Across Borders ICA&D TEAM ROYAL NETHERLANDS METEOROLOGICAL INSTITUTE (KNMI), WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION Global, Europe, South America, Southeast Asia l Information Products INTRODUCTION The European Climate Assessment & Dataset (ECA&D 1 ) is a webbased database that resulted from the collaboration of European national meteorological services (NMSs) and universities of the World Meteorological Organization Regional Association VI 2 (WMO RA VI, Europe) and Regional Association I 3 (WMO RA I, Africa). ECA&D was established in 1999 and obtained operational status as a Regional Climate Centre (RCC) node in 2012. Contributing institutions provide basic, high-quality daily climate data for 12 essential climate variables, such as daily minimum, mean, and maximum temperature, and daily precipitation. ECA&D uses this data to calculate derived information, including a set of 75 climate indices especially suited for assessing extremes. The ECA&D database and portal were developed by the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), which coordinates data providers from the region. The website is an important source of information for decision makers concerned with climate change adaptation. Its monitoring tools allow users to assess trends and anomaly maps, as well as graphs and descriptions of regional extreme events. All derived information (indices, graphs, etc.) and about half of the basic daily climate data can be downloaded for non-commercial research projects and education. ECA&D is also instrumental for data rescue (DARE) activities in the region. Expanding upon its work in Europe, the ECA&D team reached out to other regions of the world, particularly Southeast Asia ( Southeast Asian Climate Assessment & Dataset, SACA&D) and Latin America ( Latin American Climate Assessment & Dataset, LACA&D), and has established an International Climate Assessment & Dataset (ICA&D) umbrella system. The KNMI ICA&D team combines the WMO s DARE and Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETCCDI) expertise, teaching staff at regional host institutes about quality control, data validation, data management, and the ways in which information, products, and services are derived. In doing so, KNMI motivates participants to use the system in their own institutes. The ICA&D system is a cost-effective tool for presenting and disseminating data, derived products, and interpretation. TARGET AUDIENCE The target audience of the ICA&D system consists of researchers and climate service providers who incorporate basic regional climate data into their products. NMSs, for example, are able to use the regional data provided by ICA&D to support their climate monitoring activities. Though NMSs have always been responsible for providing national weather and climate data and information, ICA&D provides a regional perspective that goes beyond the usual scope of NMS data collection. This perspective can be used by NMSs to inform their national climate services. The derived information (i.e. indices and trends) is intended for a wide range of users from sectors including urban development, water management, agriculture, energy, and insurance. In all cases, users all rely on basic climate information for their work. CLIMATE AND CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION Climate Data: The ICA&D system serves as a data portal for regional climate data. Basic daily station data (daily minimum, mean, maximum temperature, daily precipitation amount, etc.) are collected on a monthly basis and are incorporated into the corresponding ICA&D system. The daily time series are mostly sourced from the NMSs, but additional daily data are also provided by universities, water managers, and stakeholders in forestry. In general, any group with basic daily station data can participate in ICA&D. Additional products featured on the ICA&D system (e.g. indices and trends) are derived from these basic daily time series and are also made available online. Daily data is only available for download when the provider has given permission, and all data in the system is restricted to non-commercial research projects and educational use. The ICA&D system makes it possible to flag the daily data according to the policy of the provider. Daily data for which the provider has an open data policy can be downloaded for non-commercial research projects and education in the ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) format. Other daily data cannot be downloaded or otherwise accessed, but they are incorporated (together with the downloadable data) into publicly downloadable derived products, such as indices of extremes, monthly values, trends, anomalies, gridded fields, and extreme statistics. The data provider decides which stations in their network they want to include in the ICA&D system. Similarly, the provider also retains ownership of their data and can replace the time series and metadata at any time by informing the corresponding ICA&D team. Figure 1 shows the available precipitation stations in ECA&D, which are colour-coded to indicate the stations that have downloadable daily precipitation data and those that do not. 1 http://www.ecad.eu 2 http://www.wmo.int/pages/members/region6_en.html 3 http://www.wmo.int/pages/members/region1_en.html 1
