WATER-RELATED DISASTERS AND HYDROLOGICAL CHANGES

Transcription

1 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization International Hydrological Programme IHP-VIII THEMATIC AREA 1 WATER-RELATED DISASTERS AND HYDROLOGICAL CHANGES ACTIVITIES AND OUTCOMES INTERNATIONAL HYDROLOGICAL PROGRAMME DIVISION OF WATER SCIENCES

2 THE CONTEXT FLOODS: NEW STRATEGY AND IMPLEMENTATION PLAN The International Hydrological Programme (IHP) International Flood Initiative (IFI), launched its new strategy and implementation plan with a dedicated side-event during the 22nd Session of the Intergovernmental Council of IHP. The event attended by more than 70 participants. The new strategy aligns with and contributes to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement, and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. It promotes a holistic risk-based approach to the Integrated Flood Management (IFM) that aims at minimizing losses from flooding under climate change and variable conditions and maximizing the net benefits from the use of flood plains for sustainable development. IFI STRENGTHENED ITS PARTNERSHIP WITH THE HIGH-LEVEL EXPERTS AND LEADERS PANEL ON WATER AND DISASTERS (HELP) During the 8th meeting of Help in October 2016, Jakarta, Indonesia, the IFI organized the event Flood resilience in Climate Change is Necessary to Sustainable Development. At this event national, regional and international partners released the HELP-IFI Jakarta Statement, which highlights the importance of the Integrated Flood Management (IFM) approach. Another event that promoted the new IFI Strategy, was the 7th International Conference on Flood Management (IFCM; September 2017, Leeds, UK). The 8th IFCM in 2020 will take stock of the Strategy s implementation. FLOWS: FRIEND, THE IHP INITIATIVE Collecting and processing flow regime data is crucial for water resources management and forecasting floods, for instance. To gather representatives of the regional FRIEND¹ networks to reinforce the global network, IHP organized the working session Future directions and revitalizing of the FRIEND Programme in line with IHP-VIII and Agenda 2030 (January 2017, UNESCO Paris). IHP prepares a call for regional leaders, to be shared with the Member States, relevant institutions and networks, to select new regional coordinators worldwide. They will be announced during the 8th International scientific FRIEND conference in November 2018 in Beijing, China. To support its preparation, better connect researchers and scientists and disseminate the results, a FRIEND page was opened on ResearchGate: researchgate.net/project/friend-flow- Regimes-from-InternationalExperimental-and- Network-Data. ADAPTING TO GLACIER MELT UNDER CONDITIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE IHP drives the global project The Impact of Glacier Melt on Water Resources: International Network for Adaptation Strategies. Financed by the Government of Flanders, Belgium, the project developed the capacities of 235 participants from 19 countries of Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and Western Europe and North America to tackle water issues related to glacier melt. IHP made a video available to showcase the main results of these efforts ( watch?v=0xdflqk6ysi&feature=youtu.be). WORLD LARGE RIVER INITIATIVE (WLRI): PILOTS OF ITS METHODOLOGY INTRODUCED IN THREE RIVER BASINS. Three pilot rivers basins, Danube (Europe), Mekong (Asia), and Niger (Africa) agreed to test WRLI s methodology contributing to assess future trends of river hydro-morphoecodynamics in order to develop and test adaptation and mitigation strategies, discussed at the 2nd World Large River Initiative (WLRI) Working Group (June 2016, Vienna, Austria). The WLRI coordinated by the UNESCO Chair on Integrated River Research and Management, Austria has organized three international meeting in Vienna, Austria (2011), Manaus, Brazil (2014), and New Delhi, India (2017).

