Global Hydrological Status and Outlook System (HydroSOS)

WMO’s Global Hydrological Status and Outlook System (HydroSOS) strengthens country capacity across the hydrological value chain, to help produce standardized information on the current state of the water resources and forecast the situation for the next days or months. HydroSOS is the backbone supporting the Early Warnings for All initiative for hydrological disasters and thus supports local resilience and preparedness.

HydroSOS builds Members’ capacity and link existing systems to provide status and outlook products and services. Wherever such systems and capacities are not adequate or not existing, HydroSOS works to build new components/infrastructure and capacities.

Once implemented at various national to global scales, HydroSOS will:

• Improve capacity/infrastructure and capability of countries to manage and plan water resources (including storage and allocation), as well as for disaster risk reduction (for example, flood and drought), and climate adaptation and mitigation actions;
• Enhance cooperation for the management of transboundary watersheds and use of hydrological data between countries;
• Improve science-based information on hydrological status and outlook products for water resources management; and
• Operationalize backbone for the Global Water Information System.