Figure 1. Precipitation stations in ECA&D with downloadable data (green) and non-downloadable data (red). Figure 2.Stations with maximum temperature in SACA&D with downloadable data (green) and non-downloadable data (red). As of December 2012, ECA&D has 33963 daily climatological time series of 12 elements for 7569 stations in 62 countries throughout Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East (though not every station has all 12 elements). In Southeast Asia and Latin America, SACA&D and LACA&D are still developing. As of December 2012, SACA&D contained 2502 daily climatological series of 10 elements for 1090 stations in 12 countries throughout Southeast Asia (see Figure 2). Meanwhile, LACA&D is still in the phase of setting up the website and database and KNMI and WMO are involved in efforts to establish the ICA&D system in other regions, as well. Climate Indices: The standard WMO ETCCDI climate indices used in the ICA&D system were initially developed for particular uses, such as those relevant for detecting changes in climate. Today, the set of indices calculated and disseminated within the ICA&D system is largely focused on identifying climatic extremes and the ways in which these extremes change over time. New indices, possibly for specific users, can be generated if needed. For example, some of the ICA&D indices were developed to address socio-economic issues: they describe climate factors affecting the length of the growing season, indicate the start and end of the rainy season, the climatic suitability for specific crop growth, or human heat stress. ECA&D in particular has added additional indices for the agriculture and energy sectors. Climate Indices: The ICA&D system provides climate information, both general and more tailored products and does not directly engage in decision-making activities. However, decision makers in sectors such as agriculture, water management, urban development, and flood protection routinely use data and information on climate extremes (storms, heat waves, droughts, etc.) in their work. IMPLEMENTATION PROCESSES AND MECHANISMS STAKEHOLDER AND ISSUE IDENTIFICATION The primary stakeholders in the ICA&D system are the climate data providers, which are largely, but not exclusively, the NMSs in the region. National and international research communities also have stake in the ICA&D system and use both daily time series and derived products. Figure 3 illustrates the number of unique web-users of the ECA&D website over time. It should be noted that for this larger endeavour, for which the WMO s DARE and ETCCDI expertise is used collectively to motivate and teach regional data managers, WMO should be seen as a stakeholder for the ICA&D system as well. 2
STAKEHOLDER INVOLVEMENT KNMI is the primary institution responsible for coordinating ICA&D system data providers, while WMO provides expertise in DARE and ETCCDI. Both institutions endeavor to establish the ICA&D system in other regions. Already, BMKG and CIIFEN have served as collaborators for launching the system in Southeast Asia and Latin America respectively. Figure 3. Monthly number of unique website visitors of ECA&D over time. Climatology, the collection and study of climate data, has long been a core responsibility of NMSs on a national scale for use in the national context. With the growing awareness and importance of global climate change and its regional impacts, however, the traditional climatological data have found new applications and new user communities. In the late 1990s in the context of EUMETNET (the cooperative network of European NMSs), a team from KNMI expressed their interest in looking at the climatology of a region rather than analyzing just one country at a time. Under the leadership of KNMI, the 25 NMSs in EUMETNET began a collaborative project, which resulted in the development of ECA&D. In some cases, old parts of the daily time series had to be digitized prior to their inclusion in the ECA&D. The WMO s MEDARE 4 initiative and other similar partners were instrumental in this digitization process. MEDARE aims to develop and consolidate climate data and metadata rescue activities across the Greater Mediterranean Region. Today, ECA&D is a collaboration between 61 European NMSs and universities, and the database is hosted by KNMI. Each partner provides daily time series for a number of basic climate elements for inclusion in the central database. Once the ECA&D concept had proven itself useful, it became apparent that this regional cooperation on DARE and recent station data collection could be applied in other regions of the world, as well. In consultation with WMO, KNMI decided to look for opportunities to export the ECA&D system of coordination and capacity building. This expanded format is now known as the ICA&D system. Since then, KNMI, together with local staff members, has developed ICA&D systems for other regions around the world. In Southeast Asia, for example, KNMI collaborated with BMKG to build SACA&D. Their collaboration was established in light of the extensive data rescue efforts of historical Indonesian climate data (1845 to present) within the Digitisasi Data Historis (DiDaH) project 5. SACA&D grew out of Didah as a place to disseminate the digitized time series and to house the data used in the BMKG s 2009 regional indices workshop. KNMI is also involved in establishing LACA&D, which is being lead by the Ecuador-based International Center for Research on El Niño (CIIFEN). The KNMI-CIIFEN collaboration grew out of CIIFEN s 2011 regional indices workshop, during which the ECA&D team offered to set up an ICA&D system for South America. 4 http://www.omm.urv.cat/medare 5 http://www.didah.org FUNDING MECHANISMS When ECA&D was originally established, it was as a EUMETNET programme funded by the EUMETNET contributions of the NMSs. Currently the system is run by KNMI, which is financed by the Dutch government. The European Union (EU) provides additional support, as ECA&D is an asset to the research of the EU Framework Programme. Between 2013 and 2017, the operational maintenance of ECA&D will also be partly funded by the Climate Programme of EUMETNET. SACA&D grew out of the DARE project DiDaH 4. DiDaH is a collaboration between the Indonesian and Dutch National Meteorological Institutes (BMKG and KNMI). The two cooperating institutes share costs of labour, while travel costs and the cost of the capacity building is the responsibility of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment. There is no specific funding for LACA&D; it is currently being built by CIIFEN from its regular budget. Although funding appears to be sustainable at the moment, the future is somewhat uncertain. MANAGEMENT AND DECISION MAKING The ICA&D system requires the cooperation of many regional data providers, usually