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APFM Newsletter No.18, December 2008
Download (PDF): Newsletter No.18
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IWRM and Climate Change Adaptation - Collaborative Activities with Cap-Net |
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As part of a wider collaboration between WMO and Cap-Net/UNDP (Capacity Building for Integrated Water Resources Management), training materials have been developed for short courses on the topic "IWRM as a vehicle for Climate Change Adaptation in the Water Sector: Acting today, preparing for tomorrow". The course materials was used in three International Training of Trainers Courses in Panama City (August), Cairo (October) and Kuala Lumpur (November). Each of those trainings was attended by some 25-30 participants who will in future provide trainings on the topic in their respective regional and national fora. The lessons learnt from those three trainings were taken on board in a Materials Finalization Workshop, held in Geneva, from 17-19 November. The training package is scheduled to be launched at the 5th World Water Forum in Istanbul in March 2009. |
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Lecture in the JICA Training course |
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 Lecture on the Integrated Flood Management was delivered in the training course; "Comprehensive Management of River and Dam" organized by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on 3 October 2008. This training course provided knowledge and skills in the planning and the design of river
improvement and water resources management to flood practitioners and water resources managers, under the supervision of Infrastructure Development Institute (IDI) of Japan. 12 trainees from China, Indonesia, Iran, Mauritania, Myanmar, Pakistan, Syria and Viet Nam participated. Mr. Avinash Tyagi, Director, Climate and Water Department at WMO joined the lecture as an advisor and facilitated the discussion following the lecture. The lecture provided an opportunity to acquire comprehensive understanding of formulating flood management strategies through sharing the views with participants from various backgrounds.
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Training of Trainers' workshop on Integrated Flood Management in Lima, Peru |
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 In the framework of the Ibero-American Cooperation Programme in Meteorology and Hydrology of Spain, a Training of Trainers on IFM was held in October 2008 in Lima, Peru. Roving seminars on the subject will be conducted in Spanish-speaking countries of Central and South America in the following years. The Training was held in the headquarters of SENAMHI (the National Meteorological and Hydrological Service of Peru) in Lima, Peru, from 6 to 10 October 2008. It was co-organized by WMO, SENAMHI and Cap-Net.
The ToT was attended by 20 professors in hydrology, hydraulics, or similar disciplines from 9 countries (1 from Bolivia, 2 each from Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Uruguay, Venezuela, and 5 from Peru) including 17 local observers.
As a follow up of the Training, several professors who participated in the workshop have initiated actions to include the IFM concepts in the postgraduate programmes of their respective universities. Meanwhile, local participants are busy preparing project proposals to adopt the IFM approach in the new institutions being created under the recently approved Water Law of Peru.
For more information please visit:
http://www.apfm.info/peru_workshop.htm
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Commission for Hydrology |
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 Commission for Hydrology during its recently concluded 13th session from 4-12 November 2008 in Geneva welcomed the move to set up a HelpDesk for IFM and decided to provide the necessary technical support. The Commission also took a number of important decisions in respect of flood forecasting, flood risk assessment and quality management framework activities under the Hydrology and Water Resources Program of WMO. It also reviewed the project on Flash Flood Guidance being implemented under its technical guidance.
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| HelpDesk for Integrated Flood Management |
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 The Associated Programme on Flood Management (APFM) has developed and advocated the Integrated Flood Management (IFM) approach since 2001 with the aim of minimizing losses of live from flooding and maximizing the net-benefits from floodplains in the wider context of Integrated Water Resources Management. The constituent bodies of WMO (WMO Congress, Executive Council and the Commission for Hydrology) have mandated WMO, through APFM, to establish a HelpDesk for Integrated Flood Management that will provide guidance on flood management policy, strategy, and institutional development related to flood issues to countries that decide to adopt an integrated approach to flood management.
The IFM HelpDesk would function through a decentralized network of technical partner institutions that form the "HelpDesk Support Base". More than 25 prospective support base partners comprising public and private sector institutions engaged in flood management on the international level, met in a workshop in Geneva, Switzerland from 13-14 November 2008. This workshop provided a forum to understand the HelpDesk mechanism and institutional arrangement foreseen for its operation in order to be able to refine those arrangements and to define the role of different partners within the IFM HelpDesk.
