This Forum has now concluded. The recording is available here:
Register your interest in attending upcoming forums!
Downloadable Information Flyer (pdf)
The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) leads the way in addressing frontier scientific questions about the coupled climate system — questions that are too large and too complex to be tackled by a single nation, agency, or scientific discipline. For almost 40 years WCRP has coordinated international climate research to advance our understanding of the climate system and how it is affected by human activities. The decades ahead will bring challenges that can only be addressed through a worldwide coordinated effort, involving co-design and stakeholder engagement conducted by a prepared scientific workforce, to support mitigation strategies and adaptation planning.
This was one in a series of regional forums, where we exchanged ideas, discussed new activities and opportunities being developed by WCRP, and explored ways that our community of scientists, partner programs, funders, and end-users of our climate science can engage to meet these challenges. This first forum in Southern Asia included:
- Introduction and welcome
- WCRP ‘Our Climate Future’ – Helen Cleugh, Vice Chair, WCRP Joint Scientific Committee.
- Integrating societal needs for enabling science into action
Chair/Moderator: Dr. Mandira Singh Shrestha, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Nepal.
Rapporteur: Feba Francis, Centre for Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India.- 3.1 Professor A.P. Dimri, School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India – Disasters in the Himalayas.
- 3.2 Sector-specific perspectives:
- Dr. D. S. Pai, Climate Research and Services, India Meteorological Department, India – Regional climate service activities for South Asia: status and future plans.
- Prof. Dr. Tehmina Mangan, Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, Pakistan – Risk assessment and vulnerability analysis for food security.
- Professor Subimal Ghosh, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India – Irrigation water management using weather and extended range services.
- 3.3 Dr Chi Huyen Truong (Shachi), Himalayan University Consortium, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Nepal – WCRP My Climate Risk Lighthouse Activity: from a stakeholder perspective.
- Climate science challenges and priorities in the Southern Asia region
Chair/Moderator: Mr. Muhammad Amjad, Global Change Impact Studies Centre, Pakistan.
Rapporteur: Dr Priyanka Yadav, Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zürich, Switzerland.- 4.1 Dr. Krishnan Raghavan, Centre for Climate Change Research, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, India – Key regional climate science priorities: opportunities and challenges.
- 4.2 Professor Toru Terao, Kagawa University, Japan – Keynote Address: Research strategies and approaches of the Asian Precipitation Experiment (AsiaPEX).
- 4.3 Showcasing WCRP science:
- Dr Zhuo Wang, University of Illinois, USA – WCRP Explaining and Predicting Earth System Change Lighthouse Activity.
- Dr J. Sanjay, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, India – CORDEX - South Asia: providing high resolution climate projections in Southern Asia region.
- 4.4 Dr Roxy Koll and Ms. Aditi Modi, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, India – Keynote Address: Indian Ocean observing system for addressing the challenges and priorities of the next decade.
- Concluding remarks
We thank the following WCRP Regional Focal Points for organizing this Forum: A. P. Dimri (Jawaharlal Nehru University, India), Mandira Singh Shrestha (International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Nepal), Muhammad Amjad (Global Change Impact Studies Centre, Pakistan), and Roxy Mathew Koll (Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, India). We also would like to thank the WCRP JSC Vice Chair, Helen Cleugh, and JSC Member, Krishnan Raghavan, for their contributions and support. The Forum is kindly supported by the International Monsoons Project Office, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, India (Susmitha Joseph, Somnath Mahapatra, Rupa Kumar Kolli), and the WCRP Secretariat (Hindumathi Palanisamy, Narelle van der Wel).