest pasture grass in Hokkaido, Japan.
(For a more detailed explanation, see World Bank 2017a.)

Until 1993, private service providers could issue forecasts to their customers but not publicly.

62 http://www.jma.go.jp/jma/kishou/books/hakusho/2012/HN2012c1s15.pdf.
63 http://www.data.jma.go.jp/mscweb/data/himawari/.

28 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

JMA’s point of view on the future developmentof PPE
According to JMA, there will be further deregulationin response to technical developments and socioeconomic needs. Private services are assumed to evolvedue to technical trends such as the availability of big datafor private companies. Big data are expected to create
more and more opportunities for private sector consulting
business.
JMA points out that it has promoted private activities but
has also ensured the quality of private forecasting services
and observation data by regulation. According to JMA, themain driver of public-private engagement is Japan’s firm
legal framework. There is a clear understanding of the roleand the fundamental services provided by the public sector,
and of JMA’s intention of leaving room for private activities.

3.5 Myanmar
3.5.1 Overview and Summary
The overall maturity of the hydromet value chain in
Myanmar is low; the maturity of observations andnumerical weather prediction is low; the generationof forecasts and the issuing of official warnings can becharacterized as intermediate (Figure 6). The value chainis largely dominated by the public sector. The private
sector does not yet play an important role in Myanmar,with the possible exception of targeted services generally
provided by international companies (e.g. to offshore
drilling platforms). Cooperation between the public andprivate sectors is weak but evolving.

According to JMA, while there are no impediments to
private service provision in Japan, a more flexible systemfor observation instruments would make data gathering andutilization more effective. A similar challenge already has
been identified and included in the latest recommendation
to JMA by an advisory body dated 20 August 2018 (JMA
2030 Vision). It calls for further integrating the usageof observation data from various bodies by overcoming
challenges (e.g. data quality assurance and development of
big data utilization technology).

Following 2008 Cyclone Nargis, the country’s weather
forecast and official warning infrastructure improved,with extensive support from international development
partners. Today, ongoing development projects focus on
strengthening the infrastructure and forecast capabilitiesof the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology (DMH),
the NMHS of Myanmar. A meteorological services law isbeing drafted based on WMO good practices with support
from international consultants and the World Bank. The
draft law is providing an important new foundation for thehydromet value chain and public-private engagement. Not
least because of this, Myanmar is in a pivotal situation anda very interesting case study.

3.4.6 International cooperation

3.5.2 Services, users, and providers

JMA dedicates significant effort to international cooperation
through multilateral and bilateral arrangements, operating
global and regional centers that are established within theframeworks of WMO and other international organizations. The
agency has established procedures to engage in cooperative
activities with many NMHSs in developing countries andinternational organizations through the facilitation ofactivities, implemented by the Japan International Cooperation
Agency (JICA).64 For more than 40 years, JMA has taken partin the planning of projects, dispatched experts to share skills
and knowledge, and conducted annual training courses forstaff members of NMHSs.

Essential services and channels ofcommunication

64 For further details, see http://www.jma.go.jp/jma/en/Activities/intcorp.html.

Over the past ten years, Myanmar has developed its
warning services but has not developed its hydromet
services at the pace of comparator countries. An
extremely destructive cyclone in 2008, Nargis, hit Rangoonand caused an exceptional loss of lives. This spawned
international cooperation and the development of official
weather and extreme warning systems. Yet, based on the
study’s research and interviews, the public is less aware ofweather forecasts than in other countries.

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 29

Figure 6: Sector balance and maturity in Myanmar hydromet value chain.

Observations
Observations

Numerical
Numerical
weather
weather
prediction
prediction

Color coding
for sectors
and maturity

Generate
Generate
forecasts
forecasts

Issue
Issueofficial
official
warnings
warnings

Value chain
PrivateIntermediate

In 2016, 25 percent of Myanmar’s population used theinternet, compared to only 0.25 percent in 2010.65
Social media, especially Facebook, is becoming anessential source of weather information and warnings,
alongside newspapers and TV.
In addition, a national monsoon forum is organized twicea year as a technical conference to raise awareness andbuild capacity. The forum is regularly attended by around
50 experts and is covered by TV stations and newspapers.
Depending on the availability of funding, there are also
sub-national monsoon forums.

Department of Meteorology and Hydrology
The Department of Meteorology and Hydrology (DMH),
under the administration of the Ministry of Transportand Communication, is the main provider of hydromet
information in Myanmar. Its primary duty is to provide
weather-related information to central and local
authorities, although provision of information to thegeneral public has gained importance in recent years.
The DMH Meteorological Division issues warnings andforecasts, provides records of climatic data, and monitors
significant climate conditions like El Niño.66 DMH hasa staff of around 900, of which 150 are based in its
headquarters located in Nay Pyi Taw.
65 Statistics from https://data.worldbank.org.

66 https://www.moezala.gov.mm/meteorological-division.

Business
Business data
data
integration
integration

Size coding for
relative importanceof sector

Academia
PublicAdvanced

Tailored
Tailoredservices
services

67 To the best of the research team’s knowledge, this is not yet articulated in law.

Low

NotableSubstantial
Dominant

N/A, unknown

According to DMH, Myanmar currently has a network ofaround 160 automatic and 140 manual weather stations,
including tide gauges and agromet stations. Most ofthese weather stations are owned and operated by DMH;
a few stations are operated by research institutes (e.g.
Agricultural Research Institute) or private companies. DMH
does not use data from other weather station operators.
The automatic weather stations (AWSs) largely havebeen financed by development partners and co-locatedwith manual stations. However, AWSs are perceived as atool to monitor and check manual observation work, andissues surround the compatibility of different AWS systems
implemented by development partners. Projects are being
implemented to improve infrastructure, and three radars
financed by JICA are in operation. DMH plans to roughly
double the number of AWSs and to run limited area
numerical forecast models by using ECWMF data.
DMH issues official warnings and disseminates themthrough its website and mobile providers like MPTor Telenor (see Chapter 3.5.5). DMH regards itself as the
single authoritative voice concerning warnings.67

Private Providers
Global providers of hydromet information deliver
forecasts and other hydromet information for30 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

Myanmar based on global weather models. There isno information about the popularity of such services
compared to DMH’s services.68
International weather companies generally do not operate
local branches in Myanmar. One exception is WNI, whichruns an operation center in Yangon. However, WNI is
primarily taking advantage of the low operational costs in
Myanmar, using the center only to support its global marine
business, not to deliver products and services in Myanmar.
Without a legal framework governing the hydromet value
chain in Myanmar (see Chapter 3.5.3), a comprehensive
overview of private hydromet providers is difficult toascertain.
Another example of private weather information provision
is Site Pyo (Burmese for «cultivation»). Site Pyo is anapplication for smartphones targeted at farmers and includes
customized weather forecasts and recommendations forten different crops (e.g. for seed selection, harvesting, andstorage) to improve yields. The private telecom provider
Ooredoo launched the service. The app and its data usage
are free but exclusively available to Ooredoo customers.
Site Pyo is supported by GSMA (a worldwide interest groupof mobile providers) under its mNutrition Initiative that isfunded by U.K. Aid. By the end of 2016, Site Pyo had 150,000
users but did not generate direct revenue (GSMA 2017).

Academic Sector
Both Yangon Technological University and Yangon
University offer a degree in physics with a
specialization in meteorology and a Ph.D. programwith a focus on meteorology in cooperation with DMH.
Currently, DMH is evaluating research cooperation with theNorwegian Meteorological Institute (MET Norway).

3.5.3 Legal and policy framework
Myanmar seems to be at a pivotal stage for policy
development and a sound strategy is very much needed
to strengthen DMH’s mission and activities. At present, nometeorological law or legal framework governs the provisionand use of hydromet information in Myanmar. However, ameteorological services law is being drafted based on WMO
good practices, with support from international consultants
and the World Bank. The law is envisioned to define DMH’s
mandate, regulate the hydromet market, and inform andguide future PPE in hydromet services. It is still in an earlydraft phase and is expected to be finalized in 2019.

Data policy
Under the current policy framework applied by DMH
and the Ministry of Transport and Communication,hydromet data can be sold or given away for free,depending on the beneficiary and the planned useof the data. At present this policy applies to historicalobservation data from weather stations, not to real-timedata from AWSs or radars as such data are not available.
Some of the older historical data are not yet digitized,
and the process of data retrieval and approval appears
to be quite time-consuming. According to DMH, the data
are mainly used for research purposes and to support
construction work. The government has an internal policy
where data must be bought from the originating agency.

3.5.4 Funding
The 2018/19 DMH headquarter (HQ) budget ranges
roughly from USD 1.5 million to USD 2 million. About
two-thirds of the HQ budget covers the salaries of all
DMH employees, whether they are working at HQ or inregional branches. The costs and expenses associated tomaintain regional infrastructure are not covered. At thetime of writing of this report, the regional budgets were
not available.
In Myanmar, public-sector salaries average around USD
120 per month. While the gap between public- and privatesector salaries is uncertain, sources estimated the salary in
the private sector to be up to three times higher than in the
public sector.
The 2018/19 DMH HQ budget includes an increase of
USD 100,000 for maintenance expenses. However, DMH
estimates that this is inadequate and that approximately
USD 1 million will be required annually to cover theoperation and maintenance (O&M) of the new AWSs andradar infrastructure installed by development partners. A
very limited budget and the long-term O&M costs of thegrowing equipment inventory appears to be a critical issue
for DMH. Modernization of its infrastructure and equipment
is regarded as the highest priority, followed by a concerted
effort to increase revenues by selling hydromet products
and services to companies.

68 When discussing potential business models, people pointed to free transnational apps; for example, the one provided by year number.

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 31

While revenue from data sales amounts to around USD
35,000 per year, no additional revenue appears to begenerated through fees. The revenue from data sales goesback to the national government, and not to DMH.

3.5.5 Public-private engagement
Public-private engagement is not yet well establishedin Myanmar. However, DMH is committed to change thissituation and is starting to engage private companies
to foster PPE. This led to at least one memorandum of
understanding (MOU) with a private company. Examples of
PPE in Myanmar follow:

Provision of data and information toindividuals, institutions, and companies by DMH
Private companies are encouraged to request
information for various purposes (e.g. construction
and research). Some of the historical meteorological,hydrological, and seismological data (up to the previous
month) can be obtained by individuals, companies, andinstitutions alike. An extensive case-by-case approval
process over hierarchical levels decides whether the data
are provided for free or for a relatively small fee.

Cooperation with private providers of weather
information
Possible partnerships between private providers
and DMH are being discussed, mainly concerning the
ground observation network. Private companies would
provide technical support to DMH or operate their own
weather stations and provide DMH with data; in return, thecompanies would receive access to DMH’s observational
data.

Cooperation with private providers of
instrumentation and services
DMH regularly contracts companies to provide
instrumentation (e.g. water-level sensors and AWSs),
according to a private engineering company. At present,
DMH receives free lightning detection from five stations
run by a private company as a pilot project. Funds for new
equipment typically come from development partners.
Under the current policy, operation and maintenance ofsuch infrastructure must be carried out by DMH staff.

Sustainable long-term O&M of new infrastructure isrecognized as one of the main challenges. While someof the current maintenance of infrastructure is provided
under warranty agreements at the supplier’s cost, this will
not be the case in the future. Moreover, AWSs are often
added alongside manual stations without replacing them.
Without reducing manual stations and reassigning fieldstaff to other duties, the cost of operating AWSs will remain
an additional expense.
Educating and training DMH staff are recognized
as vital. Unfortunately, staff in leadership positions
often change positions within DMH and the government,
requiring frequent re-education of new department heads.

Cooperation with mobile providers
Mobile phone subscriptions increased dramaticallyfrom 0.5 per 100 people in 2007 to 90 in 2017.69
There are three leading mobile operators: MPT (mainly
state-owned), Ooredoo, and Telenor.
Operators must provide official severe weather
warnings to their customers via Short Message Service(SMS) as a condition of their operating licenses. They
can, however, restrict this service to warnings concerning
imminent hazards.
Like many mobile operators worldwide, operators in
Myanmar want to grow their revenue by providing
content as a service to their consumers. One approachis to provide exclusive free content to their customers (as in
the Site Pyo example mentioned above). Another approachis to provide paid services (e.g. via SMS services) and sharerevenues with content partners. Under the latter scheme,
mobile operators would not pay for the data provided by
DMH or other service providers. To be profitable in thelong run, companies must be able to monetize data andinformation to sustain operations. Value-added services
must therefore be profitable by a commercial measure (e.g.
customer retention). With respect to basic weather-related
services such as forecasts and warnings, mobile providers
observe a very low or inexistent willingness to pay in theircustomer base.
Mobile providers might be able to use rain and flood
prediction in support of their operations. Rain requires
mobile operators to boost their signal, and floods can hamper

69 https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IT.CEL.SETS.P2?end=2017&locations=MM&start=2007.

32 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

access to and damage their sites. However, there was no
indication that such possibilities were being discussed.
There is no formal cooperation between DMH and mobile
operators for hydromet data other than the mandatorytransmission of official warnings via SMS. This is also
true for infrastructure cooperation (e.g. using cell tower
locations for weather stations), with the exception that
DMH seems to mainly use the MPT network to communicate
with its AWSs.

3.6 Indonesia
3.6.1 Overview and Summary
The overall maturity of the hydromet value chain inIndonesia is intermediate and it is largely dominatedby the Meteorological, Climatological, and GeophysicalAgency (BMKG70), the NMHS of Indonesia (Figure 7). The
private sector plays a minor role with observations used for
tailored services. The law on meteorology, climatology, andgeophysics governs the whole value chain and supports thedominating role of the NMHS.
In order to further strengthen its capabilities and to
overcome budget pressure, BMKG follows a strategy
of developing its non-public services and increasing
commercial activities. Public-private engagement is seen
by BMKG as a vital part of this strategy. Therefore, a growing
range of PPE activities can be observed in Indonesia, frompublic-private partnerships to finance infrastructure to
exchanging data and sharing of infrastructure with theprivate sector. Additionally, Indonesia uses its regulative
oversight to ensure that gas and oil companies buy and use
meteorological information provided by BMKG.

3.6.2 Services, users, and providers
Essential services and channels ofcommunication
BMKG is responsible for monitoring and providing
information and services on weather, climate, air
quality, earthquakes, and tsunamis, and relevant
environmental information. BMKG is a government agency
with ministry status. In addition to its role in disasterrisk reduction and management, BMKG provides weather
services to agriculture and agro-industry, fisheries, forestry,
tourism, aviation, marine, and land transportation as wellas to the general public.
Websites and social media such as Twitter, Instagram,and Facebook are heavily used and are vital channels forweather information and official warnings. Approximately
70 percent of Indonesia’s 264 million population is under
40 years old.71 BMKG has around 4 million followers on
Twitter and provides an app for smartphones which includes
weather, earthquake, and tsunami information. Weather
apps and websites from private providers like AccuWeather
or windy.com seem to be very popular.
To mitigate the issue of misinformation on social media,
BMKG has created so-called «cyber troops» who handle
Frequently Asked Questions related to environmental
information and deal with issues such as fake warnings.
In some cases, BMKG has requested authorities to blockaccounts disseminating misleading information.
BMKG regards itself as the primary provider of weather
information in Indonesia. However, transnational private
providers (e.g. Accuweather, Windy.com, and WNI) as well
as specialized private providers (e.g. for offshore drilling
operations) are also used by individuals and companies.
Some companies (e.g. in the agriculture sector) may use
their own observations but only for their own operations,and not for providing hydromet services to others. BMKG
regularly runs customer satisfaction surveys to improveinformation delivery.

Official warnings
BMKG issues early warnings for weather risks. The
National Disaster Management Authority (BNPB) assesses
early warnings from BMKG for vulnerabilities and, if
needed, issues warnings directly to regional governments
and the general population. Regional/local governments
issue binding orders if required (e.g. evacuation of anarea). In extreme cases, for instance an earthquake ortsunami, BNPB and BMKG may issue warnings directly. The
cooperation between BNPB and BMKG is close and basedon an MOU.

70 Badan Meteorologi, Klimatologi, dan Geofisika.
71

Total population in 2017: World Bank Data, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL?locations=ID.
Share of population under 40 in 2015: UNData, http://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3A22.

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 33

Figure 7: Sector balance and maturity in Indonesia hydromet value chain.

Numerical
Numerical
weather
weather
prediction
prediction

Observations
Observations

Color coding
for sectors
and maturity

Generate
Generate
forecasts
forecasts

Issue official
official
Issue
warnings
warnings

Value chain

Business data
Business
integration
integration

Size coding for
relative importanceof sector

Academia
PrivatePublicAdvanced

Tailored
Tailoredservices
services

Intermediate

Low

NotableSubstantial
Dominant

N/A, unknown

Observation network

Data policy

BMKG maintains and operates an observation networkof around 850 automatic stations for meteorological andclimatological monitoring as well as 23 weather radars.72
BMKG also monitors 160 broadband seismic and 220
accelerometer stations for seismological observations.