These support base partners offered in kind support for the operation of the HelpDesk. This has provided the necessary momentum for the official launch of the HelpDesk at the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, to be organised in Geneva, Switzerland on the 15-19 June 2009.
For more information please visit:
http://www.apfm.info/helpdesk/helpdeskworkshop.htm
Or contact: floodmanagement@wmo.int
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| International Flood Initiative |
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The third meeting of the Advisory Committee and Management Committee of the International Flood Initiative (IFI) was held at the International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM) in Tsukuba on the 2nd October 2008. During the meeting it was decided that a series of reference documents would be prepared under the umbrella of IFI, and coordinated by WMO. This reference document series will supplement the APFM Tools Series.
APFM is closely working with ICHARM to build synergy between the outputs of the two partners. HelpDesk would help in delivering the technical assistance aspect of IFI . UNESCO the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the United Nations University (UNU), the International Associstion of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS), and the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR). IFI's main activities are research, education and training, information networking, human resources networking for good governance, and technical assistance. |
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| Dissemination of IFM concept |
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The APFM took part in two workshops that provided opportunity to disseminate IFM concept at various interdisciplinary fora. The first was at the 21st EAROPH (Eastern Regional Organization for Planning and Housing) World Congress and Mayors' Caucus held in Hyogo, Japan from 21 to 24 October 2008. The APFM made two presentations which were, "IFM in the context of development planning and community participation" and "Organizing Community Participation for Integrated Flood Management". The audience were mostly urban and city planners from New Zealand, Japan, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia.
The other was at the Second International Conference on Road & Environment organized by the International Road Federation (IRF), Geneva, Switzerland from 10 to 11 November 2008. Under the water management session, integrated approach to flood management was presented to the experts on road and transportation planning. The audience were from both public and private sectors, such as transportation ministries, environmental agencies and insurance firms. The presentation also covered pilot road management cases in France (road submersion risk indices) and Japan (special legislation for urban floods), and discussed the role of flood forecasts within the IFM concept. |
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| Announcement of the APFM activities |
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| Website for IFM HelpDesk |
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A website for the HelpDesk for Integrated Flood Management has been released. APFM has also released logo for IFM HelpDesk.
| APFM has also released logo for IFM HelpDesk. |
 | For more information please visit:
http://www.floodmanagement.info
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New Tools for Integrated Flood Management released |
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In its efforts to provide guidance tools for flood managers and various other specialists working in flood management and facilitate communication among experts from various disciplines, APFM continues to launch new tools under the umbrella of the "Flood Management Tools Series". Following tools are now available:
• Applying Environmental Assessment for Flood Management (0.4 MB)
• Conducting Flood Loss Assessments (0.7 MB)
• Formulating a Basin Flood Management Plan (1.4 MB)
• Organizing Community Participation for Flood Management (0.7 MB)
• Reservoir Operations and Managed Flows (0.5 MB)
• The Role of Land-Use Planning in Flood Management (1.3 MB)
New Tools released!!
• Urban Flood Risk Management (1.4 MB)
APFM encourages flood managers and other experts engaged in flood management to participate in the enrichment of the "Flood Management Tools Series".
Please submit your inputs to the following e-mail address: apfm@wmo.int indicating in the 'Subject' line the name of the particular Tool.
For more information, please see
http://www.apfm.info/ifm_tools.htm |
| Water and Flood issues on World Radio Switzerland |
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The Director of WMO's Climate and Water Department, and Head of the APFM Technical Support Unit, Avinash C. Tyagi, provided an in-depth interview on World Radio Switzerland (WRS) on the topic of the "Water: a critical resource". In his remarks he pointed out some of the major challenges faced by water managers today and in the future and outlined necessary policy options and reforms for the sector, including the necessary policy reform for sustainable flood management.
The full interview is available at:
http://www.worldradio.ch/wrs/bm~doc/water-yourspace.mp3 |
| 8th IAHS Scientific Assembly and 37th IAH Congress |
The joint conference will be held in Hyderabad, India from 6th to 12th September, 2009 thereby providing opportunity for the members of both Associations from all over the world to interact, share and discuss their experiences, issues of mutual interest and also initiate joint research programmes to address varied hydrological problems of local and global importance. APFM will organise a special session on Integrated Flood Management.
For more information please visit:
http://www.appliedhydrology.org/iahs/ | |
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