the NMSs in the region. KNMI manages the ECA&D system. KNMI also works with BMKG to manage the SACA&D system, though, once the database is more developed, BMKG will manage the SACA&D system entirely and KNMI will only house a backup of the system. In Latin America, KNMI is collaborating with CIIFEN in order to set up LACA&D. Here too, CIIFEN will take over full management once the database is firmly established, with a backup at KNMI. The ECA&D team of KNMI will provide additional support to these systems when needed. The ICA&D team that operates the web-oriented database makes all decisions related to the system. However, changes to the system are often prompted by user feedback and/or the development of new userrequested products. In the future, regular contact will be maintained between managers of all ICA&D systems so that new functionalities might be shared and installed to all. EVALUATION The ECA&D system is evaluated during workshops when actors from participating NMSs and universities gather and discuss the system and its associated information and products. Every two years, for example, EUMETNET s European Climate Support Network (ECSN) organizes a Data Management Workshop during which data providers and prospective data providers are able to discuss ECA&D with the system managers. Similar discussion takes place at the Regional Climate Centre (RCC) workshops, where ECA&D is present as part of the WMO RAVI RCC node on climate data. These workshops occur during the European Conference on Applied Climatology (ECAC) and the European Conference on Applications of Meteorology (ECAM). The feedback from the Data Management and RCC workshops is then taken into account by the ECA&D team. 3
In addition to the workshops targeted at data providers, KNMI organizes workshops for climate service users and potential users in which the ICA&D systems are presented and discussed. Staff members working on an ICA&D system are also reachable by a specific email address to respond to questions or comments from the NMSs and other users. INFLUENCING ADAPTATION The set of indices calculated and disseminated within the ICA&D system is largely targeted at climatic extremes, which is useful in addressing practical challenges ranging from the water sector to urban development. In many cases, these systems have been designed under the assumption that climate is stationary, despite the widely accepted reality of climate change effects on the mean, variability, and extremes of weather-related factors. By providing information regarding regional extreme values and their change over time, the ICA&D system provides decision makers with a more complete understanding of the climate system. The European Environmental Agency (EEA), for example, is responsible for informing the European Commission and European policy makers of environmental issues that require adaptive measures. EEA uses ECA&D information and indices to develop advice on climate change in Europe. Furthermore, research articles in peer-reviewed journals using ECA&D, SACA&D, and/or LACA&D data add to the body of knowledge on the regional impacts of a changing climate. Data from these systems are also used in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports. CAPACITIES EXISTING CAPACITIES Building this database service requires: A sufficient number of regional data providers: Data providers (e.g. NMSs in the region) are contacted by email or during workshops and are encouraged to participate in ECA&D, SACA&D or LACA&D. Two workstations with the necessary open source software: One workstation serves as a development/test machine and the other is operational. The ECA&D software was developed by KNMI and can be used for free. A team of three well-trained experts to run and maintain the development and operational system software: Staff members of BMKG and CIIFEN, for example, were trained by the ECA&D team at KNMI, where they learned how to setup the SACA&D and LACA&D systems, respectively. Users have varying levels of climate expertise. Some of the information, such as basic time series, trends, and anomalies, is easily understood. Other information, such as extreme event statistics, is more difficult for users to comprehend and apply. Figure 4 illustrates the five-year return values in the annual number of frost days, information that often requires further guidance. Figure 4. Five-year return values for the annual number of frost days determined over the period 1991-2010. 4
CAPACITY GAPS The biggest challenges in the development of an ICA&D system are obtaining high-quality historical data and establishing an operational stream of data for present and future efforts. This is due to the fact that some providers are reluctant to distribute their data and/or the national data policies do not allow for this kind of sharing. The ICA&D concept is about making climate data and information available at the regional scale, while potential data providers (e.g. NMSs) often focus their efforts solely on the national scale. However, ICA&D has found ways to overcome part of these challenges by providing the option to flag daily time series as downloadable or non-downloadable. WMO s DARE concept has been successful in obtaining high-quality historical records. As mentioned previously, MEDARE has been key to this process in Europe. The regular ECSN Data Management Workshops have also been effective in motivating climate data managers in Europe. In Southeast Asia, KNMI and BMKG organized a combined DARE - ETCCDI workshop. Participating data managers brought their own data to learn and practice methodologies for quality control, data validation, homogenization, etc. To gain insight into the development and workings of an operational stream of data, employees from BMKG and CIIFEN were invited to work with the ECA&D team at KNMI. During this time, they learned about the system needed to establish SACA&D and LACA&D using the ICA&D software. In addition to these challenges, users have also requested services that are beyond the scope of the existing