Over 30 experts from the fields of climatology, agricultural meteorology and hydrology attended the event jointly organized by WMO, National Institute of Meteorological Research and the National Centre for AgroMeteorology of Seoul National University.
The experts addressed the global challenges related to food and water security in respect to climate change and increased climate variability in order to make specific recommendations to the WMO Commission for Agricultural Meteorology (CAgM), the Commmission for Climatology (CCl) and the Commission for Hydrology (CHy). The most impending issue is the shortage of human resources and expertise essential to overcome these global challenges and sustain rural development.
The Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) will guide the development of climate services that link science-based climate information and predictions with climate-risk management and adaptation to climate change. Therefore, the three WMO Commissions are working together to find common areas of collaboration in relation to GFCS. Several members of the Joint CAgM, CCl and CHy Expert Group on Climate, Food and Water (JEG-CFW), who participated in the Symposium, met afterward to consider its recommendations.
These included proposals for a joint CCl/CAgM Expert Team on Phenology, for WMO commissions to work on developing simple rain gauges for non-meteorological use and for expanding current voluntary observing networks to other countries, and for working together on drought issues.
