Transcript Conclusions of Session 1.3.3 Managing Water Related Risks Joachim

World Meteorological Organization
Working together in weather, climate and water
WMO
Session 1.3.3:
Managing Water Related Risks in
Changing Climate
The session conveners
WMO; Climate and Water Department
www.wmo.int
Introduction
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The water related extremes are increasing
both due to increased climate variability,
climate change as well as the changing
demographics, land use and geopolitical
situation.
These extremes are extracting a heavy toll of
life and property and threatening the
sustainability of development.
Under the changing climate some of these
extremes are likely to be more frequent and
higher in magnitude.
Key question of the session
How to make a paradigm shift from reactive
to a proactive approach to management of
risks through adaptation?
Major issues to be bridged 1
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There is a need for an integrated approach of
mitigation and adaptation to climate change.
It is vital that the characteristics of water
related extremes, their changing
characteristics and their impacts on socioeconomic and ecological conditions are better
understood under the changing climate.
Water related infrastructure would require
to be designed under this changing scenario
where the future is not necessarily going to be
a reflection of the past.
Major issues to be bridged 2
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There is an urgent need for infrastructure
improvement. Such improvements should be based
on appropriate and relevant past data as well as
projections of water-related extreme hazards.
Definitive prediction of various extremes and the
options available to mitigate their adverse impacts is
presently limited. Under such uncertain situations,
the decision making processes in managing various
risks needs to be flexible and adaptive.
Downscaling Global Climate Models: a number of
counries possess capacity to downscale Global
Climate Models to national or basin scale, this
capacity is mostly lacking in developing countries.
Major issues to be bridged 3
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Managing water related risks under such uncertain
situations posing new threats to food security,
urbanization, human safety and world peace calls for
policies that are both robust and flexible.
In such policies there should be a judicious
combination of both the structural and nonstructural measures.
Adoption and implementation of such policies
require an appropriate knowledge base, institutional
mechanism, financial resources and most of all close
cooperation and collaboration at global, regional and
national levels with participation of all stakeholders.
Major issues to be bridged 4
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The least developed countries (LDCs) and the Small
Island Development States (SIDS) would require the
greatest support from international community.
Aiming for a further reduction in the number of
human lives lost in extreme water-related events
should be the primary guiding principle in these
policies.
Transboundary cooperation is a must to improve the
functioning of shared river basins.
Flash floods and related phenomena such as glacier
lake outburst floods are a major concern in some
regions and are strongly linked to climate change.
Forecasting systems for these rapid onset events are
pushing science to its limits.
Actions and initiatives to
help the bridging process
• Adaptation for water related extremes shall be
undertaken within the sectoral planning
processes.
• Crop water requirements should be reevaluated in view of climate change.
• Safety assessments of water infrastructure
should be taken up at regular intervals
according to agreed standards.
Actions and initiatives to
help the bridging process
• Strengthen initiatives that aim at
reducing vulnerability to flash floods and
corresponding research initiatives.
• Advocate for robust government policies
in managing water resources
• Establish or strengthen various regional
centers of excellence that help countries
develop resilience
Sound bites
• Aiming for zero loss of life from water-related
extremes. Even though it is difficult to achieve
examples from many countries show that a multi
hazard response setups can bring substantive
reduction in casualties.
• Maximizing livelihood opportunities and reducing
risk: Risk reduction related to water hazards and
poverty reduction principles do not necessarily result
in the same mix of adaptation measures. Livelihood
security is a key to reducing vulnerabilities. Therefore,
rural livelihoods in particular in the agricultural sector
should be strengthened through robust policies. The
efficient use of floodplains play a major role in this.
Sound bites
• Better climate information for a better future: there is
an urgent need to strengthen the availability, and
access to climate information for water managers as
well as other users based on user requirements.
• The past hydrological time series are no more a
reflection of the future. High quality and long enough
hydrological, meteorological, and climatological time
series is nevertheless a necessary ingredient of any
hazard assessment, and will remain an essential
ingredient of infrastructure design practice.
Actions and initiatives to
help the bridging process
• Support and strengthen ongoing initiatives to
bridge the gap between climate information
providers and users.
• Devote more resources and capacity to the
vulnerabilities of highly urbanized areas to
climatic extremes.
• Strengthen research initiatives dealing with
adapting water infrastructure design practices
and risk management practices.