3 IHP S WORK ON WATER-RELATED DISASTERS AND HYDROLOGICAL CHANGES UNDER THEME 1 COVERS FIVE DIFFERENT FOCAL AREAS: 1.1 Risk management as adaptation to global changes 1.2 Understanding coupled human and natural processes 1.3 Benefiting from global and local earth observation systems 1.4 Addressing uncertainty and improving its communication 1.5 Improving the scientific basis for hydrology and water sciences for preparation and response to extreme hydrological events WESTERN EUROPE AND NORTH AMERICA, EASTERN EUROPE FLOOD RISK REDUCTION IN ALBANIA IHP contributed to the FLOODIS² project that developed a platform to produce alerts of impending disasters and went into its second phase. Implemented , FLOODIS II is using a webbased Global Information System (GIS) platform to provide up-to-date, geo-localized info to disaster management centres, civil protection agencies, emergency response units, as well as affected citizens. This increased the capacity of the Civil Protection System to identify and monitor floods evolution and extension, thus, allowing individuals and institutions to take precautionary actions reducing the likelihood of human and economic loss both in the preparedness and response phases. EMERGENCY FLOOD MANAGEMENT IN EUROPE UNESCO supports the implementation of the H2020 project I-REACT³, for the creation of the first European-wide platform able to integrate emergency management data coming from multiple sources: satellite information systems for monitoring of floods and fire across Europe, social media, crowdsourcing for professional and citizens along with cyber technology devices. In line with this, UNESCO is also engaged on interfacing early warning alert systems managed by meteorological services with real time monitoring and response actions performed by emergency managers in SEE member states, operated through innovative geo-localised crowdsourcing solution derived from I-REACT and FLOODIS projects, to be applied both within national and across national boundaries. SEDIMENT MONITORING IN THE SAVA RIVER BASIN IHP continued cooperating with the International Sava River Basin Commission (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Serbia) for an improved sediment monitoring and data exchange system for the Sava River Basin, and to establish an on-line free database on sediment. ¹FRIEND: Flow Regimes from International Experimental and Network Data. ²Integrating (GMES Emergency Services with satellite navigation and communication for establishing a flood information service), a collaborative European Community project. ³ Improving Resilience to Emergencies through Advanced Cyber Technologies.

4 LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN RAINFALL FREQUENCY ANALYSIS IN HAITI The LAC network of IFI provided crucial analysis on the estimate of return periods of flood events in Haiti, which fed into the development of a national study on the spatial distribution of precipitation intensities throughout the country. The work was published in the March 2017 issue of the UNESCO periodical Aqua-LAC⁴, targeted at promoting integrated water resource management in the Republic of Haiti. The study provides important insight on the design of works to rebuild the country s infrastructure. ⁴

5 ASIA AND THE PACIFIC IMPROVING FLOOD MANAGEMENT CAPACITY IN THE INDUS RIVER BASIN, PAKISTAN In order to improve the capacity to manage floods in the Indus river basin Pakistan, especially forecasting, warning and hazard analysis, eight Training Programmes and two Master Course Programmes were carried out through by UNESCO and the partners, under the Strategic Strengthening of Flood Warning and Management Capacity: Phase 2 project. The training programmes cover a range of flood management aspects including rainfall-runoff modeling, Integrated Flood Analysis System (IFAS), remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) applications, hydro-meteorological data and flood forecasting. In total, 193 trainees (23% female) from government officials and experts (179 from Pakistan and 14 from Afghanistan) have improved their capacity. IMPLEMENTING THE NEW IHP IFI STRATEGY IN ASIA The International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM) category 2 centre under the auspices of UNESCO (C2C), Secretariat of IFI, has led the plan for implementing the new IFI strategy in seven countries of the Asia and Pacific Region: Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. It partners in this endeavour with the Asian Water Cycle Initiative. They also highlighted the need for an online UNESCO catalogue of activities and trainings delivered in the region. CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT ON GLACIERS IN CENTRAL ASIA The international seminar on The Impact of Glaciers Melting on Water Resources in Central Asia in the Context of Climate Change in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (November 2016) shared and discussed ongoing and planned projects and initiatives in the field of glacier research, climate change and water management, and how to improve coordination among all stakeholders in the region. The event organized by the UNESCO Almaty office attracted 58 experts. IHP is preparing a policy brief on Climate change impact to glaciers melting in Central Asia based on the recommendations of this and a preceding thematic seminar held by UNESCO Almaty office. UNESCO also contributed to strengthening the capacity of young scientists in permafrost studies by supporting a summer school on the analysis and measurement of glacier mass balance. Seminar and summer school benefited from IHP s close cooperation with the Central Asian Institute for Applied Geosciences (CAIAG) and Kyrgyz National University. HOW TO REACH THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDGs)? A FOCUS ON HYDROINFORMATICS AND EDUCATION FOR HYDROHAZARDS IHP s Regional Steering Committee for Southeast Asia and the Pacific organized the event jointly with the International Drought Initiative (IDI) and IFI. The session discussed the progress in this domain and how it can contribute to build a water secure region. The participants recommended improving access to data in order to assess waterrelated disasters impacts in the region and strengthening hydrohazards management capacities at the national level.

