At this workshop, it is aimed to provide a platform for enhanced interactions between the water community and the climate community within the South Asian countries with the objective of making best use of the South Asia Drought Monitoring System (SADMS). Expected participants include, key agencies in each countries, many of which have responded to the need assessment survey, with a mandate on drought/disaster monitoring and management.
Objectives of the workshop:
This interactive workshop is being planned with the conclusion of Phase I, to have interim consultation with national counterparts to validate the system before it is made operational and to make it user friendly. The objectives of the workshop are;
- Present the beta version of SADMS in corporation with key partners in South Asia,
- Have a dialogue with national partners of their country requirements to ensure it responds to the need of users,
- Start a discussion on how to integrate the results of the SADMS to regional, national and state level decision making processes.
- To have initial awareness on the final product and attract the attention of key actors in the water and climate community.
This workshop is being scheduled in combination with the 6th South Asian Climate Outlook Forum and the Climate Services User Forum (CSUF) for the Water Sector which will be taking place from 21 to 23 April 2015 in Dhaka.
Background:
A Needs and Capacity Assessment Survey on drought monitoring was conducted in Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka with the assistance of GWP Country Water Partnerships in early 2014. The assessment revealed that there is no validated system of early warning on drought that could meet the requirement for a high spatial resolution in any of the surveyed countries. Further impetus to develop the SADMS was given at the workshop on drought monitoring held in 5th South Asian Climate Outlook Forum (SASCOF-5) in Pune, India on April 2014, which gathered climate experts of the region.
With this background, the project on “Development of South Asia Drought Monitoring System” was initiated jointly with IWMI, GWP SAS and WMO/GWP-IDMP. The key partners are other intergovernmental, governmental and non-governmental organizations involved in drought monitoring, prediction, drought-risk reduction and management. The Phase I is being concluded while Phase II is being planned for May to December 2015. The project will develop an online drought monitoring system for South Asia that will be based on spatial composite maps of drought indices updated approximately every week or bi-weekly using satellite observations.