Searching for allies in the meteorological community: Trieste, 12-16 Sep., 2016

Contributed by Louise Crochemore and Massimiliano Zappa

As you all know, the reign of MEPEX has begun… The belligerent fools.

Prospective work already carried out in the HEPEX community since 2004 has proven that we may find allies in the meteorological community that may support our cause and future collaborations. To quote Martin Best, who has more pacifist views than the McFools clan:

« Firstly, we need to have a better understanding of the motivations and requirements within each community. We need to recognize that we all have strengths and weaknesses »

The greater good may also be in our favour :

« Society needs us to develop a complete end to end modelling system […] to give us accurate information on the global and […] terrestrial water cycle. »

For several years now, a delegation has regularly been sent to the headquarters of “MEPEX” to negotiate and defend the cause of hydrology.

• “Headquarters?” — you may ask. But the EMS Annual meeting, of course!
• And “Where is this?” — you may now ask. Well, this year, it will be in Trieste Italy, from September 12^th to 16^th.

A meeting will be organized during the week to discuss ways forward: ASI10 Interfacing hydrological and meteorological models in forecasting system

To quote again Martin Best: « by coming together we can be more than the sum of the parts. »

Volunteers may submit their proposal for collaboration (or their abstract, as the community often call it) by the latest 21 April 2016. Note! The deadline has been extended to 29 April 2016.

Major questions that the meeting aims to raise:

1. What is the optimal coupling strategy of meteorological forecasting or climate models and hydrological models?
2. How can additional information (e.g., remotely sensed data) be used in coupled systems?
3. How can these systems be evaluated and the output post-processed?
4. How should the forecasts be presented and what type of risk analysis can be used in supporting decision makers?
5. Can hydrological extreme events be forecasted satisfactorily by coupled systems today?
6. How does the scale affect the coupling strategy and the skill of the coupled systems?

And, who knows, maybe we can hope to create a “HMEPEX” in some future days, under the auspices of peace and collaboration!