6 ARAB STATES FLASH FLOOD MANAGEMENT AND NATURAL DISASTER RISKS In 2016, IHP successfully completed the project Urgent Capacity Development for Managing Natural Disaster Risks of Flash Floods in Egypt, Jordan, Sudan, and Yemen. It developed the capacities of more than 150 experts (including about 50 women), scientists and young professionals in managing flash flood. The project developed tools to assess and map, among other hazards, flash floods risks in for four hotspots in Egypt, Jordan, Sudan, and Yemen, including remedial measures guidelines (in Arabic) and programmes for community awareness raising. AFRICA DROUGHT MONITORING FOR THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY (SADC) The UNESCO Office Harare hosted in November 2016 a workshop to provide training on the African Drought Monitor for Southern African Countries. The system was successfully transferred to 35 experts (9 women and 26 men) from meteorological and hydrological services of 12 countries of SADC: Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The SADC Climate Services centre is keen on implementing the system for its use in the Southern African Regional Climate Outlook Forum (SARCOF) process. REVIEW OF DROUGHT MITIGATION POLICIES, STRATEGIES AND PLANS IN SADC IHP reviewed and analysed drought mitigation policies, strategies and plans within SADC at country and basin levels, during a regional workshop held in Johannesburg, South Africa in March 2016 and attended by 20 experts (7 women and 13 men) from countries and River Basin Commissions in SADC. The participants discussed, identified gaps and shared experiences on the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) frameworks in general and on specific drought mitigation related frameworks and provided recommendations to strengthen drought mitigation framework at country, regional and basin levels within the SADC region.

7 AFRICA INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (IWRM) AND CLIMATE CHANGE UNESCO and the Global Water Partnership (GWP)-Central Africa jointly organized a national workshop entitled IWRM in a context of climate change in Mbalmayo, Cameroon, June 2016 for 31 experts (8 women and 23 men) and technicians from different institutions in charge of water management. A wider joint UNESCO-GWP-ECCAS⁵ sub-regional workshop on IWRM and Resilience to climate change at transboundary river basin scale will be presenting the case study of the Ogoue-Ntem river basin shared by Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, and Equatorial Guinea (Doula, Cameroon November 2017). This collaboration is intended to support the establishment of a river basin commission foreseen for this area in the coming years. REGIONAL INITIATIVES IN ADAPTING TO CLIMATE VARIABILITY AND CHANGE IHP initiated regional programmes to address water challenges including climate change: The regional programme on transboundary water management in Sahel region; The programme on the review of hydrological norms in West and Central Africa; The SADC Integrated Water Resources Management Initiative (SADC- WIN) project, launched at the World Water Day Summit in March Consultations have been started on these projects to generate support and funding from donors. UNESCO GREEN ACADEMIES UNESCO Green Academies provide training to youth on climate resilience, environmental education, and peace development, and are hosted in kindergartens, schools, colleges, and universities. The Green Academies project is first being implemented in Ethiopia, and focuses training on rainwater utilization, wastewater recycling, production of clean energy, and production of biomass and are supported by youth clubs. The programme has engaged youth to develop and implement solutions in various communities to address challenges arising under each topic. ⁵Economic Community of Central African States.

8 Photo Credits: Iceland, CC by Tj Holowaychuk / Unsplash Reykjavík, Iceland, CC by Steve Halama / Unsplash Peacekeeping - MINUSTAH UN Photo by Logan Abassi CC by Maria Inge / Unsplash by Chris Yang / Unsplash Special Envoys of the Troika visit Jonglei capital Bor. / UN Photo by Isaac Billy INTERNATIONAL HYDROLOGICAL PROGRAMME UNESCO / DIVISION OF WATER SCIENCES 7, Place de Fontenoy Paris 07 SP France Tel: (+33) ihp@unesco.org SC-HYD-NOV17-TH1-E CLD United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Oganization International Hydrological Programme