The publication of data from observation stations
which were not established by BMKG is prohibited bylaw.75 Since 2016 BMKG has operated an open and free
data portal for research. However, commercial use andfurther dissemination of this data are prohibited.

Role of academic institutions

BMKG is interested in the use of its data by privatecompanies and sells climate and weather data uponrequest and under specific agreements. Around 100 suchdata licensing agreements are currently in operation.
Prices depend on the frequency of the measurements andare calculated using a price table. In BKMG’s view, theprices are very low.

BMKG collaborates with universities in Indonesia
and abroad. Capacity-building activities for other Asian
countries is also envisioned. According to the governing
law,73 research results obtained by collaborating with
BKMG can only be disseminated to the public after written
approval from the head of BMKG.

3.6.3 Legal and policy framework
The main legal document for hydromet services in Indonesia
is the Law of the Republic of Indonesia Nr. 31 from 2009
on meteorology, climatology, and geophysics. A detailed
overview of all related regulations and legal documents canbe found online.74

72

http://www.bmkg.go.id/cuaca/citra-radar.bmkg?lang=EN.
Law 31, Article 72.
74 http://hukum.bmkg.go.id/index0.php.
75 Law 31, Article 19.
73

Regulation of public-private engagements
The Ministry of National Development Planning(BAPPENAS) is in charge of coordinating andsupporting PPE projects. There are different PPE
schemes, one of which is public-private partnership (PPP).
A PPP is defined as cooperation between the public andprivate sectors for public interest infrastructure provision.
PPP is a finance scheme and not a transfer of public
obligations to the private sector. In Indonesia, PPP projects

34 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

can be initiated by the government or the private sector.
In the latter case (so-called unsolicited projects), a privatecompany submits a proposal to the governing entity. In
all cases, PPP projects must follow a procurement process,even if the private sector initiates the project. The main
responsibility for the projects lies with the public entity: inthe case of hydromet projects, this would be BKMG.
PPP projects in the hydromet domain do not need formal
approval by BAPPENAS. However, BAPPENAS has to ensurethat BMKG is following the right procedures and therefore
provides consulting and advisory services to BMKG. In thiscontext, it is important to note that no PPP project has
been implemented by BMKG yet. The project described in
Chapter 3.6.5 would be the first PPP for BMKG.
Projects can be backed by the Indonesia Infrastructure
Guarantee Fund (IIGF),76 a state-owned enterprise thatprovides government guarantees for infrastructure PPPs.
To this end, an agreement with the IIGF must be madeand the Ministry of Finance must approve the agreement.
Moreover, there are two additional possibilities ofgovernment support to PPPs: from the contracting
agency itself and from the Ministry of Finance’s Viability
Gap Fund (VGF).77

BMKG is expected to deliver competitive services to theprivate sector.
The increased need for operation and maintenancebudget arises because the cost associated to new hightech equipment, which was installed to strengthen
the capabilities of BMKG, was underestimated oreven overlooked. Additionally, technical agencies are
generally under pressure from the government to cover
O&M costs by cost recovery or by providing non-public
services. Therefore, BMKG is trying to source additional
funding through international organizations, industrial
partnerships, and commercial activities.
Revenues, such as the sale of data and services, today
account only for a tiny fraction of the annual budget.78
Moreover, more than 90 percent of the revenues areprovided by the aviation sector.

3.6.5 Public-private engagement
BMKG started an initiative to strengthen public-private
engagement in 2016. The goal is to develop sustainablebusiness models together with private companies. There
are two main approaches:■■

Between 2005 and 2018, around 20 PPPs were processed,
mostly large infrastructure projects. A PPP project takes atleast 18 months to be approved and can take up to four
years.

3.6.4 Funding
BMKG’s annual budget amounts currently to USD 160170 million. With this budget, BMKG must cover operations
and maintenance as well as investments in and further
development of its products and services. According to
BMKG, the budget is not adequate; around USD 200 million
per year is required to sustainably operate, maintain,
and develop the agency. Furthermore, BMKG points outthat large investments (e.g. supercomputer and better
observation network) are needed to provide a service on
par with what overseas companies provide, especially if■■

Sale of data and services by BMKG to companies; andPublic-private partnerships for infrastructure investments.

The following sections illustrate examples of suchengagements.

Oil and gas companies have to buy BMKG dataand services
Quite a few oil and gas companies operate in Indonesia.
For many years, they used «metocean» services frominternational companies. A few years ago, the regulatory
body SKKMIGAS79 started to require oil and gas companies
to use BMKG weather data and meteorological services(an MOU governs the cooperation between SKKMIGAS
and BMKG). A transition period of two to three years was
granted to allow for contract changes.

76 http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/indonesia/brief/faq-indonesia-infrastructure-guarantee-fund.
77«The Viability Gap Fund is a government-supported contribution for some construction costs that is given in cash to a PPP project that is economically viable
but has not been financially feasible. VGF can be awarded when there is no other alternative to make the PPP project financially feasible», http://www.djppr.
kemenkeu.go.id/ppp#dukungankelayakan.
78 From the information obtained, the study estimates the value at between 1 and 2 percent of the annual budget.
79 SKKMIGAS is a government entity that monitors the budget of private oil and gas companies. The operation costs directly influence Indonesia’s revenues.
Therefore, there is an incentive for SKKMIGAS to make sure that the costs are as low as possible and for the company to claim as high costs as possible.

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 35

As a result, oil and gas companies pay between USD
15,000 and USD 20,000 per year for BMKG’s services,
probably less than they used to pay. In practice, they use
other meteorological information as well (e.g. from FUGRO
or other specialized providers). However, they are notallowed to claim those costs as operational expenses forthe calculation of their oil and gas profit-sharing withthe government. This new approach carries an additional
advantage for SKKMIGAS: Because the binding source ofmeteorological information is now BMKG, and SKKMIGAS
receives the same information directly from BMKG, thecontrol over the claimed operational cost of oil and gas
companies can be tightened. This prevents oil companies
from overstating operational costs related to bad weather.

Sale of data and services
BMKG sells data and services to private and state-owned
companies. The revenues are still very small and BMKG is
keen on growing the business. Around 100 agreements
for data sales are active and there are a few examples
of commercial services (e.g. forecasts to coal and otherminerals mining companies). In some cases, forecasts areverified with companies’ own weather stations; in othercases, companies provide space for BMKG to place a weather
station at a company site in return for better local forecasts.

Exchanging data and sharing infrastructure
BMKG is currently exploring business models involving
partnerships with private companies on the basic
idea of exchanging measurement data or services against
infrastructure provision (place, power, and communication
for AWSs). As noted above, some oil and gas companies
share data from own observations with BMKG or provide
space on their platforms for AWSs operated by BMKG.
Because the electricity market has been privatized, BMKG
is looking at partnerships with the power sector. However,this is still in a very early phase.

Sale of data through geoinformation platforms
BMKG and other governmental agencies provide data toa geographic information system (GIS) platform operated
by the private company esri.80 What started as a projectto unite Indonesia’s public geo-information systems under
the government’s «one-map policy» could evolve intoa revenue stream for BMKG in the sense that esri could
become a distributor of BMKG data.81 The cooperation isin an MOU state; at the time of writing this report, the key
issue of profit sharing had not yet been discussed.

Weather index-based micro-insurance
A consortium of Indonesian and international
businesses, initially led by Mercy Corps, has createdindex-based weather insurance for smallholder
farmers. The insurance scheme is part of a complete
package for educating, supporting, and financing farmers.
The package addresses the full value chain from initialinvestment in inputs (i.e. seeds, fertilizer, and pesticides)
to profitable sales of the harvest directly to end customers.
Importantly, the scheme gives non-bankable smallholder
farmers access to finance. Farmers need weather forecasts
to determine when to bring out seeds and to plan theiractivities, including the application of fertilizers andpesticides. The insurer needs accurate and historical local
weather data as well as data on the insured crop’s weather
sensitivity to compute the weather indices as part of theiractuarial analysis.
The project is under development, and there is cooperation
with BMKG’s local offices (e.g. BMKG provides monthly
provincial analysis bulletins and rain forecasts for farmers
for free). However, high-quality local information is needed
to compute the weather index. Historical records are
essential for developing micro-insurance products, andhigh-resolution meteorological data (e.g. precipitation) are
important factors in the triggering payouts.
The information required to trigger payouts, for instanceto determine whether rainfall passes the index thresholdin a given year, is provided by privately funded weather
stations installed in the farmers’ fields. So far, they havenot been tampered with.
The weather index-based micro-insurance projectillustrates the strategy of driving the development ofweather services from the consumer end and shows
the socio-economic impact of accurate weather
information. It is an example of a productive use of
weather information in an agricultural value chain forsmallholder farmers in a developing country.

80 See https://livingatlas.arcgis.com.
81

There are yearly subscription and different levels of membership to fully access the esri platform.

36 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

Notably, the loans and insurance are not subsidized, andthe project could be characterized as a lean start-up (Ries2011). Farmers are learning about modern farming and areexperiencing its value. They have accepted increases of
the insurance premiums from USD 3 to USD 10 to USD 30
per year, as the insurance company adapted its actuarial
parameters to the available data. Productivity for corn has
increased from 5.2 tons per hectare (t/ha) before the startof the scheme to 6-7 t/ha in the first year to 8-14 t/ha in thesecond and third years. In 2015 and 2016, the insurance
helped farmers to actively mitigate El Niño effects throughinvestments in irrigation. The number of farmers taking
out insurance is growing significantly, albeit from a smallbase (from 200 to 1,200 over a two-year period in 2015
and 2016).
The project also demonstrates commoditization of
weather services. Willingness to pay for general weather
services is very close to zero despite their potential socioeconomic benefits. However, there is willingness to pay (inthe form of an insurance) for special services, such as thecomputation of a suitable weather index.

Private-public partnerships for infrastructure
investments
BMKG is negotiating a PPP to finance instrumentation
infrastructure. Few details are available because theproject was initiated by the private company and is still
under negotiation. But in principle, the private company
would pre-finance the infrastructure investments while
BMKG would run the instrumentation, receive education andtraining, and pay back the private company over a specified
period. The deal would have to be guaranteed by Indonesia’s
Infrastructure Guarantee Fund (see Chapter 3.6.3).

Community engagement
Measurement equipment for volcanic activity to protect
agriculture, mining, and tourism is being paid by raisingmoney locally and is operated by volunteers. The idea
emanated from voluntary actions by students.

3.6.6 International cooperation
International and regional organizations with an existing
cooperation agreement with BMKG include: KNMI Netherlands (climate data exchange and hydrology); Meteo France
82 http://www.meteo.gov.gh.

International (consultancy, some education and training,and support to implement major parts of the hydromet value
chain through a design-build-operate approach); JMA (technical assistance in satellite meteorology, seismology, andtsunami warning); IMD India (agrometeorology and radar
meteorology); BoM Australia (Joint Working Group on Meteorology: communications system, technical training); ADPC
(climate field school: along with Indonesian Ministry ofAgriculture). For earthquake monitoring and tsunami warning systems, BMKG has cooperation agreements with the
Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre (PTWC), GTZ Germany, China
Earthquake Administration (CEA), and other organizations.

3.7 Ghana3.7.1 Overview and Summary
Overall, the maturity of Ghana’s hydromet value chain islow. The «Observations» and «Tailored services» value chain
elements are somewhat balanced between the public andthe private sectors compared to other elements (Figure8). Observation data are mostly collected manually anddelivered with a considerable time lag. Further dissemination
is not regulated and appears not to be explicitly allowed.
Private activities are not specifically promoted but the NMHS
is open to public-private engagement to access additional
resources, as government funding is not sufficient. In recent
years, the private sector has developed good capabilities andspecific forecasts for the agriculture sector in the entire West
Africa. Often the services are based on international weather
prediction services; there is potential for the NMHS to step
up and provide more locally relevant services. Furthermore,transnational non-profit organizations are developing lowcost observation networks which can underpin the data
available to the NMHS.

3.7.2 Services, users, and providers
Essential services and channels ofcommunication
The Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet) is a government agency under the Ministry of Communications
tasked with collecting, processing, archiving, analyzing, and disseminating meteorological information
to end users.82 GMet provides weather information for

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 37

Figure 8: Sector balance and maturity in Ghana hydromet value chain.

Numerical
Numerical
weather
weather
prediction
prediction

Observations
Observations

Color coding
for sectors
and maturity

Generate
Generate
forecasts
forecasts

Issue official
official
Issue
warnings
warnings

Value chain

Business data
Business
integration
integration

Size coding for
relative importanceof sector

Academia
PrivatePublicAdvanced

Tailored
Tailoredservices
services

Intermediate

official warning services (droughts and floods), marine services, hydrological services, agrometeorology, aeronauticalservices, and TV weather broadcasting.
Mobile phones have spread very quickly in Africa
and are a crucial communication channel to accessinformation, especially among the younger generation.
Weather apps based on international weather models
like AccuWeather have good reach. GMet has neither amobile-friendly website with forecasts nor its own mobile
application, although it does use Facebook to disseminate
its TV weather forecasts.
According to an evaluation of the public weather services(Anaman et al. 2017), users would like more locationspecific weather information (by GMet) and warnings
issued further in advance.
International service providers do not necessarily havemore accurate information but focus on user interface andcomprehensiveness. Most apps show local forecast results
and give the impression of location-specific information.

Official warnings
The Ghana Hydrological Services Department issues
flood warnings based on statistical evaluation andextrapolation of time series measured at water-level

Low

NotableSubstantial
Dominant

N/A, unknown

gauges. This approach does not allow early warnings to beissued and thus requires more proactive measures. At thetime of writing, resources were not available to enhancethe existing hydrological and hydraulic models or to makeuse of the model output from the major forecast centers as
inputs. GMet’s information on rainfall may not be sufficient
to improve this situation.

Observation network
GMet maintains and operates an observation network
largely comprising manual stations plus a few
automatic stations. In January 2018,83 the following
manual stations were in operation: 22 synoptic, 36
agronomic, 23 climate and 72 rainfall stations. In addition,
there are currently 11 automatic weather stations and two(non-operational) radars. In addition, 16 rainfall stations
are monitored by the Volta River Authority (VRA) but
maintained and run by GMet.

Role of academic institutions
According to GMet, academic institutions do notreceive preferential access to meteorological data andare required to pay for data use. However, informationfrom the private sector indicates that GMet sometimes
provides data free of charge.

83 Presentation on «Basic network» from Richmond K. Obeng, Ghana Meteorological Agency, 2018.

38 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
in Kumasi and the University of Cape Coast educate
meteorologists. The students can participate in national andinternational trainings provided by foreign meteorologicalservices that cooperate with GMet. A meteorology degreefrom these universities provides an excellent chance for a
job with GMet.

partners. GMet is trying to source additional funds throughinternational organizations, cooperation agreements withthe private sector, and commercial activities. Although
GMet delivers services to the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority(GCAA), it has no share in the revenues earned by GCAA.
GMet is lobbying for a legislative change to enforce a claimof 10 percent of those revenues.

3.7.3 Legal and policy framework

Other revenue streams

Act 682 «Ghana Meteorological Agency Act» of 2004
is the main legal document for hydromet services in
Ghana. It defines the organization and responsibilities of
GMet.

The 16 rainfall stations deployed across Ghana areoperated and maintained by GMet but are monitoredby the VRA. VRA is a fully profit-oriented state-owned
power company. GMet provides the data to VRA by email
and receives a fee based on a five-year contract.

Data policy
The use and dissemination of meteorological data are
not regulated by the Ghana Meteorological Agency
Act. Data can be obtained upon request and registration
with GMet and are paid services. It is unclear whether
data are provided under a formal agreement that regulates
the use and dissemination of the data. Feedback fromthe public power generation sector indicates that further
dissemination of GMet data is not explicitly allowed. GMetappears to be ready to adopt an open data policy, provided
public funding sustains the agency’s development.

Regulation of public-private engagements
The Ghana Ministry of Finance issued a national policy
on public-private partnerships in 2011 (Governmentof Ghana 2011). One of the policy’s main objectives is
to encourage and promote local content in PPP projects.
A PPP project typically requires a private-sector PPP
proponent to submit a local content plan to the contracting
entity in response to any request for proposals. The planneeds to demonstrate how the PPP project promotes local
industries and the private sector in Ghana. (See Chapter
3.7.5 Delivering metocean services for an example ofapplying the local content law.)

3.7.4 Funding
GMet is publicly funded and its budget covers O&M
costs, investments, and development; however, thebudget is viewed as insufficient. About 15 percent of
the budget is declared as coming from non-governmental
sources. Of this 15 percent, a significant share is assumed
to come from international agencies and development

As governmental funding is not sufficient to properly
maintain and operate the equipment and to further develop
the service, GMet is ready to cooperate with privatecompanies to access further resources. However, there areno substantial revenues from the private sector yet.
Feedback from the private sector suggests that current
data and services have little value for most potential
customers. In many cases, GMet data and services are
not specific enough geographically and are delivered
too late to be useful. Customers would be willing to pay
for meteorological services if there was an added value
compared to the already available foreign services which
are based on global forecast models.

