Interim Report for CAPaBLE Project (2009)
CBA2008-12NMY-Ishida
Part One (350 words)
1. Project Title“The Global Earth Observation System of Systems Asian Water Cycle Initiative Observation
Convergence and Data Integration (GEOSS/AWCI/OCDI)” for water cycle research and water resourcesmanagement under climate change in Asia.
2. Project Leader Details: Name, Institution, Email Address, Website
Mr. Chu Ishida, Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS)/Japan Aerospace Cooperation Agency(JAXA), Japan, ishida.chu@jaxa.jp, http://www.jaxa.jp
Dr. Toshio Koike, Professor, University of Tokyo, Japan, tkoike@hydra.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp
3.

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

Non-technical summary
In recognition of the need for accurate, timely, long-term, water cycle information as a basis forsound and effective water resources and risk management and with regards to the ongoing initiatives
pursuing to meet this need, the GEOSS/AWCI/OCDI project has been initiated. The project follows-up on
the data focus of the IIWaDATA project (ARCP2007-02CMY) and is contributing to the development of asustainable scheme for water cycle data collecting, sharing, exchanging, and management at the regional
level in Asia in cooperation with national governments, institutes and research communities and alsointernational organizations.
Through a series of meetings, the IIWaDATA project established a mutual consensus among theparticipating countries and international organizations that defines data sharing and exchanging policy
and responsibilities for data processing, management and archiving. This strong cooperative frameworkhas evolved into a large regional initiative recognized by the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) as a
GEOSS activity: GEOSS Asian Water Cycle Initiative (AWCI). The GEOSS/AWCI/OCDI project has beenfurther significantly contributing to the development of the Data Integration and Analysis System (DIAS)
that was launched in 2006 as part of the Earth Observation and Ocean Exploration System, which is oneof five National Key Technologies defined by the 3rd Basic Program for Science and Technology of Japan.
Part Two
1. Project Objectives
The aim is to develop an information system of systems for promoting the implementation ofintegrated water resources management (IWRM) through data integration and sharing as a basis forsound decision making of national water policies.
The project contributes to the AWCI objectives that include:
1. To develop Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) approaches;
2. To share timely, quality, long-term information on water quantity and quality, and their variation as abasis for sound national and regional decision making;3. To construct a comprehensive, coordinated and sustained observational system of systems, such asprediction systems and decision support capabilities, under the GEOSS;
4. To develop capacity building for making maximum use of globally integrated data and information for
local purposes as well as for observation and collecting data.
3. Relevance to the APN’s Science and Policy Agendas
Science Agenda – GEOSS/AWCI/OCDI focuses on specific science issues related to climate,atmosphere/land interactions, and impacts of water cycle variability on resources as a way of addressing
capabilities for sustainable development. By surveying existing and the development of new methodsrelated to these scientific and societal issues, GEOSS/AWCI/OCDI will contribute to the improvement ofthe effectiveness of transfers of scientific knowledge to decision-makers in the Asian region.
Policy Agenda – By cooperating with other institutions and bodies that address issues relating toscience policy interactions such as WMO, ICSU, IOC, UNESCO, and others, the project is embracing aspecific APN strategy formulated under its Policy Agenda.
4. Work undertaken and results to date
A kick-off plenary meeting, that included AWCI International Coordination Group (ICG) members,
was held at the occasion of the 4th Conference of the Asia Pacific Association of Hydrology and Water
Resources (APHW), in Beijing, China, 3-5 November, 2008. A full day special session on AWCI was held on
5 November and the 3rd meeting of the AWCI followed at the same venue on 6 November. The 3rd AWCIICG meeting reviewed the progress of the AWCI activities, with a focus on the AWCI Demonstration
Projects (DPs) for 18 river basins in the participating countries. 10 out of the 18 river basins are now
ready to upload raw observation data. Detailed hydrological models were developed for the DPs of fourriver basins (the Tone River (Japan), Meghna River (Bangladesh), Pampanga River (Philippines), andHuong River (Vietnam). The activities of the 3 Working Groups (WGs) (Flood and Landslides, Drought andWater Scarcity, and Water Quality) were also reviewed. It was decided to establish the fourth WG on
Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation. WGs identified priority activities and agreed to develop theirimplementation plan at next ICG meeting in Kyoto. In addition, two related capacity building workshops
were held in Indonesia (July) and Bangladesh (August) that addressed rainfall downscaling, hydrologicalmodeling, flood risk management, etc.
5. Self evaluation against project objectives
The first year of the project has been successful in transferring from planning to implementation. Since
the beginning of 2008, meta-data and data archiving and data quality check for the 18 demonstration
river basins has started. Development of training modules and their integration for the demonstration
projects are being implemented. Applications of newly developed distributed hydrological models to thefour demonstration river basins showed significant advantage of such modeling technique for water
resource management and disaster risk reduction. These GEOSS/AWCI/OCDI project activities havesignificantly contributed to the AWCI Demonstration Projects and Capacity Building plan implementation(http://monsoon.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/AWCI/).
6.

Publications (to date and/or pending): None

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