Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change ResearchInternational Integrated
Water Data Access andTransfer in Asia
(IIWaDATA) Project

Progress report for APN project:
ARCP2006-07NMY-Koike

The following collaborators worked on this project:
Toshio Koike, University of Tokyo, Japan, tkoike@hydra.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Chu Ishida, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Japan,ishida.chu@jaxa.jp
IIWaDATA International Task Team members from participating
countries

Progress Report for APN Project Reference: ARCP2006-07NMY-Koike-NSF
Part One: Overview of project work and outcomes
1. Introduction and background:
In recognition of the need for accurate, timely, long-term, water cycle information asa basis for sound and effective water resources and risk management and withregards to the ongoing initiatives pursuing to meet this need, the IIWaDATA project
aims to develop a sustainable 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 also internationalorganizations that would be consistent with the global framework of the Global Earth
Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), especially its Water theme component.
The guiding goals of the project are:(1) To improve knowledge and enhance prediction of the Asian water cycle variationand its impacts on water resources through integrated observation systems andadvanced data management and processing capabilities that will assure an easy
access to relevant data in the proper format and to the desired extent to researchcommunities.
(2) To support informed decisions on water resources management and promote
integrated water resources management (IWRM) strategies through providing
specific tools and methods for transformation of observation data and scientificknowledge into information relevant for decision- and policy-makers.

2. Participating countries:
Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Lao PDR,Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uzbekistan,
Vietnam
3. Objectives:(i) Establishment of a mutual consensus among the participating countries that willdefine data sharing and exchanging policy and responsibilities for dataprocessing, management and archiving;(ii) Establishment of an observation convergence strategy in the Asian region;(iii) Development/Adopting of effective tools for enhanced data collecting and datamanagement including: software for data processing, quality control and format
conversion, sophisticated database systems, and other tools;(iv) Development/Adopting of advanced technologies for data integration and data
dissemination including: data integration systems based on Internet
technologies and capable of integrating data from diverse sources and various
disciplines;(v) Development/Adopting and implementation of specific tools and methods fortransformation of observation data and scientific knowledge into water
resources and risk management relevant information including: advanced
downscaling methods to successfully introduce the impact of the global climatechange on water cycle processes at the local scale, technologies for information
fusion to link together various features of the water cycle and other aspects ofthe Earth system and thus provide sound information for decision makers,
visualization tools to help to translate the scientific information, etc.
4. Outcomes and products against original proposal objectives:(i) An International Task Team (ITT) consisting of a representative from eachparticipating country and cooperating project has been established.
(ii) The project has been associated with a broader and longer-term initiative –Asian Water Cycle Initiative (AWCI) that has been proposed at the 1st AsianWater Cycle Symposium (Tokyo, 2-4 November 2005) in recognition of the needfor accurate, timely, long-term, water cycle information as a basis for sound andeffective water resources and risk management in the Asian region. AWCI has
been recognized by GEO as a GEOSS-supporting initiative (see Fig. 1).
(iii) An ITT working session was held in Bangkok, 25 September 2006 to discuss thedata policies and to outline the implementation strategy. The discussions
resulted in proposing demonstration projects (DP) that would show the value ofthe global integrated data sets for advancing the research into the water cycleand for implementing IWRM strategies through the actual application of theavailable data to selected basins in participating countries. The in-situ dataexchange and sharing policy for DPs was proposed. 32 basins were proposed forDPs (see Fig.2).
(iv) Work on inventory of the available data in the proposed basins and existing tools
and methods relevant to the IIWaDATA (AWCI) objectives has been initiated.
(v) Collaboration with related organizations and projects has been sought andestablished.
(vi) The 2nd Asian Water Cycle Symposium was held in Tokyo, 9-10 January 2007(http://www.prime-intl.co.jp/awcs07/index.php).
TheAWCI/IIWaDATA
participating countries introduced their proposals for DPs. The baseline of theAWCI implementation plan and the data policy proposed on the ITT working
session in Bangkok were discussed, modified and endorsed by the participants.
A summary of the Symposium has been drafted and will be revised andpublished at the said web site by March 2007.

Figure 1: Framework of GEOSS/AWCI - IIWaDATA

Figure 2: Locations of proposed GEOSS/AWCI (IIWaDATA) DP basins.

5. Self evaluation of work performed to date:
We feel that the extended discussion on the baseline resulted in far better
understanding of the objectives and the work that need to be carried out by
participating countries. The great success is the agreement on the in-situ dataexchange policy by participating countries. An important achievement is recognitionof the project by national and international organizations and related existing projects
and their interest in mutual cooperation. The achievement of these results has
required longer discussions than anticipated and the association of theproject with AWCI has also contributed to the initial phase taking a bit
longer than initially planned. Even so, considering the objectives and originallyproposed timeline, we can state that the project is progressing successfully.