3.7.5 Public-private engagement
Current PPE activities are mostly initiated by theprivate sector. The following sections illustrate examples
of such engagements.

Delivering metocean services
GMet is exploring a potential collaboration witha Ghanaian private oil field service provider on atender for metocean services issued by an internationaloil company. GMet would supply the meteorological andhydrological information, while the private service provider
would oversee the financial, legal, and administrative workand customer relations. Such a partnership would require
the formal approval from the Ministry of Communications.
Offshore oil companies could be required to use GMet
data and services for weather and tide information,
based on local content law. According to GMet, theThe Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 39

NMHS can decide whether or not to request compliancewith local content law by foreign companies when it comesto the provision of weather services.

The business models of two companies which provide
weather information services to farmers in Ghana andother West African countries are illustrated.

Mobile services to smallholder farmers

Esoko

Information and consulting services based on mobile
phones to smallholder farmers are spreading in West
Africa. Most companies are active in multiple countries,
covering different elements of the hydromet value chain.
Most services are based on the push and pull of information
to and from farmers.

Esoko provides primarily market and weather infor-

Mobile-based services to farmers include daily to seasonal
weather, provision of seeds, market information, market
access, payment systems, access to finance, and a bundlingwith insurance, among others. The companies collaborate
with mobile service providers (including Vodafone, MTN,
and Tigo in the case of Ghana) which are interested
in offering value-added services to attract and retain
customers. For example, MTN’s 15 million subscribers
represent a large base of possible customers for thesekinds of services. The mobile service providers share therevenues with the value-added services providers, typicallyretaining 70-80 percent.84
Most farming-related services start as demonstration
projects initially supported by development partners
such as NGOs, development and government agencies,
social investors, seed and fertilizer companies, or off-takers
of farming products. In some cases, insurance companies
are involved to gain access to potential customers, andthe farmer service provider receives a provision fromthe insurance. The challenge in this setup is to create asustainable business with enough paying subscribers.
Usually, the project partners (development partners) pay
for the farmer services for the duration of a project or atrial period to let farmers experience the value of theservice. Sometimes farmers are required to pay a small fee
to become familiar with the idea of paying for the service.
Since weather forecasts are usually sent out only during
the crop season, there are no customer relations in the dry
season and hence the risk of losing customers.

mation services to farmers, mostly in Northern Ghana.
In addition, Esoko provides agricultural tips, crop calendars, market prices, and a platform where farmers canshare knowledge and localized information. Weather information is disseminated as recorded messages in thelocal dialect and give specific farming advice rather than
generic weather information. An agronomist interprets
the available weather information and translates it into
recommended farming actions. As a result of using theservice, farmers have substantially increased their crop
yield.
Notably, there are no meteorologists on staff; instead, Esoko
staff receive advice and training from GMet and are thus
able to translate the weather forecasts into verbal advice
for the farmers. Besides listening to seasonal weather
forecasts, customers can subscribe to daily or weekly
forecasts. The daily forecasts are provided by aWhere85
and Toto Agriculture and translated into local languages,
but not otherwise substantially modified by Esoko. The
data provided by GMet are not specific enough for the daily
and weekly forecasts and are not offered in the right data
format for an automated daily weather information feed.
According to Esoko, about 500,000 farmers86 subscribe toits service in Ghana.
When farmers are required to pay, they purchaseairtime from the mobile provider, which shares partof the revenues with Esoko. A sustainable fee for Esoko’s
services is approximately USD 0.5 per month. While
projects initially rely on partnerships with development
partners, the businesses develop towards B2B2C or B2Cmodels.87 The services are sold to a business partner, suchas a mobile provider, farmer association, or organizedcommunity.

84 Winrock International, in preparation.
85 http://www.awhere.com/.

86 An unpublished study from Winrock International (2018) mentions that Esoko has reached 1 million customers in ten African countries. Although their mainmarkets are in Ghana and Tanzania, the figure of 500,000 customers in Ghana seems to be rather high.

87 The business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) business model combines the business-to-business (B2B) and the business-to-consumer (B2C) model.

40 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

An important feature to attract and retain subscribers
is the hotline service through which farmers can ask
questions and provide feedback. Customer feedback
helps to improve services, evaluate customer satisfaction,and increase utility of the services. Many complaints about
forecast errors turn out to be due to location errors. They canbe solved by registering the farmer at the correct location or
correcting the coordinates of a farm. Location information isoften wrong, and Esoko has given its staff an app to test andcorrect locations whenever they go into the field.

Ignitia
Ignitia’s business is based on their proprietary highresolution weather forecast model. Ignitia provides
daily, monthly, and seasonal weather information tofarmers, without consulting or other services.
The customer’s location is determined via mobile
network technology; a text message containing
a forecast for the next 48 hours is sent out every
morning. An individual can subscribe to the service withshort codes (like *455#) or receive forecasts througha farmer organization or development project. Ignitia
charges a fee of about USD 0.02 per day for individual
subscribers,88 or about USD 5 per year. If the services
are subsidized by a farmer’s association or development
agency, these actors agree on a one-time payment which
gives the farmers forecasts for an entire season. Ignitia’s
services are focused on agriculture. However, they havereceived requests from other sectors, such as road
construction and fishing.
The weather forecast model used by Ignitia wasdeveloped by scientists from Sweden and the U.S. It is
run in Sweden and is based on a modified WRF model making
extensive use of remote sensing data. So far, ground-based
measurements are not included for assimilation or model
output corrections. Ignitia validates the forecast accuracy
with three different remote sensing data sets. Their 2016user survey shows good user evaluations but less intense
customer communications compared to Esoko. A fieldteam each year is tasked with surveying customers. Ignitia
reports around 500,00089 customers who have subscribedwith MTN in Ghana and over 700,000 total across West

Africa. Ignitia until now has had no substantial interactions
with GMet.

3.7.6 Transnational non-profit organizationsin West Africa
Organizations and companies are active in large parts ofWest Africa and interact with governments, NMHSs, andthe private sector. Examples of these interactions arepresented here.

WASCAL
The West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change
and Adapted Land use (WASCAL) has designed a joint
research program between a German and a West African
research consortium on adapted land use and management
under changing climate conditions. WASCAL partners withinstitutions in ten West African countries, provides climate
modeling and assessment, and implements capacity
building at schools and universities. WASCAL provides
expertise and infrastructure to, but is not involved in theoperations of, the NMHSs of member countries. WASCAL
is trying to significantly expand its own measurement
network of 50 automated stations which are designed tosupport the research and the operational needs of member
NMHSs.
WASCAL station data are open and used to calibrate
climate models. A data-sharing framework based onlargely standardized bilateral agreements between
WASCAL and each member state has been set up, where
the NMHSs share observation data with WASCAL and withthe other WASCAL members through the WASCAL data
platform. In return, WASCAL can share the data from the
NMHSs with private companies or other entities outside
the WASCAL framework, upon consent of the relevant
WASCAL member. In some countries, WASCAL has accessto all data from the NMHS; in other countries, the accessis limited to synoptic data.

TAHMO
The Trans-African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory(TAHMO) is a public-private consortium jointly led by Delft
University of Technology in The Netherlands and Oregon
State University in the U.S., with non-governmental status in

88 https://www.resourceaward.org/revolutionary-tropical-weather-forecasting-small-scale-farmers.
89 This figure is based on information from Ignitia and is not confirmed from independent sources.

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 41

Ghana, Holland, and Kenya. TAHMO’s vision90 is to develop adense network of hydro-meteorological monitoring stationsin Sub-Saharan Africa—one every 30 kilometers—and to
make high-quality data freely available to governments
and researchers in near-real time. By applying innovative
sensor technology and ICT, TAHMO stations are meant to beboth inexpensive and robust. The first station was installed
in 2012 and to date 400 more have been installed in Africa.
Stations are placed at schools to facilitate their operationand maintenance; a teacher hosts the station and receives
free access to its data and to TAHMO teaching material. In
addition, stations are integrated in educational programs
to enrich the curriculum and to help foster new generationsof scientists.
TAHMO strives to work under agreements with nationalor sub-national governments. Typically, an MOU with an
NMHS defines the modus operandi in a country. In the case of
externally funded projects, TAHMO can have agreements withother government agencies or non-governmental organizations
that in turn have agreements with the local governments. Data
are free for NMHSs and researchers and available at a fee forcommercial use. In Ghana, GMet shares data with TAHMO andcontributes to the maintenance of the equipment. In return,GMet receives data from TAHMO stations which are thenintegrated into its system. Concerns were expressed about
potential issues with the calibration of the equipment.

3.8 Germany and Israel: Policy changes
related to data access
Germany and Israel both recently experienced achange in the data policy and the corresponding roleof the NMHS and private service providers. Because
data access is one of the main topics in this study, it isinstructive to look at the change process itself and the new
regulatory frameworks of Germany and Israel.

3.8.1 Germany
New data access policy
The law on the organization and duties of the German
Weather Service (DWD91) was revised in 2017.92 DWD’s

mandate was extended to cover climate modelling and to safeguard all major infrastructure, including telecommunications
infrastructure, from weather and climate risks. The researchmandate was upheld. The law now stipulates that DWD has toprovide most of its weather and climate data and corresponding services free of charge. However, the technical availabilityof this information does not have to be guaranteed. Guaranteed service levels are provided at a fee.
According to Article 4(2a) of the act, DWD has to provide
free of charge certain services to ministries, provinces,and municipalities as well as certain geo-referenced dataand corresponding services to the public. Because almost
all meteorological information is geo-referenced, most of
DWD’s data and services are free (e.g. observation data,
weather radar imagery, weather forecasts, and climate
data series). This practice is based on the «geo data accesslaw»,93 which is not specific to the hydromet domain andstates that georeferenced data and services routinely
generated by government agencies must be made available
for free if they are part of a catalogue of themes, must be
easily accessible, and must support visualizations. The
scope of available DWD data and services, and whether or
not they are downloadable for free, is documented in an
extensive price list.94 Even if the legal basis is quite clear,
there are currently discussions about the categorization ofsome services, for example context information provided
with official warnings or tailored services like «pc_met»
for private pilots. Ultimately, the controversy on theinterpretation of the geodata access law might have to beresolved by the courts.

Previous situation
Previously, DWD had to generate revenues to coversome of its cost. Customers paid the federal government
rather than DWD directly, precluding a direct connection
between the price paid and the services delivered. Data
access was always discrimination free, and purchasing
the data included the right to redistribute. But the prices
were generally too high for the general public and for small
private companies. Prior to the new data policy, the data
were not used to its full potential.

90 http://www.tahmo.org.
91

National Meteorological and Hydrological Service of Germany (Deutschen Wetterdienst).

92 https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/dwdg/BJNR287100998.html.

93 Gesetz über den Zugang zu digitalen Geodaten (http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/geozg/).
94 https://www.dwd.de/SharedDocs/downloads/DE/allgemein/preisliste_2019.pdf.

42 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

Triggers and process for changing to an open
data policy
According to DWD, they always lobbied for an open
data policy. Eventually, the initiative to change thelaw came from the Minister of Transport in response to
new EU regulations and to national initiatives to transform
Germany in the digital age.95 Two important EU directives
can be seen as triggers for the amended law on DWD
activities and the corresponding data policy: the INSPIRE96
directive and the PSI97 directive.
The INSPIRE (INfrastructure for SPatial InfoRmation in
Europe) directive aims to benefit European public authorities
and others by making available relevant, harmonized, andquality geographic information that supports policies
and activities impacting the environment. The directive
requires EU members states to share 34 different spatial
data themes. INSPIRE is based on a number of common
principles:98
■■

■■

■■

■■

■■

Data should be collected only once and kept where
they can be maintained most effectively.
It should be possible to combine seamless spatial information from different sources across Europe andshare it with many users and applications.
It should be possible for information collected at one
level/scale to be shared with all levels/scales; detailed for thorough investigations, general for strategic purposes.
Geographic information needed for good governanceat all levels should be readily and transparently available.
It should be easy to find what geographic information
is available; how it can be used to meet a particularneed; and under which conditions it can be acquired
and used.

The PSI directive is European legislation on the reuseof public-sector information. The directive provides
a common legal framework for a European market
for government-held data (so-called public-sector
information). It is built on two key pillars: transparency andfair competition. The PSI directive focuses on the economic
aspects of the reuse of information rather than on access to
information by citizens. It encourages the member states tomake as much information available for reuse as possible.
It addresses material held by public-sector bodies in themember states at the national, regional, and local levels,
such as ministries, state agencies, and municipalities, aswell as organizations funded mostly by or under the controlof public authorities.
The change in policy which resulted in the amended DWD
law was based on the standard law-making process inGermany and was completed within one year, largely due
to its uncontested nature. DWD and the private sector wereconsulted at different stages of the legislative process.

Effects of the new policy
DWD now generates less revenue for the federal
government, but this is compensated to some extent
by less administrative overhead. Since revenues were
not being directed to DWD before, DWD’s budget did notchange with the new policy. DWD’s expectations that theprivate weather market would extend available services
have not materialized to date. This situation may belargely attributed to previous regulations, as the amended
policy on open data has been in place only for a shorttime. A market analysis, which is already in preparation,is expected to provide evidence for effects of the new data
policy. A first evaluation of the open data policy is due by
the end of 2019.

3.8.2 Israel
New data access policy
Israel is a good example of both an NMHS focusingon public services and the application of an extensive
free data policy. Under the new framework, the Israel
Meteorological Service (IMS) has re-focused its activities on
the provision of basic meteorological services for the public,
free of charge, while leaving the tailoring of meteorologicalservices to the private sector. The basic meteorologicalservices include forecasts and official warnings (including
aviation and marine sectors), climatological reports and95 https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/service/publikationen/digitale-agenda-2014-2017-727554.
96 https://inspire.ec.europa.eu.

97 https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/european-legislation-reuse-public-sector-information.
98 https://inspire.ec.europa.eu/inspire-principles/9.

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 43

atlases, climate change monitoring reports, NWP products,
observation data (near- and real-time, historical, qualitycontrolled climatological data), and consultation to
government agencies. Products with further added value
are entirely supplied by the private sector.
Data and services are provided without any type of
charge; moreover, IMS cannot charge for any of its
activities, which rules out payment for additional services.
There are no restrictions on the use of the data and services
provided by IMS, except that the redistribution of original
data is prohibited. Its website, however, is currently
available only in Hebrew.

Previous situation
Previously, about 75 percent of the IMS operational budget(excluding salaries) depended on revenues from selling
data and services, including tailor-made forecasts andclimatic analysis, to other public agencies, academia,
and the private sector. As a consequence, IMS focusedmore on revenue generation—business development,
answering calls for tenders, and providing services topaying customers—than on public projects. For example,
private-sector queries were a heavy burden leaving little
time for projects of public interest such as the productionof a climate atlas or a wind energy atlas. The revenues
from billing data and services had to cover the operational
budget, fulfill international obligations to WMO and ECMWF,
maintain weather stations, and deploy radiosondes. Due tothe unsteady income, payments to WMO were sometimes
delayed causing inconveniences. Most of the income camefrom governmental agencies which struggled with theircost. Hence, most monetary transactions were between
public agencies which created high administrative costs
but no real profits. Furthermore, the high prices for dataand services led customers to use lower quality free datafrom other sources and discouraged development ofapplications based on IMS data (see Furshpan 2017).

Triggers and process for changing the policy
Government agencies and the private sector increasingly
demanded to lower the prices of data and services
from IMS, with companies lobbying in Parliament andministries. Additionally, a new «open-government» policy99
put forward by Israel encouraged a change.
99 https://www.opengovpartnership.org/countries/israel.

In the ensuing negotiations between IMS and Israel’s
transport and finance ministries, it was recognized that
disputes over fees between different government agencies
were counter-productive and that it was not appropriate
to delay payments to WMO. Additionally, IMS was able
to point out the socio-economic value of a change in thefunding model and the subsequent provision of free basic
meteorological services. As a result of the negotiations,
IMS now receives a yearly fixed budget that is more thandoubled compared to the previous budget. In return, IMS
can no longer charge other agencies for its services and has
to make all basic meteorological services available to the
public free of charge. The change process took about 1.5
years and ended in 2012.

Effects of the new policy
The private sector now provides a range of valueadded services that were previously provided by IMS(e.g. answering meteorological queries that require dataprocessing; producing tailor-made forecasts for specificapplications; generating advanced graphic displays of
meteorological data; providing meteorological consulting
for the private sector; and, providing and maintaining
meteorological equipment). According to IMS, thecooperation with other government agencies, especiallywith the emergency and rescue authorities, is much more
effective; the new policies ended inter-agency disputes andimproved IMS’s reputation. On the operational side, IMS
could drastically reduce tasks which required significant
time but little technical expertise. Hence, it can now focus
on national priorities such as a wind energy atlas or climatechange monitoring analysis, which require meteorologicalskills. Overall, the new data policy resulted in a win-win
situation, with the possible drawback that IMS is now fully
depending on the ministerial budget for all its activities,
including R&D.
Israel’s example suggests that, when agreements
can be reached within governments, new funding
frameworks based on free and open access canbenefit the public and private sectors as well as themeteorological services themselves. No comprehensive
economic evaluation of the effects of the policy change has
been yet undertaken. Such an exercise could lead to usefuland more detailed insights.

