Developing a strategy for future climate projections in South Asia

About the workshop

ICIMOD is organising a two-and-a-half-day workshop for relevant professionals from the Water sector from the key organisations in Nepal. Supported by the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) CORDEX office, this workshop will focus on the areas of priority for future climate projections data access and use and application in various sectors. Inputs to develop a regional draft strategy for 2024–2026 will be sought to align with the WCRP strategy and ICIMOD Strategy 2030 and to support the delivery of information on key trends, events and risks across the Hindu Kush Himalaya.

Objectives

The workshop aims to bring together providers of climate information, academia, and research organisations. Through interactive sessions, we want to identify the needs and priorities and seek input to develop a regional draft strategy for engagement with the stakeholders in the provision of better tools and services in Nepal. This will be followed with similar consultations subject to availability of funds in other regional member countries of ICIMOD for input into the draft strategy.

Expected outcomes

The workshop will discuss the development on access and use of CORDEX South Asia datasets and other relevant future climate projections. Identify gaps and opportunities and contribute to the development of a strategy. By the end of the workshop participants will:

• Understand the priorities of the climate service provider and various stakeholders reflecting on the trainings that have been provided by ICIMOD earlier
• Concrete inputs for development of a regional draft strategy for the engagement with WCRP for 2024–2026
• Identify key actions for supporting the NMHS to deliver improved climate services in selected sectors

Participants

Participants include representatives from the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) , Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM), Water Resources Research and Development Centre (WRRDC), Central Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (CDHM), Tribhuvan University, The Small Earth Nepal (SEN), and ICIMOD

Background

A series of training activities took place between 2020 and 2022 to build the capacities of individuals at targeted institutions to analyse climate projections and produce information products for use in different sectoral applications.  In October 2020, ICIMOD and the Met Office, UK’s national meteorological agency, partnered with the WCRP of WMO, the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) – Pune, organised a training on regional climate change projections: Climate change analysis using CORDEX regional climate models over South Asia. As a follow-on activity to the 2020 training, country focused trainings were organised for professionals from different national meteorological and hydrological services (NMHS) in ARRCC focal countries– Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan. The 2021 two trainings were held on using CORDEX regional climate models to carry out spatial and temporal analysis of climate change over South Asia for the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology of Nepal in June and for Bangladesh University for Engineering and Technology (BUET) and other academic institutions in December, 2021 and for Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) and Institute of Water Modelling (IWM) in March 2022. In June 2022 a regional training was held to introduce the climate data analytical tool which focused on calculation and spatial and temporal analysis of climate indices of few representative models for a defined area of interest. In December 2022, a training on spatial and temporal analysis of CORDEX data sets was provided to the participants from Bhutan with a resource person from IITM. The participants expressed the need and interest to further work on future climate projections for various sectors and increase its understanding and utility.

Agenda