Part Two: Request for project continuation
6. Definitive project targets for 2007/08
The definitive project targets for 2007/08 are in line with the original proposal but also
reflect the association of the project with the Asian Water Cycle Initiative(GEOSS/AWCI). Accordingly, the focus is on successful initiation of the GEOSS/AWCI
demonstration projects in the selected basins that will adhere to the proposed dataexchange and sharing policies and techniques, which are based on the existing
schemes of the CEOP (Coordinated Enhanced Observing Period) project(http://www.eol.ucar.edu/projects/ceop/dm/). These schemes will be tested throughthe demonstration projects and consequently, the IIWaDATA sharing and exchange
techniques (IIWaDATA-SET) document will be drafted and endorsed for future
activities of GEOSS/AWCI.
The work plan steps include:(1) Follow-up to the first IIWaDATA working session (2nd Asian Water Cycle
Symposium) – A report on the outcomes of the first working session and baseline of

the GEOSS/AWCI (IIWaDATA) demonstration projects will be provided in April 2007
(Project Leaders and ITT).
(2) APN Funds will be expended in support of focused actions and leading to theimplementation of the demonstration projects and final drafting of the IIWaDATA-SET
document. These actions will include teleconferences among the ITT members andthe second ITT focused workshop scheduled for summer 2007 (July-August).
(3) The second IIWaDATA working session (3rd Asian Water Cycle Symposium) thatwill be held in conjunction with the 1st Asian Water Forum, in Beppu, Japan, 12/2007.
The same organizing approach as used for the first working session will be applied. At
this session, nominated ITT members will introduce the preliminary results of thedemonstration projects in their respective countries and will report on developedIIWaDATA scheme to national representatives. Breakout sessions will be organized tofinalize any remaining issues. A final plenary will be held to endorse theIIWaDATA-SET document.
(4) Follow-up to the second working session – A report on the outcome of the second
working session will be drafted and the IIWaDATA-SET document published anddistributed. The demonstration projects will continue under the GEOSS/AWCI
framework according to the attached baseline (see below).
Baseline of GEOSS/AWCI implementation plan
Objectives
1. To develop an information system of systems for promoting theimplementation of integrated water resources management (IWRM).
2. To make a bridge between the data and information from the global scale to ariver basin scale for sound decision making.
3. To shift from research activities and achievements to operational use forcontributing to societal benefits.
Targeted River Basin Criteria for Demonstration Projects
1. Importance of the basin from the viewpoint of the socio-economic benefit areaand hydrological sciences
2. Minimum requirement of data availability:a. Data type: rainfall, streamflow, weather station data (air temp., windspeed, pressure, humidity
b. Spatial density of observation stations: according to the WMO standard
but local specifics to be considered;c. Watershed characteristics information
3. Highly expected data:a. Upper air observation is highly recommended
b. Near-real time data availability is highly recommended;c. Ground water and water quality data availability for the river basins
where those problems should be addressed.
4. Size of the watershed: 100 km2 – 1,000,000 km2）

Data Interoperability
1. Metadata design
2. Metadata registration
3. Data quality check and archive
4. Data format unification
5. Data integration function
6. Distributed- and Centralized data distribution
User Interface
1. Datarequest:global/regional/local,observed/modeled,naturalscience/socio-economic
2. Function request: data integration, information fusion, analysis, prediction,dissemination

Data Policy – compliant with CEOP in-situ data policy
1. Release of Data in Compliance with WMO Resolution 40 (CG-XII) and WMO
Resolution 25 (CG-XIII)
2. No Commercial Use or Exploitation
3. No Data Transfer to Third Parties (data should be disseminated through thedata centers which assure proper metadata is provided together with the data
and which monitor who is using the data in case users should be informed
about any update or change to the data or metadata provided by PIs.)
4. Timing for Release of AWCI River Basin Data from the CDA Archivea. category 1 - standard data - data release after 6 months
b. category 2 - special data - data release after 15 months- Streamflow data - (i) operational - category 1 data; (ii) research site
maintained by university, through a project - category 2 data; also remotesites need to be included in category 2 data- A suggestion was made to also consider exchange of real-time ornear-real-time data (category 0) that are crucial for improving weather
forecasts and hence flood forecasting. This will be considered for later
phase AWCI dedicated to transition to operational issues. For thedemonstration projects, the categories 1 and 2 should be sufficient.
5. Acknowledgement and Citation
6. Co-operation between AWCI Data Users and AWCI River Basin Principal
Investigators (PIs)
7. Co-Authorship for AWCI River Basin Principal Investigators (PIs)
8. AWCI Publication LibraryTimeline
2007: Pre-phase: survey of capabilities; Completion of implementation plan; Input tothe task sheets; Test archive: metadata, observed data during CEOP Phase 1 (EOP3,EOP4), a basin in each country in the archive2008 – 2011: Data archive for data collection 2007-2010; Demonstration project
implementation2009 – 2010: Preparation for shifting from more-research to more-operational phase
Demonstration projects – next step
As the first step, only one river basin in a country will be considered for DP andcountry representatives have an action to select the most adequate one according thecriteria above. The country representatives will also identify the most pressing issue
in the basin, review the data availability table according the data requirements above,
and will specify the capacity building needs. For that purpose the AWCI secretariat will
prepare template questionnaires.
Consequently, specific proposals for DPs will be drafted by the country
representatives in cooperation with the AWCI secretariat.