44 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

3.9 Transnational perspective ofinternational weather companies
The continuous advancement of communication
technologies, sensors, and computational resources resultin an ever-increasing availability of hydromet services,and the falling cost to end users of high-quality information
significantly increases the services’ reach and impact. The
way people receive up-to-date information and conductbusiness is shifting rapidly toward internet and mobilebased services. In many developing countries, people often
use mobile apps of international services providers rather
than information disseminated by the NMHS. The NMHS may
operate a website with only a few localized forecasts that areof interest to the public. More often, the apps and websites
of international providers are simply easier to use andpresent information better to end users. People also tend
to use pre-installed applications. In many cases, forecast
models and post-processing for localization of the forecast
can produce forecasts of adequate quality for most users.
Even if the NMHS forecasts are significantly better in quality
and accuracy, many users may prefer the more attractive
user interface of an international provider.
In developing countries, international providers
could fill gaps in the provision of weather services
while in-country capabilities are being built up
or could be strategic partners to strengthen thehydromet value chain. The most important observations
and learning derived from interviews with international
service providers about their transnational experience andperspectives are summarized below:
■■

■■

■■

inate their warnings to the public via apps (e.g.
Accuweather app), effectively helping to enhance
the authority of the government’s voice. Other companies have no interactions with the local NMHS orgovernments. Those companies in most cases are notaffected by local legal and policy frameworks, as they
operate from outside of the countries.
Especially noteworthy is Meteoalarm,100 a service that
aggregates official warnings from European national
weather services. It was developed for EUMETNET withstrong support from WMO. End users can simply view
their website; weather service providers can accessthe information via web services and disseminate
through their own channels. Meteoalarm seems tomeet the consistency weather warning requirements
identified in a recent study by Weyrich et al. (2019).
■■■■

Many of the international weather enterprises cover a large part of the value chain, some even operate
their own measurement networks.
International weather enterprises can reach a large
number of customers and make profits with very
low prices for individual customers, advertisement,or additional embedded services. Sometimes, international companies provide such services to establish
their brand and do not necessarily seek direct profits
from B2C streams.
Some companies have agreements with the local NMHS for data-sharing and in return dissem-

100 http://www.meteoalarm.eu.

■■■■

NMHSs do not encourage the in-country physicalor virtual presence of international weather enterprises when they are perceived as competition. In
some countries, there can be a generally negative perception of profit-driven private companies. In othercases, international providers use market penetration
strategies discrediting the capabilities of the NMHS.
International service providers would benefit fromlocal data. Many countries have a conservative data
policy which restricts the dissemination of NMHS dataand products derived from the data. Additionally, some
NMHSs or governments lack experience in interactingwith private companies. International weather service
providers aim at proving that the benefit of NMHS data
to the public is higher when the data are shared. The
establishment of a relationship and possibly even apartnership with relevant public entities is a crucial
business development issue for the private sector.
Some countries have legal impediments for privateinternational service providers. For instance, China
requires a joint venture with a local company.
Depending on the regulatory framework and the maturity of business activities, there are different ways
for international weather enterprises to cooperatewith an NMHS: (i) agreeing by MOU or business contract
to cooperate on managing and improving the meteorological services in a country; (ii) obtaining the permis-

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 45

sectors in Japan); or (ii) sharing a part of the infrastructure (e.g. in Indonesia, the NMHS receives space to install its automatic weather stations on private offshore
platforms, cell towers, or plantations and provides data
in return).

sion to render meteorological services as a private service provider; and (iii) purchasing the necessary datafrom the NMHS.
■■■■

International weather service providers have a large
customer base and can often improve their forecast
quality due to ample customer feedback. This is especially true for mobile-based services.

■■

A very productive first step is to bring together all
stakeholders in a country, specifically the hydromet-related agencies and identify areas of cooperation. This can open the flow of data between agencies
and create synergies that help build the hydromet value chain.
■■

3.10 Models and examples ofpublic-private engagement
Public-Private Engagement has been broadly defined as
engagement between the public, private, and academic
sectors. The study’s research identified a wide andheterogeneous range of PPE that can be summarized asfollows:
■■

■■

■■

Customer-supplier relationship: The private sector
acts as supplier to the NMHS either by provision of
products (e.g. instrumentation) or services (e.g. lightning detection or computing as a service). This model
is very common, especially concerning the provisionof products. The provision of services is less frequent
but recently has gained more attention.
Financial partnerships for infrastructure projects: Cofinancing of infrastructure through classic PPPs (e.g. investment projects for roads and airports) is not yet very
common in the hydromet domain. One example of sucha PPP is in Indonesia. The private company pre-finances infrastructure investments, while the NMHS runs the
instrumentation, receives education and training, andpays back the private company over a certain period.
Exchange or sharing of infrastructure: The NMHS andthe private sector work together to more efficiently provide observations by: (i) building up separate but coordinated infrastructure and then exchanging observation
data (e.g. cooperation between the private and public

■■

■■

■■

■■

NMHS support for new products and services: The
NMHS supports the development of new products andservices in the private sector. For instance, in Indonesia,
the NMHS is supporting the development of weather
index-based micro-insurance by local companies. The
insurance is part of a complete package educating, supporting, and financing farmers. The NMHS provides information as decision making support to the package.
Joint and project-based applications for private contracts: The private and public sectors jointly offer services to other private companies. This is not a typicalform of engagement, as the private partner is often acompany which is not active in the hydromet domain
but is seeking a partnership to complete or strengthen atender submission. An example is the Ghanaian company which is collaborating with the NMHS for a tender inthe offshore oil sector.
Cooperation of the private sector with transnational
companies: The private sector cooperates with transnational companies to deliver products and services tolocal customers (e.g. actionable weather information delivered via mass voice calls to farmers in Ghana).
Dissemination of Warnings: The private sector, such as
mobile operators or transnational weather service companies, distribute warning messages on behalf of the
NMHS or a public emergency service organization.
Provision of open data to the private sector: The
NMHS provides observational data, model outputs, andbasic forecasts as, for example, in the U.S. and Japan.
This type of engagement is typically the effect of a strong
open data policy.
Commercial activities of the NMHS: The NMHS sells
data, products, or services. In some cases, this is done by
an entity detached to some extent from the NMHS, sometimes by the NMHS itself. This is a supplier-customer relationship that is comparable to the «Customer-supplier
relationship» (first on the list), only with reversed roles.

Photo: JIRAROJ PRADITCHAROENKUL.

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 47

4. Hydromet value chain development
and public-private engagement
This chapter analyzes possible development scenarios of the hydromet value chain, possible options for PPE, andgood practices for development. The analysis should enable practitioners and stakeholders to identify the optimal options
for their specific case, make informed decisions, and address prerequisites early in the process.
The analysis follows scenario-based planning methods, using the concepts of «frame» and «scenario». A frame describes thecontext in which a scenario is defined and comprises elements such as values, givens, stakeholders, success factors, and others.
Each scenario is constructed by selecting the options which will define the strategy and identifying the outcomes which willdefine a possible realization. Figure 9 shows a schematic of the elements comprising frame and scenario. Note that only theframe components in bold typeface will be used in the analysis. More information on scenario-based planning and the notionsof frame and scenario are provided in the annex.
Each scenario is defined after selecting a set of options. Pros and cons of each option can be intrinsic to the option, namely they
are independent of the country (or the context) where the option is applied, or they can be country-specific. As a result, options
rejected for an advanced value chain may be valuable in a low-maturity value chain, and conversely, options suitable for anadvanced value chain may be too ambitious or simply irrelevant for a low-maturity value chain. Therefore, frames and scenariosof hydromet value chain development projects will vary from country to country.
This chapter is organized as follows: Section 4.1 discusses the aspects which are common to all scenarios. Section 4.2 presents
three reference scenarios: jump-starting a low-maturity value chain, strengthening the NMHS in an intermediate value chain,and optimizing an advanced value chain. Section 4.3 describes good practices for the development of a sustainable hydromet
value chain or of a successful public-private engagement.
Figure 9: Putting interlinked issues into a coherent structure that can be used in planning a hydromet value chain improvement

project. The frame captures the wider context; in this chapter only the bold frame components are used. Scenarios linkpossible strategies to possible realizations. See the annex for more detail.

Values■■ Givens■■ Value drivers■■ Mission statement■■

Definition of success■■ Opportunities and threats■■ Stakeholders■■ Critical success factors■■

Frame and its components

Strategy

Chosen options

Available options

Realization

Expected outcomes

Possible outcomes

Scenario

Scenario and its components

48 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

4.1 Aspects common to all scenarios
4.1.1 Common frame elements: values, value
drivers, and givens
Core values are the fundamental principles that guidethe provision of hydromet services. They must always be
considered in decisions that affect a development project.
Not all stakeholders have identical goals, and some of their
specific goals may conflict. Agreeing on the core values is what
maintains a project’s purpose when conflicting goals arise.
Table 9 presents a list of core values for providing hydromet
services. The protection of lives and property is part ofany government’s core mandate; the provision of adequate
government hydromet services and ensuring fair anduniversal access to information services that are critical forthe protection of lives and property can be considered partof this mandate. Creation of additional economic benefits
is one of the ultimate goals of an NMHS, whether directly
or indirectly through the services provided to the private
sector. The impacts of weather service data policies onnational security need to be carefully assessed, as measuresoverly restricting the open exchange of data may severely
hinder international cooperation and ultimately the qualityof weather forecasts («weather does not stop at borders»).101
Table 9Core values for providing hydromet services(common to all scenarios).

Protect lives and property
Create additional socio-economic value

ValuesNational security

Value drivers are activities that increase the value of a
project’s outcome. One could see value drivers as the main«levers» to create value—increasing the presence of value
drivers creates more core value. Table 10 gives examples
of generic value drivers for hydromet services; more value
drivers are listed in the context of individual scenarios.
Table 10

General value drivers (common to all scenarios).

International cooperation
Public/private sector cooperation in value chain
Development projects

Givens describe facts, assumptions, and decisions thathave been made and boundary conditions that affect an
initiative. Table 11 lists givens common to all scenarios.
An important given is technical advances have enabled
the private sector to offer hydromet services that
could once be provided only by NMHSs. This opens up
possibilities, in particular for less developed countries,
to benefit from public-private engagement to efficiently
strengthen the provision of weather and climate services.
For example, local forecasts have improved by combining
local station data, global numerical weather model output,
and simulated historic data through machine learning.102
Table 11Given situation (common to all scenarios).

The need for hydromet services is growing(e.g. due to more extreme weather, higher
vulnerability due to population growth andurbanization, and climate change).
The lack of observation data over large areas(e.g. oceans, Sub-Saharan Africa and polar
regions) due to the absence of developed
NMHSs and the lack of international
agreements to fill these gaps is a big challenge.
Today’s global NWP models match or exceed
the skill of the previous generation’s regionalmodels.
Relatively inexpensive observation methods
such as sensors and automatic weather stations
combined with modern post-processing
techniques that can significantly increase thequality of nowcasts and short range forecasts
are becoming available.

Givens

Machine learning methods become available
that allow assimilation and post-processing totake advantage of mass cheap sensor data andthe extremely large output of global modelingsystems.
Open data policies stimulate private-sector
development.
Technical advances have enabled the private
sector to offer hydromet services that could
once be provided only by NMHSs.
WMO and World Bank Group are developing
guidance for public-private engagement.

Value
drivers

101 Sharing of GPS data exhibits similar properties. The solution here is the technical ability to degrade the openly accessible signal such that adversaries areat a disadvantage.

102 See for example https://www.meteoblue.com/en/blog/article/show/37493_More+and+higher+accuracy.

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 49

4.1.2 Common options and trade-offs for
public-private engagement
Besides the «classical» public-private engagement
options where one side is the supplier and the other sideis the customer of hydromet equipment, data, or services
Table 12(e.g. those discussed in Chapter 3), there are interesting
options for public-private engagements with a stronger
emphasis on partnership (i.e. where there is a give and takebetween participants). These are summarized in Table 12
and Table 13, respectively. Note that options are generally
not exclusive of each other.

Pros and cons of supplier-customer-type options for public-private engagement (common to all scenarios).

OptionPro

Con

Alternative / Mitigation

Direct payment:
agency-to-agency(not PPE but a formof partnership)

Customer agency has influenceon supplier agency to makesupplier’s product more
pertinent.

Distraction instead ofimprovement because the focus
is on financing instead of onservice delivery and impact.
Supplier agency has ways toside-step demands.

MOU between agencies
clarifies customer’s needs andsupplier’s capabilities. Budget
strategically allocated bygovernment.

Direct payment:
private sector-toNMHS

Customer has influence on
NMHS to make supplier’s
product more pertinent.

NMHS competes with the private Non-public services are notsector, stifling the hydromet
provided by the NMHS.
value chain.

Direct payment:
private sectorto- government for
NMHS services

Customer has influence on
supplier to make supplier’s
product more pertinent.
Supplier prioritizes services forwhich there is demand.

Incentives do not work in practice, as money andservice flows do not overlap.

Non-public services are notprovided by the NMHS; feesfor defined public services;and feedback mechanism forcontinuous improvement ofservices.

Fees for public
service

Straightforward cost
recovery.

Overhead in setting andcollecting the fee; stifling ofprivate and non-profit sectors.

Only apply to targeted services(e.g. basic aviation meteorology
services).

Outsource

Drive efficiency of public service Potential loss of quality,
provision.
oversight, and capability
building; dependency on
supplier.

Open data

Stimulate private and academic
sectors as well as small companies and not- for-profit organizations.

Could amount to hidden subsidy
of non-public services; free-rideissue with foreign countries;
and uncertainties concerning
data which are not produced by
the NMHS itself but outsourced
to the private sector.

Vibrant private sector withcompeting providers. Set quality
targets and use more than one
supplier.
Restrict open data to public services; clearly define the scope(e.g. data/services routinely
produced by NMHS as part ofits public services); and restrict
dissemination of data throughlicense agreements with theprivate sector.

50 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

Table 13

Pros and cons of partnering-type options for public-private engagement (common to all scenarios).
OptionPro

Con

Alternative / Mitigation

Dissemination of official
warnings by the private
sectorMaximize the reach of
official warnings.

Overhead to negotiate andimplement, dependency on
the private sector.

Automate and facilitate thedissemination of official
warnings.

Rely on transnational
company to provide public
services

Immediate availability ofservices.

May limit in-country capacity
building.

Time-limited contracts andlocal content requirements to
support capacity building.

Co-finance infrastructurewith PPP projects

Risk-sharing facilitates financing of infrastructure
projects.

Project setup may becomplicated and costly,
overhead costs for oversight,
less control.

Adjust PPP project controls
to reflect relatively low
investment numbers.
Only apply in cases whereinterests are clear and wellaligned.

Share infrastructure

Lower cost, access to
privately owned sites (e.g.
drilling platforms).

Costs for coordination andoversight, less control.

Rely on own infrastructure.

Joint development of new
products and services

Lower total cost andbetter understandingof requirements andpossibilities.

Inefficiencies because oforganizational overhead.

Good R&D governance,
finance own R&D.

Joint offering of non-public
services

Lowers the public budget
needed to operate the NMHS.

Blurs the line between public
and non-public services;
distraction for NMHS; andmay result in an unfair
competition advantage forthe participating company.

Only apply in cases where
this produces capacity
building. Ensure a levelplaying field for othercompanies.

4.1.3 Common options for governance andfunding

the scope of public services, depends on what a country

Table 14 summarizes options and decisions on
strategic governance of the hydromet value chain thatare common to all scenarios. One important decision,country-by-country basis. Therefore, it does not appear in

Table 14considers public interest and must be considered on a
the reference scenarios. (See Chapter 2.2 for guidance on
approaching such decisions.)

