Theme 4: Improving early warning systems for severe weather events and prolonged droughts.
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Data is not enough; information at the spatial and temporal scales that concern decision-makers must be accurate, available, and helpful in order for communities to be resilient and make informed decisions. With the changing climate, developed/developing/underdeveloped countries witnessed an increase in the frequency and magnitude of water-related hazards, including droughts, floods, mudslides, storms, related ocean storm surges, heat waves, cold spells, waterborne diseases and others. Disaster risk reduction (DRR) requires substantial data and knowledge, but data is often not enough. Theme 4 focuses on providing solutions to reduce the drastic impacts of disasters on people and socioeconomic development. This can be achieved by supporting operators/decision makers for better and more robust resource management through early warning systems (EWS) with integrated decision support systems to further enhance the system’s efficiency and communities’ resilience. Theme 4 welcomes submissions addressing innovative innovative technologies and integrated decision support systems, infrastructure enhancement of observations/monitoring/forecasting, early warnings of diurnal/daily/seasonal/annual changes in rainfall/runoff/green water/water flows in different River Basins, extreme weather events, heat waves/cold spills, and physical drivers for prolonged droughts/floods. Submissions are also encouraged on topics related to ocean currents/circulations/upwelling/downwelling, indices development, probabilistic/deterministic modeling approaches, EWS driven mitigation and adaptation measures, global initiatives, collaborative efforts/investment mechanisms, efforts on capacity building, trainings, technology transfer, knowledge exchange, roundtables, and outreach activities at local, national, and institutional levels.
