ABOUT SAHF IV: The Fourth South Asia Hydromet Forum (SAHF IV), being held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, between February 06-08, is bringing together over 200+ stakeholders to explore pathways for deeper collaboration and increased regional synergies to improve hydromet and early warning services in South Asia. The SAHF is a platform for regional collaboration, capacity-building, and knowledge exchange on hydrometeorological and early warning services to build greater climate resilience in the region. To date, three conferences have been held to bring key stakeholders together and discuss ways to deepen collaboration.
The main objective of SAHF IV is to define a path towards deepening collaboration and increasing regional synergies and economies of scale to provide better services and greater socioeconomic benefits in the region. SAHF IV is bringing together representatives from hydrometeorological, early warning and climate service providers, as well as user sectors, development agencies, regional and global research institutions, and academia. It offers a unique opportunity for these diverse stakeholders to engage, collaborate, and contribute to the advancement of hydromet, early warning, and climate services.
AIMS AND KEY TOPICS
SAHF IV aims to define a path towards deepening collaboration and increasing regional synergies and economies-of-scale for improved services for greater socioeconomic benefits in the region.
Forum discussions will focus on four key topics:
Towards a Shared Vision for Building a Regional Observation Network for weather, water and climate services. This session will explore mechanisms that can be applied to sustain and make most efficient use of the existing observations as a region, to achieve high-resolution spatial and temporal observation.
Towards Regional Prediction and Analytics. This session will explore requirements, resources, products, models, and coordination mechanisms that can support the strengthening of regional forecasting, analytics and scenario planning including emerging new technologies.
Informing Decisions ¨C from the impact of hydrometeorological events to planning for climate change to Enable anticipatory Action on all time scales and across the whole of society. This session will facilitate an exchange and discussion on digital solutions and last-mile communication needed to enable people to take anticipatory action, and how the region can jointly progress towards action for climate resilience.
Regional Collaboration to Strengthen the Hydromet Services¡¯ Contribution to Public Services. This session will discuss opportunities to jointly enhance impact-based forecasting in the region for specific applications such as agriculture, mountain weather, drought and marine services, with a focus on user needs and including key stakeholders for co-production and co-delivery of services.
PARTICIPANTS AND PARTNERS
The SAHF conference will bring together representatives from National Meteorological and Hydrological Services, Disaster Management Agencies, Agriculture Ministries and Finance/Planning Ministries, as well as regional and global technical and research institutions, development agencies, academia and the private sector.
This conference is a collaborative effort between the World Bank (WB), the United Kingdom Met Office (UK MET), the Regional Integrated Multi-hazard and Early Warning System (RIMES) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) with financing from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). The Government of Sri Lanka has graciously agreed to host this significant event.