Strategic governance options and decisions (common to all the scenarios).
OptionWell-defined role for NMHS, focused on provision of public services
Open data: share all national surface-based weather data and basic services freely without charge
Share data internationally in line with WMO Resolution 40
Government agency (e.g. NMHS) or similar
Partial outsourcing to the private sector
Private sector(International) quality targets for public services
Market mechanism for quality assurance of non-public services

DecisionLaws, policies, and regulations
Data-sharing policy
Provision of public services
Provision of non-public services
Quality assurance policy

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 51

■■

■■

■■

■■

■■

Laws, policies, and regulations. They establish awell-defined role for the NMHS in line with how a country wishes to organize its hydromet value chain. They
create certainty for businesses in the private sector.
Data-sharing policy. Open data is key to enabling theprivate sector to provide non-public services. For international cooperation, follow WMO standards.

especially in the area of weather information that feeds
into safety-related activities such as official warnings.
Table 15 summarizes strategic options and decisions on
funding public hydromet services. The options also havebeen discussed in Chapter 2.2.
■■

Provision of public services. Governments are mandated to provide oversight on public services. Oversight canbe entrusted to an agency (e.g. the NMHS), which can besupported to various degrees by the private sector.
Provision of non-public services. These are left to theprivate sector to maximize economic efficiency (as detailed in Chapter 2.2).
Quality assurance policy. As part of government oversight, public services are assigned targets to meet for theservice quality. Regulation of the quality of non-public
services is left to market forces and professional liability
laws, as it is standard in most developed countries. Ifthey are not effective, then exceptions should be made,Table 15

■■

■■

■■

Investment. Forms of co-investment can be discussed,
where both the state and a private partner invest cash.
In addition, a private partner can pre-finance equipment
it provides, knowing that it will be paid off over a period of time. This will typically involve some guarantee by
the state to buy data as a service over a sufficiently long
period from the private partner.
Financial risk-sharing. When co-investing, the state canguarantee part of the investment to reduce the risk forthe private partner within reason.
Revenue streams. The state funds public services
through regular taxes and, where applicable, fees.
Operations and maintenance. The state funds operations and maintenance. There may be opportunities toleverage private-sector capabilities.

Strategic public services funding decisions and options (common to all scenarios).
OptionDecision

State invests cash
Private partners invest cash

Investment

Private partners pre-finance equipment that they provide

103State takes a share of financial risk
Private partner takes a share of financial risk
Regular taxes
Fees on selected public services (e.g. basic aeronautical meteorology services)

Financial risk sharing
Revenue streams

State budget for operations and maintenance
Explore opportunities where the private sector can operate equipment and recover cost byrendering non-public services while giving inexpensive access to data for public services

Operations and maintenance

103 An equipment manufacturer does not sell its equipment but pre-finances it and recovers the investment by charging for its use.

52 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

Table 16

Reference scenarios (green) formed by combining frames capturing different given situations (ochre), possible
strategies (red), and desired realizations (or future situations, blue).

Scenario

Given situationJump-start

Strengthen

Optimize«Immature»: The value chain
has low maturity. Public services
have significant gaps. National
services have no advantage overinternational offerings.

«Intermediate»: The value chain
meets a few of the country’s
needs. The NMHS is spread thin,providing public services andnon-public services to recover
cost.

«Advanced»: The value chain
serves the country’s needs. Public
service cost/value ratio needs tobe optimized.

Establish a value chain andunlock existing potential.

Prioritize a well-functioning
NMHS focused on providing
public services and enabling thenational private sector to provide
non-public services.

Reduce public service costwithout sacrificing quality.

The public and private sectors cooperate in a sustainable hydromet
value chain of intermediate maturity. Development partners andtransnational companies support
the provision of public services.

A strong NMHS provides public
services and enables theprivate sector to provide nonpublic services in a sustainablehydromet value chain ofintermediate to advanced
maturity.

The public and private sectors
cooperate in an optimized
advanced value chain thatminimizes the cost of public
services without loss of quality.

Strategy

Realization

4.2 Reference scenarios
Options for public-private engagement must be
assessed for each country in the context of its hydromet
value chain maturity, its laws and regulations forthe provision of hydromet services, and the way it
provides public services. Three scenarios—Jump-start,
Strengthen, and Optimize—illustrate how the available
options change with a given situation. Each scenario
combines a typical given situation with a possible strategy
to achieve a desired realization for hydromet value chain
development. Table 16 summarizes the given situation,
strategy, and realization for each scenario.
These scenarios are simplified examples that focus on key
aspects; they can be expanded with input from hydromet
experts and stakeholders. For example, specific development
projects need more detail to develop actionable plans.104
The three above scenarios have the same overall context,or «frame». Specifically, the values and the givens listed inTable 9 and Table 11 are common to all scenarios.

104 The more-detailed scenarios in the annex can serve as a starting point.

4.2.1 Scenario «Jump-start»
Mission statement: Take advantage of private-sector
capacity to jump start the value chain while laying thefoundation for a sustainable NMHS.

Given situation
In the Jump-start scenario, the current hydromet value
chain has low maturity. The NMHS provides basic public
services; the observation infrastructure has significant
gaps. An underfunded NMHS struggles with capacity,
sustainable operations, and maintenance of equipment.
However, the NMHS does provide aviation meteorology
services. Part of the NMHS staff is not motivated and, given
the opportunity, capable individuals leave the service andeven the country.
The national private hydromet sector is not developed.
A few high-value hydromet services are rendered bytransnational companies (e.g. metocean services foroffshore oil exploration and production). The general public
uses transnational services (e.g. popular international
websites and apps for weather forecasts).

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 53

Small companies, some supported by NGOs, find ways
to tailor, enrich, and deliver hydromet information
to make an impact on their customers’ lives. Notably,
the skill profiles needed by those companies are moreclosely related to their customers’ areas of expertise (e.g.
farming) combined with service tailoring and delivery (e.g.
ICT technologies and customer support) rather than tohydromet disciplines.

Table 19

The specific givens for Jump-start are listed in Table 17.

reach affected people.
One or more small hydromet-related

Table 17

companies are successful.

Specific givens in Jump-start.

Low-maturity value chain
Private-sector companies start identifying andservicing customer needs
Talent leaves the public sector for other

Givenscountries

Value drivers and definition of successIn this scenario, the big challenge is to set the rightpriorities to jump start a sustainable hydromet value
chain. The main value drivers (the «levers» to create
and enhance value) in Jump-start are hydromet value
chain effectiveness, public service sustainability, level ofcooperation among government agencies and between the
public and private sectors, and capacity building (Table 18).
Table 18

Specific value drivers in Jump-start.

Effectiveness (impact) of value chain
Sustainable public services
Cooperation among government agencies
Public / private sector cooperation in the value

Value
driverschain
National capacity

The government views hydromet services as
strategic and engages accordingly with its
stakeholders.
Basic public services are provided sustainably
after development support for operations andmaintenance ceases.
Official warnings have good accuracy and

105 For example, web services offered by private companies and public institutions.

Definitionof success

Options
Only ten years ago Jump-start would have required
to first work on the supply side of the value chain,
typically by trying to strengthen the NMHS. Today’s
availability of quality global weather model results,
transnational delivery channels, and weather services
APIs105 allows development projects to rapidly plug gaps
along the value chain in parallel with building up publichydromet services. This allows NMHS development tofocus on areas where it can make a difference in services
because of its local presence (in contrast to transnational
companies and operators of global systems and models).
The strategy in Jump-start can leverage these global
developments, considering that most impacts of thehydromet value chain are created at the user end. Demandhas to be stimulated with effective initiatives that clearly
demonstrate the advantages of systematically usinghydromet information. Good take-up of hydromet services
in turn underlines their value and the need to further
improve them (e.g. using global forecast model output).
■■

The definition of success guides project teams toprioritize tasks. In Jump-start, the definition of successsteers project teams toward working at the right level ofgovernment to bolster basic public hydromet services andto engage with the private sector to make the overall value
chain work (Table 19).

Specific definition of success in Jump-start.

The strategy must address governance, public service funding, capacity building, the technical approach, and accompanying measures. These illustrative scenarios only highlight a few specific options fromall these areas (Table 20). A more comprehensive set of
options is listed in the annex.

54 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

Table 20

Specific strategic decisions and options in Jump-start.
OptionDecision

Share data through appropriate regional mechanisms (i.e. regional specialized meteorological centers,
regional climate centers)

Data-sharing policy

Government agency (e.g. the NMHS) with significant technical support from transnational companies /agencies

Provision of public
services

Request instruments extended warranty plus several years of maintenance
Development partners finance operations and maintenance

106

Operations andmaintenanceTrain in country, on the job; embed trainers in workforce for several months at a time
Train teams rather than individuals, especially if sending them abroad

Training

Train on the job before sending staff for training abroad
Train more people than needed and accept that some will move on

Surface-based
observations

Inexpensive robust stations107
Data aggregation via regional hubs

Observation datasharing architecture

Data aggregation via mobile operator service
Use software-as-a-service third party post-processing chain

Post-processing

106 A development partner finances operational expenses to sustain operations for the duration of a project and potentially for an additional transition period.
107

■■

■■

■■

«Robust» stations are reliable stations with good accuracy, sufficient for weather forecast but not necessarily for climate analysis. They are often less costly
than WMO-certified stations.

Data-sharing policy. An open data policy has maximal
benefits when jump starting a hydromet value chain. In
addition, sharing data with regional organizations is agood way to engage with them for mutual support andalignment.
Provision of public services. Leveraging available
technical solutions allows the NMHS to move fast. Caremust be taken to build NMHS capacity at the same timeand not to become dependent on outside support in thelong run.
Operations and maintenance (O&M). Covering thecost of O&M can be a chicken-and-egg problem: without
proper maintenance public services are unreliable andthe hydromet value chain cannot develop. Without a visible hydromet value chain, it can be difficult to convince
the government to properly budget for O&M. A goodtactic could be to request an extended warranty plus
maintenance period. This would increase the initial investment but would provide reliable equipment and incentivize vendors to train in-country staff. It also wouldalign with some development partners’ rules that do not
permit O&M funding. In general, however, in Jump-start,

108 http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/wigos/index_en.html.

development partners have a role to guarantee O&M fora certain period.
■■

■■

■■

Training. Many simple measures can be applied to improve training and help the NMHS to retain employees(see Table 20).
Surface-based observations. The combination of
global NWP output and inexpensive weather station
data for post-processing can significantly enhance thevalue chain. This should complement the use of WMOcompliant stations feeding into global assimilation,
which is a more complex and lengthier task.
Observation data-sharing architecture. The emerging gold standard for sharing observation data is
the WMO Integrated Global Observing System/
WMO Information System (WIGOS/WIS),108 which ismore attuned to today’s data landscape than Global
Telecommunications System (GTS). However, sharing
observations in compliance with WIGOS may be acostly and complex approach, which should be complemented by more easily achievable and more sustainable solutions for data aggregation. For example,
partnering with mobile operators who want to extend

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 55

their service portfolio to ICT operations services. Thismight require coming up with a simplified approachthat could evolve into WIGOS compliance later.
■■

Post-processing. New technologies involving multimodel ensembles accessible through web services open
an easily accessible way of using station data for stateof-the-art post-processing and using the results in thehydromet value chain.

Table 21

Strategic actions and goals for accompanying
measures in Jump-start.
OptionGoal

Coordinate with NGO initiatives

Increase hydromet
value chain impact

Coordinate with start-up initiatives
Apply scenario-based planning
Facilitate lean start-up projects

Table 22

OutcomeLow to intermediate
Private companies are providing
non-public services
Fully funded, including
maintenance and operations■■■■

Agile project
management
■■

■■

■■

Increase hydromet value chain impact. NGO projects and start-up initiatives usually have good access toin-country talent and are very customer-oriented in theiroperations. There is significant potential to stimulate hydromet services demand and to raise the profile of thehydromet value chain by making sure a development
project is well connected to the demand side. This does
not require a large capital investment, but adequate coordination support and expertise must be provided. For
example, projects such as Esoko in Ghana do not scaleby themselves but avail of (proving) in-country talent.
For this option to work, development partners must findways to leverage this talent on a bigger scale.
Agile project management. Jump-start requires a substantial amount of trial-and-error in a multi-stakeholder
environment. Traditional project planning and management methods cannot handle this. Scenario-based planning and a lean start-up approach are much better suitedand have proven successful in many industries.

Realization
The Jump-start strategy aims at reaching a realization(a future situation) that is briefly characterized in Table
22. Note that the realization is built around uncertainty,
acknowledging that plans may not work out as intended.
See the annex for additional detail.

Realization outcomes aspired to in Jump-start.
Uncertainty
Value chain maturity
Market development
Sustainability of
public services
funding

Value chain maturity. While a development project
should aim at reaching the next maturity level, it may be
more realistic to expect building a good basis for reaching that level in the future.
Market development. One or two national privatecompanies providing non-public services are a respectable outcome in Jump-start.
Sustainability of public services funding. Public services are sustainably funded after financial support froma development project has tapered off.

4.2.2 Scenario «Strengthen»Mission statement: Strengthen the NMHS and focus
it on providing public services, thus laying the foundation for the private sector to efficiently provide nonpublic services.

Given situation
In the Strengthen scenario, the current hydromet value
chain is intermediate, dominated by an NMHS that ispushed by government policy to extend its non-public paid
services. However, there is no significant broadening of thehydromet services offering, and the NMHS finds it hard tocompete with transnational companies when it comes tocustomer satisfaction. There is a public hydromet services
infrastructure but the NMHS struggles with maintenance, lackof upgrades, and some deterioration. Given the opportunity,
staff tend to leave for better paid positions, most often foundin the private sector. Government policies and the resulting
competition between the public and private sectors are
keeping the national private sector small.

56 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

The national private sector is not well developed ashydromet regulations make providing hydromet services
by and large unattractive to business. On the demandside, companies are looking for ways to leverage hydromet
information. For example, they package weather index
insurance with agronomical advice and financing to help
smallholder farmers increase their productivity. The NMHS
provides some of the hydromet information, and transnational
companies fill the gaps (e.g. with climatological analyses
for weather index calculations). The general public use
transnational services (e.g. popular international websites
and apps for weather forecasts) not necessarily because of
better forecasts but because they are more attractive andeasier to use than what the NMHS provides.
The specific givens for Strengthen are summarized in Table
23.
Table 23

Specific givens in Strengthen.

Intermediate value chain
NMHS pushed to provide non-public services
to cover costs, effectively competing with theprivate sector
Talent leaves the public sector for privatecompanies

GivensValue drivers and definition of success
In Strengthen, there is the opportunity to strengthen the
NMHS such that it provides advanced public services andbecomes an enabler for a national private sector thatprovides advanced non-public services. The main value
drivers are focusing the NMHS on the provision of public
services and increasing the hydromet value chain impact
by leveraging the private sector (Table 24).
Table 24

Specific value drivers in Strengthen.

Clearly defined role of NMHS, focusing on
public services
Public / private sector cooperation in thevalue chain
Profitable private enterpriseValue
drivers

The definition of success emphasizes the NMHS capability
to provide public services, measured by its capacity to growand extend the basic system and services. Public services
are seen as enablers for non-public services provided by
the private sector, and the definition of success suggests
monitoring the hydromet market growth (Table 25).

Table 25

Specific definition of success in Strengthen.

NMHS has budget and capacity to safeguard
the basic system and services.
Official warnings have state-of-the-art
accuracy and reach everybody affected. The
warning system is resilient.
Hydromet market grows.

Definitionof successAccordingly, the Strengthen strategy prioritizes a wellfunctioning NMHS focused on providing public services
and enabling the national private sector to provide nonpublic services. It aims to stimulate the national weather
market and allow the private sector to develop, not leaving
the field to transnational companies. The rationale behind
this strategy is that developing a private hydromet services
sector creates more socio-economic benefit than reducing
the cost of public services. As in Jump-start, transnational
companies can help plug gaps in the hydromet value
chain. Table 26 highlights some of the strategic options
specifically chosen in Strengthen. A more comprehensive
set of options is listed in the annex.
Table 26

Specific strategic decisions and options forStrengthen.

OptionFocus NMHS role on provision of public
services
Facilitate co-investment by NMHS andthe private sector
Monitor hydromet market development
Partial outsourcing to national privatecompanies
State takes a share of financial risk
Private partner takes a share of financial
risk
NMHS makes in-kind contributions
Private partner pre-finance equipmentthat they provide■■■■

DecisionLaws,
policies, andregulations
Provision of
public services
Financial risksharing
Investment

Laws, policies, and regulations. Public hydromet services are the foundation of an effective hydromet value
chain: focusing the NMHS on this role is a pre-condition
to succeed. Set the right level of controls for co-investment by the NMHS and the private sector. Monitor theactivities of private companies in the hydromet market
to quantify its growth.
Provision of public services. The NMHS can leverage
private-sector capabilities as long as it sets and moni-

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 57■■■■

tors the right quality targets for public services.

Given situation

Financial risk-sharing. When co-investing, the state canguarantee part of the investment to reduce the risk forthe private sector within reason.

In Optimize, the NMHS has a clearly defined role ofdelivering public services and enabling non-public
services by the private sector. Transnational andnational companies provide non-public hydromet services.
The public, private, and academic sectors complement eachother on a level playing field. The private sector is strong withsustainable companies, some of them large, some of themwith an international presence. New customer needs are
met quickly given the stable backbone of a public hydromet
services infrastructure. The use of hydromet services grows
as more organizations find ways to benefit from them. The
overall socio-economic benefit is substantial, including
the associated tax revenues. However, there is constantpressure on the NMHS budget which requires it to lower
its cost. Also, with new technological developments, theskill profile for NMHS staff is changing and curricula haveto adapt.

