WCRP Global Drought Information System Workshop

REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED

Workshop Flyer

Overview

Among the key recommendations of a recent WCRP Workshop on Drought Predictability and Prediction in a Changing Climate, is the development of an experimental global drought information system (GDIS).  The timeliness of such an effort is evidenced by the wide array of relevant on-going national and international (as well as regional and continental scale) efforts to provide drought information, including the US and North American drought monitors, and various integrating activities such as GEO and the Global Drought Portal. In addition to the evolving drought information systems, there are a number of other emerging capabilities that could become important components of any GDIS. These include regional and global experimental hydrological forecasting capabilities and a number of national and international near real time global multi-model seasonal (short term climate) forecasting capabilities.  Also relevant are two additional action items that arose from the WCRP drought workshop to, develop a drought catalogue, and to conduct coordinated research on specific high-profile case studies of past droughts.

This workshop will focus on the steps necessary to develop a GDIS that builds upon the extensive world-wide investments that have already been made in developing drought monitoring, drought risk management, and short term climate prediction capabilities. The success of a GDIS will be measured by its ability to provide timely drought-related information and predictions that can inform decision-making.  It is anticipated that the workshop goals and participants will be further guided by a questionnaire currently being developed by WCRP to assess the “World-wide needs and existing capabilities for a Global Drought Information System”.

Organising Committee

Siegfried Schubert (NASA)
Douglas Cripe (GEO)
Kingtse Mo (NOAA)
Michel Verstraete (JRC)
Will Pozzi (GEO)
Michael Hayes (UNL)
Kathleen Smart (CSIR)
Pierre-Philippe Mathieu (ESA)

Agenda

The draft workshop agenda can be downloaded here. 

There will be four poster sessions during the workshop. If you would like to present a poster, please submit an abstract during registration for consideration by the organising committee.

Venue

The workshop will be held at the European Space Agency's centre for Earth observation - ESRIN.

ESRIN is located in Frascati, south of Rome, Italy.

Students

Limited funding is available to support student travel to the workshop. If you would like to be considered for travel support, please contact Catherine Beswick with your funding requests after registering.

Accommodation

The ESRIN Travel Office can book your accommodation (and airport transfers) in any one of the hotels listed on the hotel reservation form. Please return your completed forms as soon as possible, as per the instructions on the form. Please note that there are a limited number of rooms available in the hotels mentioned, and are booked on a first come first served basis.

There will be a courtesy bus that will take participants from any of the hotels mentioned on the form to ESRIN and back.

Further information and practical arrangements can also be found on the hotel reservation form. 

Contact

The CLIVAR contact for this event is Catherine Beswick.

Sponsors