database systems. For example, users have expressed interest in data and derived information presented in a gridded format. Such grids could be used to make maps and could also be used in models (e.g. impact models) and model evaluations. To satisfy this need, however, sufficient data must be available: many stations must be included, the data must cover a long time period, and the stations should be well dispersed throughout the region. For ECA&D, a gridded version of the daily data is available in the form of the E-OBS dataset. For SACA&D and LACA&D, however, additional data series must be included before a gridded version can be created. Users also ask for a more complete picture of the climate and its associated changes. This is challenging, as it requires information about the more exotic essential climate variables (ECVs), such as sunshine duration, cloud cover, and wind speed. These ECVs are necessary for calculating indices such as potential evapotranspiration (relevant for the agricultural and water management sectors) and human heat stress (relevant for the public health sector). LOOKING TOWARD THE FUTURE GOALS AND PROJECT EXPANSION The existing ICA&D systems have different needs and future goals because they are at varying stages of development. The ECA&D system, for example, needs more data providers to supply validated daily data on a monthly basis. It also lacks gridded fields for the indices describing extremes. Meanwhile, SACA&D and LACA&D systems both lack a considerable amount of data, which should be obtained from current providers in the region along with those who do not yet contribute. In the long run, both will ideally be established as RCC nodes on climate data. KNMI also aims to export the ICA&D concept to other regions, such as West Africa. KNMI also hopes to continue linking the ICA&D concept to data rescue activities in collaboration with the WMO ETCCDI and DARE. LESSONS LEARNED The entire ICA&D system relies on the availability of daily climate data housed in a central database. It therefore depends on the willingness of data providers in the region to 1) share their data with the institute hosting the ICA&D system and 2) share derived products with the larger public for use in non-commercial research projects or education. To address different national data policies, the ICA&D system allows providers to limit the daily data download capacity. In agreeing to share their records, partners allow the larger research community to better access regional climate information. THE WAY FORWARD The ICA&D system faces three main challenges moving forward: the uncertainty of stable funding, the acceptance of the ICA&D concept in new regions, and the willingness of data providers (e.g. NMSs) to participate. Both of these last two challenges are related to the national data policies of potential data providers. The ICA&D concept is about sharing climate data and information at the regional scale, while potential data providers like NMSs often concentrate on the national scale and are not used to sharing their data. 5
PRINCIPLES OF THE GFCS Principle 1: Principle 2: All countries will benefit, but priority shall go to building the capacity of climate-vulnerable developing countries. The costs of an ICA&D system are relatively low (two workstations, open source software, and a local team of three trained experts working part-time). The ICA&D concept can therefore work in any region of the world, including regions with climate-vulnerable developing countries. The primary goal of the Framework will be to ensure greater availability of, access to, and use of climate services for all countries. The ICA&D system is regionally oriented and makes all derived information available on the Internet. Daily data are made accessible provided that the data provider has granted permission. Principle 3: Framework activities will address three geographic domains; global, regional and national The ICA&D system is regionally oriented, but individual countries can also use the information on a national scale. Principle 4: Operational climate services will be the core element of the Framework. The ICA&D system is an operational system that processes, stores, and disseminates daily climate data. Updates of the meteorological daily data are included in the database and processed at regular intervals (up to once a month when data streams are fully set up). Although it is not always possible to establish monthly data streams between the ICA&D system and the data provider, the Global Telecommunication System (GTS) makes it possible to update the daily series until validated data from the data providers is available. Principle 5: Climate information is primarily an international public good provided by governments, which will have a central role in its management through the Framework. Data providers can decide whether to make their daily climate data available for others using the portal. However, all data are incorporated into the calculation of downloadable derived products (e.g. indices of extremes, trends, and anomalies). The data provider also decides which stations in their network they want to include in the ICA&D system. Principle 6: The Framework will promote the free and open exchange of climate-relevant observational data while respecting national and international data policies. The system makes it possible to flag daily data as downloadable or non-downloadable according to the data policy of the provider. However, none of the data and information in the system can be used commercially. Principle 7: The role of the Framework will be to facilitate and strengthen, not to duplicate. The focus of the ICA&D concept is to collaborate with or consolidate existing similar initiatives, never to duplicate them, especially not in competition. Principle 8: The Framework will be built through user provider partnerships that include all stakeholders. The ICA&D system is built on a foundation of intensive and sustainable collaboration among data providers, data users, and information users. 6