Investment. The NMHS can enter a partnership for a required investment and make in-kind contributions suchas staff-hours and expertise. The private partner can
pre-finance equipment they provide, knowing that it will
be paid off over a period of time.

Realization
The Strengthen realization can be briefly characterized asin Table 27. (See the annex for additional detail.)
Table 27

Realization outcomes aspired to in Strengthen.
OutcomeUncertainty

Intermediate to advanced

Value chain maturity

Private hydromet sector
develops

Market development

Observation network runs stably
and grows further

Sustainability of
public weather station
network

■■

■■

■■

Value chain maturity. While a development project
should aim at reaching the next maturity level, it may be
more realistic to expect building a good basis for reaching that level in the future.
Market development. Analyzing a weather market andassessing its development can be difficult in many countries where little or no data are available. In Strengthen,monitoring the market is part of the strategy.
Sustainability of public weather station network. The
aspiration is to expand the observation network.

4.2.3 Scenario «Optimize»
Mission statement: Optimize the cost of public services
by leveraging synergies with the private sector.

The Optimize scenario comprises an advanced value
chain and a well-defined role of the NMHS. It is relatively compact, as it represents a much simpler situation
than Jump-start and Strengthen.

The NMHS plays an important international role,
sharing observation data, NWP output, NWP model
source code, and other tools with the international
community. Both developing and developed countries
benefit from this practice. In addition, the NMHS cooperates
with organizations providing training in other countries.
The specific givens for Optimize are listed in Table 28.
Table 28

Specific givens in Optimize.

Advanced value chain
Well-defined role for NMHS, focused onprovision of public services
Thriving market meets new customer needs
quickly

GivensValue drivers and definition of success
Key value drivers in Optimize are economic efficiencyof the hydromet value chain and research anddevelopment capacity (Table 29).
Table 29

Specific value drivers in Optimize.

Economic efficiency of value chain
R&D capacity

Value
drivers

58 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

The definition of success focuses an improvement
project on public service cost reduction while theprivate hydromet services sector is still growing (Table 30).
Table 30■■

Specific definition of success in Optimize.

NMHS efficiency is increased.
Consumer satisfaction increases.
Public heeds severe weather warnings.

Definition of■■

success

Private hydromet services sector grows.

The Optimize strategy is to optimize public service
cost without sacrificing service quality. In addition
to streamlining NMHS operations, lower cost can beachieved by maximizing the benefits that private sector
and competition can bring. The strategy is summarized inTable 31.
Strategic actions and goals for accompanying
measures in Optimize.

OptionMeasure the socio-economic impact of
the hydromet value-chain.
Explore opportunities where theprivate sector can offer observation
data at lower cost than it would cost
the NMHS to operate the equipment.
Integrate observation networks ofdifferent agencies.
Leverage data-as-a-service.
Leverage IoT data.
Leverage low-cost satellites.
Use private-sector cloud computing.

■■■■High-performance computing infrastructure. This is an
example where a specialized company can have better
economies of scale and scope.

Realization

Options

Table 31

Observation systems. Different agencies run networks
that should be integrated to make all data readily accessible as part of public services. New technologies are
becoming available but still need to be developed andtested. They can be expected to provide cost-saving opportunities without loss of quality.

DecisionLaws, policies,and regulations
Operations andmaintenanceObservation
systems
Highperformancecomputinginfrastructure

Laws, policies, and regulations. It is important tomeasure the socio-economic benefit of public services.
There is a broad academic literature on this topic andexamples of such assessments in various field of thehydromet value chain (see Freebairn and Zillman 2002;
Frei at al. 2014; and von Grünigen et al. 2014).
Operations and maintenance. The service partner may
have economies of scale and scope not available to the
NMHS. However, for an advanced NMHS in an advanced
value chain, the risk of becoming overly dependent on a
private-sector service partner is low.

The Optimize realization is characterized in Table 32. (Seethe annex for additional detail.)
Table 32

Value chain outcomes aspired to in Optimize.

OutcomeHydromet market is growing,transnational companies are successful
in other countries.
Internet of Things devices andinexpensive satellites further improve
local forecast accuracy.
Government agencies integrate theirobservation networks.
■■

■■

■■

Uncertainty
Marketdevelopment
Observation
systems
Level ofcooperation

Market development. Market growth can be assessed, forexample, by measuring the tax revenue attributable to theuse of public hydromet services, including open data.
Observation systems. Internet of Things devices andinexpensive satellites further improve local forecast accuracy.
Level of cooperation. Government agencies integrate
their observation networks.

4.3 Good practices
Good practices for the development of a sustainablehydromet value chain or of successful public-private
engagement have been identified through country casestudies. While the list of such practices described below
is not exhaustive, it includes key aspects a country may
need to consider when exploring effective public andprivate engagement. These «good practices» are broadly
categorized into governance, funding of public service,capacity building, infrastructure, and development support,
reflecting the design of development projects. Table 33
provides a summary of the good practices discussed below.

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 59

4.3.1 Governance
■■

■■

■■

■■

■■

Prioritize hydromet services as strategic public service by government. The government needs to allocate
budget to its public services according to its strategic
priorities. Leaving agencies to fend for themselves andcompete directly with each other and with the private
sector creates damaging friction.

■■

Role of the NMHS seen as an enabler for a well-functioning hydromet market. An NMHS that focuses on
public services can help stimulate the private sector andthus multiply the socio-economic benefit that it could
create just by itself. Missing this point means stifling theprivate sector.
Clear regulations. The definition of the NMHS’ mandate and the data policy are two especially important
aspects of regulation in the hydromet domain. Moreover,because the hydromet value chain is interlinked, what
is public and what is non-public service must be clear.
Otherwise, for private companies, the risk to engage is
too high. Clear regulations help to build trust between
sectors.
High awareness in government of the benefits ofpublic hydromet services. In many countries, NMHS
managers do not receive sufficient government support
for creating sustainable hydromet value chains. This may
be due to a number of factors, and the lack of awarenessis a common one.
Investment project processes and controls suitable
for the hydromet domain. Co-investment often implies
that the government directly or indirectly supports an investment, which requires proper governance. However,co-investment typically falls into the remit of institutions designed for large public-private partnership (PPP)
projects such as road building or dam construction. The
existing associated controls and administrative overhead are typically disproportionately large for the muchsmaller hydromet projects, resulting in inadequate project lead times.

4.3.2 Funding of public services■■

Development partners typically do not finance maintenance and operations, although this is critical for thesustainability of observation networks once a development project has finished.

Sufficient and sustainable budget. This may apply toall public hydromet services cost, including investment
and R&D budget, among others. In particular, some governments underestimate the crucial importance and relatively high cost of maintaining observation networks.

■■

Realistic expectations of what a low-maturity
NMHS can deliver outside its core competencies.
There can be unrealistic expectations of what products
and services a low-maturity NMHS can design and deliver. Creating good weather forecast and tailoring weather
information for a particular user group require very different skills. It is tempting to extend the scope of NMHS
activities to generate income from non-public services.
However, this spreads the NMHS thin with tasks forwhich it does not have the appropriate skill profile. The
difficulty of designing hydromet products and services
and also delivering them is easily underestimated. Esoko
in Ghana, for example, employs an agronomist to formulate recommendations for farmers based on the weather
forecast as well as field technicians to help farmers withproperly registering their farms with the service. The
company relies on the Ghana NMHS for meteorologicaladvice.
Minimize non-public services by the NMHS to recover cost. An NMHS offering non-public services incompetition with the private sector can have distorting
effects on the market and impede the development of avibrant private market. At the same time, because the
NMHS acts and is perceived by the private sector as acompetitor, PPE becomes inherently more difficult.
These negative effects can be mitigated, to a certain
extent, by strong competition laws and an independent
regulator that ensures a level playing field between
the public entity and the private sector. Such setups
can also be found in other industries where services
were historically provided by the public sector, whichlost the exclusivity but still owns a major stake in an
important player of the industry. One such example
is the telecom industry in Germany and Switzerland.
While there are analogies between the telecom and thehydromet domain, such as massive technological shifts,
diminishing natural monopolies, and a changing publicsector role, the hydromet domain relates more directly
to public health and safety. Therefore, many hydromet
services are public services and will likely remain so in
the near future.

60 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

If non-competing (public) and competing (non-public)
services are produced within the same organization,
ensuring a level playing field becomes very challenging
in practice. Because the line between public and nonpublic services is often blurry, assigning a specific costto the non-competing or the competing part of theorganization is not always clear-cut. Preventing such
distorting cross-funding is costly and in practice, often
not fully possible because of an information asymmetry
between the regulator and the regulated entity. The
regulated entity has more information on its own
operations (e.g. details concerning the allocation of
costs to public and non-public services). This inherent
information asymmetry harms not only market fairness
but also the perception of market fairness, and with it
the willingness of the private sector to engage.

4.3.4 Infrastructure■■■■

4.3.3 Capacity building
■■

■■

■■

Empower the NMHS to hire its own staff. In some countries, staff are assigned to the NMHS by the government.
Then, if low priority is given to the NMHS, successful career paths tend to lead out of it. In this situation, it isvery difficult to create attractive career paths within the
NMHS. The same is true if the NMHS has no assurance
that people will return to the agency after training (e.g.
in regional centers).
Create attractive career paths. Without attractive
career paths, the NMHS cannot retain key personnel.
Public-private engagement becomes a threat as NMHS
employees leave to the private sector on a one-way
street. At the same time, it is very important that young
generations see potential future job opportunities in
the hydromet domain. PPE and a strong private sector
would lead to job creation, and potentially incentivizing
young generations to study topics relevant to the sector
such as meteorology or remote sensing.
Provide robust training in development projects.
Development projects often focus on providing new
infrastructure to developing NMHSs at the expense of
training. Training is often too short, lacks follow-up, andis narrowly scoped in support of particular project objectives. Development projects should support training
programs to systematically and holistically build, maintain, and update NMHS infrastructure.

Ensure projects are fit-for-purpose. The importanceof adequate infrastructure for NMHSs to carry out their
mission (especially communication, data storage, andcomputations abilities) is difficult to overestimate. It
is thus easy for development projects to target ambitious results, and these results tend to focus on infrastructure. This can detract from the changes that need
to be embedded in an organization and incur the risksof newly installed systems quickly deteriorating oncea development project is finished. Typical examples include the acquisition of too ambitious AWS networks,
weather radar installations, and NWP systems. Rather,cost-effective and fit-for-purpose infrastructure needs tobe considered.
Establish a standard for lower cost weather stations.
Many lower cost weather stations are used in individual projects where they can significantly improve thelocal forecast. With advances in post-processing andassimilation techniques, they could be used in a strategic mix, complementing WMO-compliant top-quality
stations. However, there is no guiding quality standard
that would provide manufacturers with specifications
and users with selection criteria for suitable low-cost
weather stations. With such a standard, countries could
more systematically benefit from lower cost solutions
with confidence.

4.3.5 Development support■■■■

Focus development activities on the entire hydromet
value chain, and not just on the NMHS. Traditionally,
the NMHS provided all hydromet services. In developed
countries, hydromet services developed over many decades, using sound budgets. Today, focusing on the entire value chain opens the door for using private sector
capacities to increase the impact of hydromet services.
Keep the development investment budget at an appropriate level. Somewhat surprisingly, a development
budget can be too high at times: in some cases, this is an
incentive for formulating an infrastructure-focused project; in other cases, it is used to implement, in parallel,
multiple small-scale and fragmented projects without
addressing key bottle necks in the value chain. Manymeasures aimed at jump starting a hydromet value
chain are not necessarily costly, and the administrative

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 61

governments commit to sustainable operation of publichydromet services, development partners may need tofind a better way of ensuring such commitment. The
current approach does not seem to be working. In fact,
it may miss out on promising opportunities to improve
capacity building.

overhead can be kept low to promote agility and fast
convergence toward good solutions. Too high a budget
can change the dynamic from looking for solutions tolooking for the best ways to spend the available funding.
This is counterproductive, especially if there is a lack of
capacity to specify how to allocate the budget.
■■

Appropriate operations and maintenance (O&M) budget. O&M is critical to sustain development and to build
capacity. Development partners are not inclined to support O&M, being viewed as the government’s responsibility. Concerns also arise that such funding creates government dependency on development financing for recurrent cost. Therefore, in the least developed countries,
it is crucial that the transition from funded development
to sustained operations be planned and managed over a
sufficiently long period of time. While it is important that

Table 33■■

Ensure flexible development project design and support technical specification capacity. Finding the best
way to build an effective hydromet value chain is a trial-and-error process, somewhat similar to starting up acompany. It is often not possible to formulate a detailed
project plan upfront and then implement it. Rather, flexible project planning and management methods have tobe applied that can support the start-up process.

The good practices of development support discussed above
closely relate to the good practices of governance support.

Good practices that foster the development of a sustainable hydromet value chain and successful public-private
engagement.
Good Practices

Area

Prioritize hydromet services as strategic public service by government
View the role of NMHS as an enabler for a well-functioning hydromet market
High awareness in the government of the benefits of public hydromet services

Governance

Recognizing the need for a clear legal frame
Investment project controls are scaled adequately for the hydromet domain
Sufficient and sustainable budget
Realistic expectations of what a low-maturity NMHS can deliver outside its core competencies
Minimize non-public service by NMHS

Funding of public
service

NMHS is empowered to hire its own staff
Create attractive career paths

Capacity building

Provide sufficient training
Build fit-for-purpose infrastructure
Create a standard for lower-cost weather stations

Infrastructure

Focus development activities on the entire hydromet value chain instead of just the NMHS
Keep the investment budget at an appropriate level and include an appropriate maintenance and operations
budget that covers transition to sustained operations
Flexible development project design with adequate technical specification capacity

Development
supportHigh water marks at Cochem, Germany. Photo: Stanislava Karagyozova.

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 63

5. Conclusions and RecommendationsT

his study focuses on public-private engagement (PPE), its models, and possible ways to foster its development,
especially in developing countries. PPE can neither be fully understood nor adequately improved without a detailed
analysis of the hydromet value chain. In this study, cases from developed and developing countries are analyzed. Whilelearning from reference developed countries was crucial, organizations and people fostering the development of thehydromet value chain in developing countries remain the focal audience.
The analysis is based on public information, on around 60 explorative and half-structured interviews with public entities,
private companies, industry associations, and independent experts. The conclusions and recommendations presented in thischapter summarize the findings and evidence detailed in the previous chapters.

5.1 Conclusions
The socio-economic benefits of the hydromet value chain are underestimated
The socio-economic benefits of a well-developed hydromet value chain are by now well documented in an extensive literature,
but are still underestimated by governments,—especially, but not only in, developing countries (see Chapter 4.3.1: Governance).
Consequently, the development of the hydromet value chain at the country level is often not sufficiently prioritized, andregulatory policies are developed mainly considering their effects on the NMHS or related public entities. Moreover, somegovernments leverage the direct economic value of hydromet information by selling data, products, and services to the private
sector to lower the public funding needed for their NMHS (see Chapter 3: Case studies). The resulting economic pressure on
the NMHS indirectly shapes the development of the hydromet value chain, with undesired effects on a strategic level often notconsidered by the governments.

Economics principles should determine service delivery models
Services generated within the hydromet value chain are largely information goods with particular economic properties. The
economic properties must be taken into consideration, especially when designing the regulatory framework that governs thedelivery models for different hydromet services. Following a discussion of the key economic principles, such as cost structure,
economies of scale and scope, and natural monopoly, practical guidelines are provided to choose the optimal service delivery
model for different hydromet services (see Chapter 2.2: Economics of the hydromet value chain). While applying economic
principles «mechanically» would underestimate the complexity of the topic and the role of country-specific preferences, theexisting institutional, legal, and administrative environment and the current allocation of responsibility in a specific country,
it is also true that the economic principles underlying those choices are generally applicable and should always be taken into
consideration. Also, the choice of the service delivery models needs to be consistent. If the government changes its view
frequently as to what it considers a public service, it makes private investments too risky. It is also important to note that
economic principles suggest that public services should be publicly funded, while more tailored products can be produced andsold by the private sector.

Government commitment to the hydromet domain is a smart investment for safeguarding the public
The development of a vibrant value chain hinges of government commitment. The private sector can flourish when governments
support a public entity to provide public hydromet services. Development partners would be well served dedicating time andresources to raise awareness of national governments of the socio-economic benefits of a working hydromet value chain. A
government may receive support from development partners to start the process, but ultimately the government is responsible
for sustained (through operations and maintenance) public services.

