Hydrological and meteorological (hydromet) hazards – such as storms, floods, droughts, and heat and cold waves – are responsible for the greatest proportion of losses from adverse natural events globally, causing nearly 80% of disasters and over 50% of disaster-related deaths from 1980 and 2011.

Effective early warning and hydro-meteorological services are essential to mitigate the adverse impacts of hydro-meteorological hazards. However, a lack of technical capacity and delivery capability needed to provide effective service are key challenges many developing countries face.

The World Bank Disaster Risk Management Hub, Tokyo and the Tokyo Development Learning Center (TDLC), in cooperation with the Government of Japan, including the Ministry of Finance (MOF), Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), and Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), other key partners, including the International Centre for Water Hazard (ICHARM), the Hydromet Program of the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) and the World Bank Hydromet Community of Practice, are announcing a “Technical Deep Dive on Hydromet Services for Early Warning”, to take place in Tokyo from September 12-15, 2016.

Technical Deep Dives (TDDs) are a knowledge series bringing together experts and practitioners to share good practice and experience on specific technical subjects on sustainable development. TDDs are demand-driven programs focused on specific client objectives.

The September event will include participation of hydrological and meteorological experts from Japan and practitioners from Afghanistan, Bhutan, Ethiopia, Honduras, Lao PDR, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Uruguay, Vietnam and Zambia. In general, TDD facilitates structured learning, and provides ongoing support to connect to technical experts and best practices in close collaboration with the World Bank’s Communities of Practice (COP).

This TDD aims to build capacity amongst developing countries in order to identify the key stages in modernization pathways for National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs). It will be supported with the discussions on the experience and challenges of NMHS development, and how to potentially unlock the access to the Japan’s experience in modernization programs involving institutional strengthening, modernization of systems, and enhanced service delivery. It is an enabling platform to share experiences on lessons learned in building timely and accurate early warning that effectively protects people and assets from loss and damage. TDD will comprise workshops, site visits, peer-peer knowledge sharing and action planning for holistic learning, and first-hand knowledge exchange of the participants.

To support the dissemination of Japanese knowledge and experience, the event will draw from a new report "Modernization of Japan’s Hydromet Services: A Report on Lessons Learned for Disaster Risk Management" produced by the DRM Hub, Tokyo.