64 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

Understanding the characteristics of a hydromet value
chain is essential for developing PPE

Developing public-private engagement requires abroad and systematic approach

One of the key findings of this study is that PPE depends
on the country-specific characteristics of the hydromet
value chain (meaning, a narrow focus on PPE does notlead to useful insights). To effectively leverage PPE, firstunderstanding the country’s whole hydromet value chain is
indispensable. To this end, three aspects are crucial: First,
maturity of the hydromet value chain (how mature is thehydromet value chain and each element of the value chain
in a given country?); second, sector balance (to what extent
do the public, private, and academic sectors contribute to
the hydromet value chain?); and third, policy framework
which shapes the hydromet value chain. Chapter 3: Casestudies documents those three aspects for a selectionof countries, and the reference scenarios in Chapter 4:
Hydromet value chain development and public-private
engagement characterize typical cases.

The definition of PPE is not universally agreed, and stakeholders
use the term in different ways. To capture this heterogeneity,
this study defines PPE as any kind of engagement between the
public and private sectors (Chapter 3.10: Models and examplesof public-private engagement). In contrast to WMO’s definition,
this study does not restrict the direction of the engagement,
namely the engagement can be from the NMHS to the private
sector or vice versa. The case studies demonstrate the viabilityof robust, heterogeneous PPEs: customer-supplier relationship,
financial partnerships for infrastructure projects, exchange or
sharing of infrastructure, NMHS support for new products andservices, cooperation of the private sector with transnational
companies, dissemination of warnings, provision of open databy the NMHS, and sale of data or services by the NMHS to theprivate sector.

The approach to hydromet value chains varies
considerably among countries
The case studies show considerable differences between
the countries analyzed, between and within developed anddeveloping countries. The main differences can be summed
up as follows (for more details see Chapter 3: Case studies):
The hydromet value chains in the U.S. and Japan are quite
similar. However, the hydromet market is more regulated inJapan, and the Japan Meteorological Agency has a double role
as a provider of public services and regulator. The U. K. hasa different model of operating the national meteorologicalservice (Met Office). Due to its status as a Trading Fund, theMet Office is required to operate on a commercial basis andto meet financial targets set by its owners. This shapes thehydromet value chain in the U.K., particularly the Met Office’s
dominance in tailored services. Within the developing
countries, Indonesia has a more advanced hydromet value
chain and pushes PPE more than Myanmar and Ghana. Due tobudgetary pressures and the need to sustain recent and future
investments in infrastructure, the focus of the Indonesian
NMHS (BMKG) on PPE prioritizes revenue generation. Whileboth Myanmar and Ghana have a less mature value chain, theprivate sector plays a more important role in Ghana than in
Myanmar. The legislative process started in Myanmar should
result in a legal framework which will provide an importantnew foundation for the hydromet value chain and PPE alike.

This study also identifies conditions that appear to beneeded for the development of a sustainable hydromet
value chain or of successful public-private engagement.
These conditions are present in the areas of governance,
funding of public services, capacity building, and technicaland development support. They are summarized as goodpractices and are discussed in detail in Chapter 4.3: Good
practices.
However, the development of PPE requires a broader andmore systematic approach beyond good practices: PPE
options must be assessed for each country in the context
of its hydromet value chain maturity, its legal framework
and regulatory environment, and the way it provides public
services.
To this end, this study used a scenario-based approachthat can be further built on in any country. Three simplified
scenarios («Jump-Start», «Strengthen», and «Optimize»)
focus on key aspects that evolved as evidence accruedin the case studies (see Chapter 3: Case studies). Eachscenario combines a typical given situation with a strategy
to systematically develop the hydromet value chain (seeChapter 4.2: Reference scenarios).

The academic sector is an important vehicle for
PPE growth in the hydromet domain. Research anddevelopment ensure the ability to innovate value chain
elements. Taking advantage of scientific advances,evaluating the performance of models and of nowcastingThe Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 65

approaches, being rigorous about data quality, developing
and testing new forecast products from observations
and models, and building, evaluating, and testing new
approaches for better effectively communicating with the
public and specialized users should be regarded as oneof the critical enablers of the hydromet value chain. The
availability of human resources with required skillsets
increases the chain’s sustainability.

Key elements of the regulatory foundation for PPE
are the NMHS mandate/duties and the data-accesspolicies
Alongside exogenous socio-economic factors, the roleof the NMHS and data-access policies exert a pivotal
impact on the interaction between the public and private
sectors. If the role of the NMHS is not clearly defined andif there is no clear distinction between public and nonpublic services, the development of the value chain andvibrant and purposeful cooperation between the public
and private sectors is hindered. The cases of Germany andIsrael (Chapter 3.8.1: Germany and Chapter 3.8.2: Israel)show that there is a realistic possibility for substantial
policy changes and a reassessment of the NMHS’ role,
service delivery models, and the modalities of cooperation
between the public and private sectors. However, change
generally needs some form of pressure from a governing
body (e.g. EU directives driving changes in Germany), fromthe private sector (lobbying for a level playing field), or fromthe NMHS itself (seeking to improve its funding situation).

Consistency of severe weather warnings is critical
The recent increase of private providers and channels foraccessing weather information and warnings has givenrise to the coexistence of public and private weather
information providers. It is driving a vibrant debate andpresenting a key challenge in the relationship between the
public and private weather sectors. This coexistence canlead to inconsistent warnings, with low perceived quality
and (thus) low effect (see Chapter 2.1: Hydromet value
chain). No universal approach to severe weather warnings
can be applied to all situations, and countries generally
use unique systems (Chapter 3: Case studies). In countries
where public and private providers coexist, strong
coordination or regulation (e.g. by establishing mandatory
standards for visualization and classification of warnings)
can ensure consistency and public trust. Trust reinforces

the system’s effectiveness, particularly for official warnings.
Severe weather warnings must reach everybody, especiallythe most vulnerable.

Development projects should focus on improving thewhole value chain
Many development projects focus on NMHS infrastructure
and capacity, instead of the whole value chain. Even if
development partners do emphasize the importance of thewhole value chain and the service delivery, the main challenge
is keeping the right focus during the implementation of
the project and prioritizing investments that yield socioeconomic benefits given the present maturity of the value
chain. Adequate infrastructure, particularly communication,
data storage, and computational abilities, is critical for
NMHSs to carry out their mission. However, if incentives favorhigh disbursement volumes, projects tend to end up focusing
too much on the capital-intensive equipment side. In fact, in
immature value chains, project budgets are sometimes too
big, as the organizations involved do not have the capacity to
productively absorb the available funding. At the same time,in developing countries, it is increasingly more importantthat development projects consider how domestic andtransnational companies could play a role in the hydromet
value chain, including in provision and maintenance of theinfrastructure, and effectively contribute to its improvement.
While these effects are to a certain extent inherent todevelopment projects, which are bound by the missionof the responsible organizations in the framework ofdevelopment cooperation, it would be beneficial to explore
possibilities to reshape the setup of future development
projects. The findings of this study can help inform
this process and align the incentives of future projects.
Additionally, closer cooperation with NGOs should be
explored (see, for example, Scenario «Jump-start»).

5.2 Recommendations
The following recommendations are based on the conclusionsof this report. The recommendations are grouped in:■■Country-specific strategy;■■

Institutions and policies;■■

Dialogue and awareness-raising; and■■Development projects.

66 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

Country-specific strategy
1.

Develop country-specific approaches to foster public
and private engagement and to develop the hydromet value chain. The approach for a specific development project can be developed using one of the threereference scenarios («Jump-Start», «Strengthen», or«Optimize») as a starting point. Note that any country-specific approach must be designed considering
the regional and global nature of hydromet systems(e.g. observations and forecasting).

2. Develop an overall strategy at the country level tomaximize the socio-economic benefits of the fullhydromet value chain. The strategy should be developed by the executive branch of government or a regulatory body, with technical inputs from the NMHS. The
separation of roles helps to eliminate bias, ensuringthat the strategy maximizes the benefit for the wholecountry and not only for the NMHS. Additionally, it
raises the topic to a higher level, which can foster thegovernment’s commitment.
Institutions and policies
3.

Support the development of a transparent legal andregulatory framework. A stable institutional environment is crucial to implement the hydromet strategy,
for private-sector development and a sustainable PPE.
A regulator should be designated, and its role needs tobe defined as needed.

4. Properly and sustainably fund the NMHS according
to its role as defined in the hydromet strategy. Not
least, this adds stability to the hydromet market, which
is necessary for private-sector development.
5. Aim for open and free access to all data and public
services produced by public entities to increase thesocio-economic benefits of the hydromet value chain,often via the value added by the private sector.
6. Consider minimal regulation of the non-public hydromet services market. While non-public hydromet
services are tendentially less crucial to the safety ofpeople than public hydromet services, some form of
regulation (e.g. quality standards or mandatory harmonization) may be needed to ensure public safety,
especially concerning severe weather warnings issued

by private weather companies. Moreover, as in othermarkets, governments may choose to enforce regulations to protect the consumers (e.g. in the case of market failures due to asymmetric information between
suppliers and customers). Other than that, leave thedevelopment of non-public services to market forces.
7.

Minimize the role of public entities in the provisionof non-public hydromet services when the private
sector is able to provide them. Consider phasing out
the production of non-public services that are also
produced by the private sector. If non-public hydromet services are provided by public entities or stateowned companies, an independent regulator mustensure a level playing field between the private andpublic sectors. This is especially challenging if public and non-public services are produced within thesame organization. From a regulatory perspective, it
is certainly a complex task which requires strong institutions and a well-developed legal framework, often
not available in developing countries. Depending on
the legal framework, several approaches can be used
(e.g. Trading Fund in U.K.), but note that measuring thepractical success of an approach is often controversial.

8. Ensure the consistency of severe weather warnings,
either by designating a single authoritative voice as
the only authorized warning service provider (e.g. theNMHS) or by fostering a better coordination between
the warning providers by establishing mandatory standards for visualization and classification of warnings.
The meteo-alarm service of EUMETNET is a good example of coordination between warning providers within
the EU.
Dialogue and awareness-raising
9. Develop a structured, continuous, and open dialogue between the public, private, and academic
sectors. This is essential to promote trust between the
sectors and to clarify the boundary between public andnon-public services, ultimately fostering PPE. Besides
the efforts in individual countries, platforms like the«Global Weather Enterprise Forum» are powerful andeffective to promote the dialogue between the sectors
on a global level.

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 67

10. Invest in awareness-raising, especially concerning
the socio-economic benefits of hydromet services ingeneral and their specific benefits for businesses.
Development projects
11. Shape future development projects based on theguidelines laid out in recommendations 1-10. The
following specific activities help to apply the principles in a development project:■■ Use scenario-based planning to align stakeholders
and to create project plans that can be easily adapted
to changing circumstances. The insights of this study
can be used to establish actionable plans for specific cases and pilot projects.
■■

■■

■■

■■

5.3 Next steps and need for further
research
This study establishes guiding principles for cooperation
between the public and private sectors, adding to an
already broad fundament of studies that cover organizationand development of a hydromet value chain to maximize
its socio-economic benefits for the population impacted.
These guiding principles can be useful when preparing
actionable plans for specific development projects.
Several topics could not be covered in detail and should be
the subject of further research:■■

Embrace a lean start-up approach (Ries 2011), especially for immature hydromet value chains, toidentify and leverage in-country talent and otherresources, to maximize learning of all stakeholders,
and to ultimately design fit-for-purpose development projects.
Prioritize and support the review or the developmentof sound policy frameworks. Make sound policy
frameworks a prerequisite for a development project or establish such a framework at the beginningof the development cooperation.

■■

Build the commitment of governments by cost-benefit
analyses showing the hydromet value chain impact
and by supporting the NMHS in raising its profile.
Focus the incentives for development partners on sustainable hydromet value chain impact rather thaninvestment volumes.

■■

Exchange mechanism for global coverage data: Remotesensing data with global coverage, particularly satellitedata, will become even more important in the future. A
global data-exchange mechanism with appropriate sharing of cost and value could help with sustained financing of remote observation technology. Research would
investigate if and how existing mechanisms (e.g. by
WMO or EUMETSAT) could be further developed or supplemented to meet future needs without ruining the existing free and unrestricted international data-exchange
scheme built in a fine balance.
Mechanisms for cost sharing along the hydromet value
chain. An example is sharing cost and benefits of weather stations, in particular lower cost stations that can beused for local weather forecast improvements, and that
do not have to meet the stringent technical and organizational requirements of weather stations used for assimilation or climatology.
Making development projects agile. The big advantage of
agile planning and management methods is that organizations can rapidly adapt to changing circumstances.

Raging river in winter. Photo: JodiJacobson.

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 69

Annex: Scenario construction
The analysis of the models of PPE in hydromet services was conducted using scenario-based planning methods(SPE 2016). The analysis is based on the description of a project «frame», or context, and a «scenario» and starts with theidentification of current situations, available options, and possible outcomes. The concepts of frame and scenario are further
developed below. Characteristics of specific situations were included into the frame. A scenario is made up by a strategy and arealization: options were chosen to define a strategy and expected outcomes were selected to define a realization (Figure 10).
Figure 10: Frame (top), scenario (bottom), and their respective components give structure to complex interlinked issues.
Characteristics of a
specific situation

Situation
characteristics

Strategy

Chosen options

Available options

Realization

Expected outcomes

Possible outcomes

Frame

Scenario

In general, this is best done in an iterative process that allows project teams and stakeholders to regularly review the
emerging full picture as more details are being worked out. Figure 11 illustrates this iterative approach.
Figure 11: Iterative approach to painting a picture in four iterations (after http://itsadeliverything.com).

➊

➋

➌

➍

This annex shows how the three scenarios and frames presented in Chapter 4 (Table 34) were composed from the underlying
situation characteristics, available options, and possible outcomes. Note that:
■■
■■

■■

■■

■■

The scenarios were constructed to be illustrative, not to represent any specific recommendations.
The topics listed cover a wide range but are by no means complete. They are also not discussed in detail beyond what iscovered in Chapters 1 to 3.
It is impossible to completely analyze every single topic upfront, once and forever. The value of scenario-based planning is
in always analyzing topics in a well-defined context. This is also key to the iterative approach.
Situation characteristics are used in the definition of the frame, typically as the frame’s givens; they do not represent the full frame.
Additional frame components include the mission statement that expresses the purpose of a specific development project.
Some topics appear both as a characteristic of a current situation and an expected outcome; this reflects the different maturity levels of the hydromet value chains in different countries.

70 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

Table 34

Reference scenarios (green) formed by combining frames capturing different given situations (ochre), possible
strategies (red), and desired realizations (or future situations, blue). The symbols are used in the tables below to show
which scenarios are linked to which given situations, strategies, and realizations and, hence, the underlying topics thatthose capture.

Scenario

Jump-start

Strengthen

Optimize«Immature»: The value chain
has low maturity. Public services
have significant gaps. National
services have no advantage overinternational offerings.

«Intermediate»: The value chain
meets a few of the country’s
needs. The NMHS is spread thin,providing public services andnon-public services to recover
cost.

«Advanced»: The value chain
serves the country’s needs.
Public services cost needs to be
optimized.

Establish a value chain andunlock existing potential.

Prioritize a well-functioning
NMHS focused on public services
and enabling the national private
sector to provide non-public
services.

Reduce public service costwithout sacrificing quality.

Realization

The public and private sectors
cooperate in a sustainablehydromet value chain ofintermediate maturity.
Development partners andtransnational companies support
the provision of public services.

A strong NMHS provides public
services and enables theprivate sector to provide nonpublic services in a sustainablehydromet value chain ofintermediate to advanced
maturity.

The public and private sectors
cooperate in an optimized
advanced value chain thatminimizes the cost of public
services without loss of quality.

Symbolln✽Given situation

Strategy

The variability of different frames, available options,and possible outcomes are summarized in overview
tables that are designed as shown in Table 35. The
leftmost column links each topic to the scenarios in which
it appears. The center column names the topic, and theright column groups topics. The background color reflects
whether a table refers to the frame [i.e. frame items grouped
Table 35

Item

l n ✽

Frame item for all three scenarioslFrame item for «Jump-start» scenariol✽Frame item for «Strengthen» and «Optimize» scenariosl✽Option chosen in all three strategieslNote that some items are not assigned to any scenario.
This appendix is intended to serve as a starting point fordevelopment teams, and the items are included because
they can become pertinent in a specific situation.

Setup of tables that list frame items, available options, or possible outcomes.

Symbol*into frame components (ochre)] or to the strategies [i.e.
options grouped into decisions (red)] or to the realizations[i.e. outcomes grouped by uncertainties (blue)].

Option chosen in «Jump-start» strategy
Option not applicable in any of the strategiesl n ✽Outcome expected in all three realizationslOutcome expected for «Jump-start»
Outcome not expected in any of the three realizations

Grouping
Frame component, such as«Value drivers»

Decision, such as«Data-sharing policy»

Uncertainty, such as«Market development»

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 71

Frame

Table 36

Framing a scenario, strategy, or decision describes
their context and systematically maps out all the issues
that affect them (Figure 12).

SymbolFigure 12: Frame components.
Values■■ Givens■■ Value drivers■■ Mission statement■■

Definition of success■■ Opportunities and threats■■ Stakeholders■■ Critical success factors■■

ValuesValues are the core values a project or strategy isdesigned to create or support (Table 36). They must
always be considered when making decisions that affectthe project. Not all stakeholders have identical goals, andsome of their goals may conflict: agreeing on the values
stated in the frame maintains a project’s purpose whenconflicting goals arise.
Table 37

Values. Applicable items are marked for the«Immature» (l), «Intermediate» (n), and«Advanced» (✽) scenario frames.
Frame
component

Frame iteml n ✽Protect lives and propertyl n ✽Create additional socioeconomic valuel n ✽National security

ValuesGivensGivens are external factors affecting a project (Table
37). They are categorized as:■■■■

Facts that are known to be true and to not change withtime.
Assumptions, which are believed to be true but have not(yet) been proven true. Assumptions must be explicitly
stated, particularly in multi-stakeholder projects, to avoid
potential costly misunderstandings between participants.

Givens. Applicable items are marked for the «Immature» (l), «Intermediate» (n), and «Advanced» (✽) scenario frames.

SymbolFrame iteml n ✽The need for hydromet services is consistently growing (e.g. due to climate change)l n ✽The hydromet value chain generates socio-economic benefit through provision of both public
and non-public services

l n ✽NMHS faces budget constraintslPrivate companies start identifying and servicing customer needs

Frame component
Facts
Assump­tions

Public services have significant gaps
The value chain meets a few of the country’s needs
The value chain serves the country’s needs
Public service cost needs to be optimized
The NMHS is spread thin, having to provide public services as well as non-public services torecover cost

Boundary
conditions

National services have no advantage over international offeringslTalent leaves the public sector for other countriesl

Low-maturity value chain
Intermediate value chain

 n 
✽
l n ✽

Advanced value chain
The WMO Executive Council is developing guidance for public-private engagement

Decisionsalreadytaken

Givens72 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services■■■■

Boundary conditions: external factors that may changewith time, independently of the actions of the project
participants.
Decisions already taken cannot be changed within thescope of the project.

Mission statement
The mission statement summarizes in one sentence
the essence of a project. Note that it is often more
efficient to draft a rough mission statement and develop it
further throughout the iterations.

Value drivers

Definition of successValue drivers enhance the outcome of an initiative(Table 38). One could see value drivers as the main «levers»
to create value—achieving good results when working onvalue drivers creates more core value.

The definition of success describes the expectedaccomplishments of a project (Table 39). It includes
meeting the minimum requirements plus some stretch
goals. It should state how to measure success, forming
the basis for key performance indicators. WMO document1129 on service delivery (WMO 2014) and the Sendai
indicators109 can give guidance in this context.

Ideally, value drivers are matched by PPE partners’
individual values or value drivers. For example, to protect
lives and property, a government should increase theeffectiveness (impact) of the hydromet value chain,
which is thus a value driver. A private company may focus
on profitability as value driver, which contributes to asustainable hydromet value chain, ultimately matching thegovernment’s value driver.
Table 38

Value drivers. Applicable items are marked for the «Immature» (l), «Intermediate» (n), and «Advanced» (✽) scenario
frames.

SymbolFrame itemlEffectiveness (impact) of value chainlSustainable public servicesl

Cooperation between government agencieslNational capacity

l n ✽International data exchangel n Public / private sector cooperation in value chain

 n

Clearly defined role of NMHS focuses on public services

 nProfitable private enterprise
Maturity of value chain
Organizational efficiency of public service✽

Economic efficiency of value chain✽

R&D capacity

109 https://www.preventionweb.net/drr-framework/open-ended-working-group.

Frame
component

Value drivers

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 73

Table 39

Definition of success. Applicable items are marked for the «Immature» (l), «Intermediate» (n), and «Advanced» (✽)
scenario frames.

SymbolFrame
component

Frame iteml

The government views hydromet services as strategic and engages accordingly with its stakeholderslKey public services are provided sustainably after development support for operations andmaintenance ceasesl

Official warnings have good accuracy and reach affected peoplel

Official warnings have state-of-the-art accuracy and reach everybody affected. The warning system
is resilientlTransnational private sector fills gaps in public services for an agreed periodl

One or more small hydromet-related companies are successful
 nPrivate hydromet services sector grows

 n ✽The NMHS has budget and capacity to safeguard the basic system and services

Definition of
success

Private sector helps to fill gaps in public services✽

Public services are economically efficient

Opportunities and threats
An opportunity is a possibility to create additional
value; threats to the project must be monitored
and mitigated. The following is a sample of typicalopportunities and threats:

Opportunities
■■

■■

■■

■■

Create a tiered standard for weather stations and sensors that do not meet the international rigorous requirements for climate analysis but that add value if properly
used for NWP or local applications.
Take advantage of private weather station networks
to improve forecast results through suitable postprocessing.

■■■■An overbearing transnational company might lock in acountry with a low-maturity value chain.
A minor pool of exclusive observation data could growand monopolize the market hindering competition andinnovation.

Stakeholders
Stakeholders are the parties who are affected byan initiative and can influence it. Every project mustaccount for key stakeholders’ needs, interests, concerns,
and expectations. Examples of stakeholders in hydromet
development projects are listed below:

Public sector

Take advantage of new types of earth observationdata.

Government, NMHS, other government agencies

Development partners bridge the gap between «grassroots» innovation and institutions by fostering structured communication and filling small financing gaps.

Hydromet sector companies, the Association of HydroMeteorological Equipment Industry (HMEI), PRIMET, mobile
phone network operators, GSMA mAgri

Threats■■■■

Unfair competition between public and private entities destroys potential value.
Under-funding can fragment and affect coordinationof a national or global observing system.

Private sector

Research and education
Universities, public and private research institutions

International development partners
World Bank, other international organizations, NGOs

74 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

International hydromet organizations
WMO, ECOMET, ECMWF, EUMETNET, EUMETSAT, regional
centers (e.g. AGRHYMET, WASCAL, and SASSCAL)

among the public, private, and academic sectors to build
trust; and■■Customers of hydromet services
Government agencies, private companies of any size,
private associations

General public
Individuals, NGOs, public associations

Sufficient investment for sustainable operations andmaintenance budgets.

Options – decisions – strategies
The options selected among the available ones definea strategy, which contributes to create a scenario(Figure 13). Options are grouped into five major areas:■■

Governance;■■

Capacity building;■■Public services funding;Critical success factors■■

Public services technical approach; andCritical success factors are conditions that must all be
met to ensure success. Failing to meet any one of themjeopardizes the entire project. Examples include:■■

Accompanying measures.

Media
Social media, web portals, TV, radio, press■■

Shared values, transparency, and shared insight; forexample, an impartial platform to facilitate dialogue

Within each area, options are further grouped into
decisions, which define narrower categories. The five
option areas are briefly described below.

Figure 13: Chosen options define a strategy that forms part of a scenario.
Strategy
Scenario

Chosen options

Available options

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 75

GovernanceThis category includes options for setting up the right legal framework, policies, other regulations, and business drivers (Table 40).
Table 40

Governance options and associated decisions (right column). Choices are marked for the «Jump-start» (l),«Strengthen» (n), and «Optimize» (✽) strategies.

SymbolOptionDecision

General fair market laws
l n ✽Well-defined role for NMHS, focused on provision of public services

 n Facilitate co-investment by NMHS and the private sector

 n Monitor hydromet market development✽

Laws, policies,and regulations

Measure the socio-economic impact of the hydromet value-chain
Independent agency monitors compliance with regulations

l n ✽Open data: Freely share all national surface-based weather data nationallyl n ✽Share data internationally in line with WMO Resolution 40l

Share data with regional associations such as WASCALNo data-sharing

Data-sharing
policyShare data internationally with selected partners under a specific contract
Independent organization measures and publishes standardized quality indicators for internationallyshared datal n ✽(International) quality targets for public services

l n ✽Market mechanisms for quality assurance of non-public services

Qualityassurance

Observations, public forecasts, official warnings, international cooperation for weather and climate
Safeguard aviation
Safeguard marine operations
Safeguard communication systems

Scope of public
services

Safeguard energy supply
l n ✽Government agency or similar
Commercial arm of government agency
State-owned enterprise
Grant monopoly to private company
Government agency with technical support from transnational companies / agenciesl
 n Provision of
public services

Partial outsourcing to national private company
Partial outsourcing to transnational company

l n ✽Private sector
Government agency
Commercial arm of government agency
State-owned enterpriseTransnational company
NMHS provides selected non-public services such as aeronautical meteorology
Grant monopoly to private company
NMHS enables provision of non-public services such as aeronautical meteorology

Provision of
non-public
services

76 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

Funding public services
Table 41 lists options for funding public services.
Table 41

Options for funding public services and associated decisions (right column). Choices are marked for the «Jump-start»(l), «Strengthen» (n), and «Optimize» (✽) strategies.

SymbolOptionl n ✽Regular taxes

l n ✽Fees on selected hydromet services (e.g. basic aeronautical meteorology services)l n ✽State budget for operations and maintenancel n ✽Explore opportunities for the private sector to offer observation data at lower cost than it would cost
the NMHS to operate the equipmentl

From revenues paid directly to the public-sector providerl

Development partners finance operations and maintenance110

Decision
Revenuestreams

Operations andmaintenanceInstrument suppliers price includes several years of maintenancel n ✽State takes a share of financial risk111

l n ✽Private partner takes a share of financial risk
Development partner takes financial riskl n ✽Financialrisk-sharing

State invests cash
Development partner finances capexState makes in-kind contributions112

l n ✽Private partner invests cashl n ✽Private partner pre-finances equipment that it provides113

Investment

110 A development partner finances operational expenses to sustain operations for the duration of a project and possibly for an additional transition period.
111 For example, through some form of a PPP construction project.
112 The state enters a partnership for a required investment and makes in-kind contributions such as providing expertise or manpower for operations.
113 An equipment manufacturer does not sell its equipment but pre-finances it and recovers the investment by charging for its use.

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 77

Capacity building
Table 42 lists capacity building options. Note that options can appear in more than one decision.
Table 42

Options for capacity building and associated decisions (right column). Choices are marked for the «Jump-start» (l),«Strengthen» (n), and «Optimize» (✽) strategies.

Symboll

OptionDecision

Train in country, on the job, embed trainers in workforce for several months at a time
Train at international centerlTrain teams rather than individuals, especially if sending them abroadlTrain on the job before sending staff for training abroadlTrain more people than needed and accept that some will move on

Training

Use dual training approach, mixing practical work with training periods
Adjust curricula for new demands on skill profiles
State budget
Development partner
Private sector

Funding fortraining

Student fees
Train more people than needed and accept that some will move on
Create national professional society
Raise profile and public recognition of hydromet services
Use social media to help create a community
Create attractive career paths in hydromet sector

Retain public
sector staff

78 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

Technical approach for public services
The technical decisions listed below have an interdependency with decisions about governance, capacity building, and public
services funding. Note that the options for running NWP systems were not used in any of the scenarios (Table 43).
Table 43

Options for technical approach for public services and associated decisions (right column). Choices are marked for the«Jump-start» (l), «Strengthen» (n), and «Optimize» (✽) strategies.

SymbolOptionDecision

WMO-compliant stations
Inexpensive robust stations114l

Low-cost stations115✽

Upper air stations

Observation

Leverage IoT datasystems

Satellites✽

Leverage low cost satellites
Rain radar
GTS
WIGOS
Cloud solutionlData aggregation via regional hubslData aggregation via mobile operator service

Observation
data-sharingarchitecture

Data aggregation via vendor’s hub
Develop global, regional, or local models
Run global model(s)Run regional model(s)Numerical

Run local model(s)weather

Use outputs of others’ global models

prediction

Use outputs of others’ regional models
Use others’ local models
Develop proprietary post-processing chain
Install and operate other organization’s post-processing chain
Use software-as-a-service third party post-processing chainl

Maintain own computing infrastructure

Postprocessing
Highperformance✽

Use private-sector cloud computing

computinginfrastructure

114 «Robust» stations are reliable stations with good accuracy. Data types, quality and collection protocols are adequate for weather forecast but not necessarily

for climate analysis. They are often less costly than stations in compliance with the WMO standards.

115 Low-cost stations may be less accurate or reliable than robust stations but are less expensive, allowing more to be installed. If used in conjunction withhigher quality stations they can provide useful information, «filling in» between higher quality stations. They can also be useful in local applications.

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 79

Accompanying measures
The hydromet value chain is enabled by, and depends on, a country’s institutional capacity, the capacity of its workforce, and its
infrastructure, specifically for power and ICT (Figure 1). Table 44 lists accompanying measures that may be required to address
gaps in those enablers.
Table 44

Strategic actions and goals for accompanying measures. Choices are marked for the «Jump-start» (l), «Strengthen» (n),and «Optimize» (✽) strategies.

SymbolOptionDecision

Lobby for clear regulations for providing public and non-public hydromet services

Improvegovernance

Organize inter-agency round-tables to foster collaboration
Provide contract templates for public-private engagements
Organize agency round-tables to foster collaboration

Stimulate
supply sidecollaboration

Engage with national, regional, and/or global associations
Involve private-sector representatives in planning phase
Invest in power infrastructure

Bolster enabling
infrastructure

Invest in ICT infrastructurePartner with mobile mast operatorslCoordinate with NGO initiativeslCoordinate with start-up initiatives

Increasehydromet value
chain impact

Organize inter-agency round-tables to foster collaboration

Raise NMHS
profileTrain people responsible for the funding of public hydromet services
Run information campaign for weather serviceslApply scenario-based planningl

Facilitate lean start-up projects

Agile project
management

Outcomes – uncertainties – realizations
Expected outcomes and their associated uncertainties define a realization, which is a component of the scenario(Figure 14). Expected outcomes for a realization are suitably chosen from all possible outcomes. They are grouped into two
major areas: value chain and capacity building. Within each area, outcomes are further grouped according to the type of
uncertainty that they entail.
Figure 14: Expected outcomes define a realization that forms part of a scenario.
Scenario
Realization

Expected outcomes

Possible outcomes80 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

Value chain outcomes
Table 45 lists possible outcomes for a value chain.
Table 45

Value chain realization outcomes of various uncertainties (right column). Outcomes are marked for the Jump-start (l),Strengthen (n), and Optimize (✽) realizations.

SymbolOutcome

l

Low

l n 

Intermediate

 nAdvanced

Uncertainty
Maturity of value
chain116

Companies start identifying and servicing customer needs
Private companies are providing non-public serviceslA private hydromet sector develops

 n✽Hydromet market is growing, transnational companies are successful in other countries

Marketdevelopment

Thriving market meets new customer needs quickly
State-funded but operations and maintenance are not sustainable
NMHS pushed to cover costs through profits from providing non-public services
Fully funded, including maintenance and operationslSustainability of
public services
funding

No or very few public service weather stations
Some but not enough public service weather stations
Good coverage with public service weather stations
No or very few private weather stations
Clusters of private weather stations

Observation
systems coverage

IoT devices and inexpensive satellites further improve local forecast accuracylPrivate weather stations complement public service weather stations
Observation network deteriorates after initial investment
Problems with keeping upper air stations and weather radars up and running
Observation network runs stably

 nSustainability of
public weather
station network

Observation network grows further✽

Government agencies integrate their observation networks
Government agencies operate different networks and do not exchange their data
NMHS competes with the private sector

Cooperation

NMHS cooperates with the private sector
Limited or no communication and/or data exchange
Some communication and/or data exchange between hydromet value chain stakeholders
Good alignment of interests among national hydromet value chain stakeholders■■■■

Alignment ofinterests

Value chain maturity. Assessment of the maturity of a value chain is complex. We use the criteria summarized in Table
3 to classify the maturity of a value chain as not available, low, intermediate, or advanced.
Market development. Analyzing a weather market and assessing its development may be difficult as little or no data
are available in many countries. Nevertheless, qualitative or semi-quantitative observations can be made and used in
the value chain assessment.

116 Compare Figure 1.

The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services / 81■■■■

Sustainability of public services funding is usually easy to assess, as are surface station coverage, sustainability of
the national weather station network, and the level of national and international cooperation.
Alignment of interests between the national value chain stakeholders can be hard to assess without open discussion between them. Misalignment can be a latent threat which becomes visible only when a project has already run into problems.

Capacity outcomes
Table 46 lists possible outcomes for capacity, which need to be monitored during a development project.
Table 46

Capacity realization outcomes of various uncertainties (right column). Outcomes are marked for the Jump-start (l),Strengthen (n), and Optimize (✽) realizations.

SymbolOutcomeLow-maturity public service provider
Intermediate public service provider
Advanced public service provider
Low-maturity national private sector
Intermediate national private sector
Advanced national private sector
Existing staff underperform and block positions
Public-sector staff leave for the private sector
Talent leaves country
People learn and then teach («teach-the-teacher»)

l
 n
l
 n

l

Uncertainty
Capacity of public service providers

Capacity of national private sector

Capacity building82 / The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services

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Freshwater mud distribution pattern of the Mississippi River. Photo: Elen11.