Improving Snow Analyses for Hydrological Forecasting at ECCC Using Satellite-Derived Data

As part of the National Hydrological Services Transformation Initiative, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) designed and implemented the National Surface and River Prediction System (NSRPS) in order to provide surface and river flow analysis and forecast products across Canada. Within NSRPS, the Canadian Land Data Assimilation System (CaLDAS) produces snow analyses that are used to initialise the land surface model, which in turn is used to force the river routing component. Originally, CaLDAS was designed to improve atmospheric forecasts with less focus on hydrological processes. When snow data assimilation occurs, the related increments remove/add water from/to the system, which can sometimes be problematic for streamflow forecasting, in particular during the snowmelt period. In this study, a new snow analysis method introduces multiple innovations that respond to the need for higher quality snow analyses for hydrological purposes, including the use of IMS snow cover extent data instead of in situ snow depth observations. The results show that the new snow assimilation methodology brings an overall improvement to snow analyses and substantially enhances water conservation, which is reflected in the generally improved streamflow simulations. This work represents a first step towards a new snow data assimilation process in CaLDAS, with the final objective of producing a reliable snow analysis to initialise and improve NWP as well as environmental predictions, including flood and drought forecasts.

The Emergence and Persistence of Payments for Watershed Services Programs in Mexico

Payments for watershed services programs (PWS) have become a prominent tool to protect ecosystems and hydrological services but little is known about where these innovative financing tools and governance systems emerge and persist. In 2008, the Mexican government started a program where they match funding from local partners to establish user-financed PWS programs, leading to the creation of 145 programs between 2008 and 2019. We study the factors that led to the emergence and persistence of these local PWS programs across Mexico. We assemble a unique database on these programs, as well as biophysical, economic and socio-cultural, and institutional variables, at the municipality level. We use logistic regression to analyze the variables that led to the emergence and persistence of PWS. We find that PWS programs are more likely to emerge in municipalities with lower opportunity costs; that are wealthier and more populated; that have complementary conservation programs; and that have more collective land tenure and protected areas. PWS programs are more likely to persist in municipalities with poorer water quality and more floods; that have more protected areas; and that have a non-governmental organization or water utility involved as the local counterpart. These results suggest that the emergence and persistence of local, user-financed PWS could be facilitated through better information on the condition of watershed services to signal need for hydrological protection; capacity building and institutional strengthening efforts that provide the social capital needed for collective action; and involvement of decentralized non-state actors that are politically neutral and can provide more sustainable financing.

Uncovering Stakeholder Participation in Payment for Hydrological Services (PHS) Program Decision making in Mexico and Colombia

Payment for ecosystem services (PES) is a market-based policy approach intended to foster land use practices, such as forest conservation or restoration, that protect and improve the benefits from healthy, functioning ecosystems. While PES programs are used globally, they are an especially prominent environmental policy tool in Latin America, where the vast majority are payment for hydrological services (PHS) programs, which incentivize the conservation and restoration of ecosystems associated with water production and clean water for clearly defined water users. As a market mechanism, PHS approaches involve a transactional relationship between upstream and downstream water users who are connected by a shared watershed. While existing literature has highlighted the important role of non-state actors in natural resource management and program effectiveness, few studies have explored the role of stakeholder participation in the context of PHS programs. Building on the collaborative learning approach and the Trinity of Voice framework, we sought to understand how and to what extent PHS program stakeholders are engaged in PHS design, implementation, and evaluation. In this paper we explored (1) the modes of stakeholder engagement in PHS programs that program administrators use, and (2) the degree to which different modes of stakeholder participation allow PHS stakeholders to have decision power with which to influence PHS policy design and expected outcomes. To better understand the role of stakeholder participation, and the different ways participation occurs, we used a comparative multiple-case study analysis of three PHS program administration types (government, non-profit, and a mixed public–private organization) in Mexico and Colombia that have incorporated stakeholder engagement to achieve ecological and social goals. Our analysis draws on institutional interviews to investigate the modes of stakeholder engagement and understand the degree of decision space that is shared with other PHS stakeholders. Across all cases, we found that the trust between key actors and institutions is an essential but underappreciated aspect of successful collaboration within PHS initiatives. We conclude with recommendations for ways in which program administrators and governmental agencies can better understand and facilitate the development of trust in PHS design and implementation, and natural resources management more broadly.

The Status and Future of Small Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) in Operational Meteorology

CapsuleSmall weather-sensing Uncrewed Aircraft Systems are becoming reliable and accurate enough to be considered as a cost-effective solution for filling observational gaps that could enhance National Meteorological and Hydrological Services around the world.

Development of downscaled Climate Change Scenarios for Central America. Lessons learned and next steps

<p>The intersectoral workshop held in December 2016 among the Ibero-American networks on water (CODIA), climate change (RIOCC) and meteorology (CIMHET) identified the need to dispose of downscaled climate change scenarios for Central America. Such scenarios would be developed by National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS) in the region, based on a common methodology, allowing the assessment of climate change impacts on water resources and extreme hydro-meteorological events.</p><p>One final outcome of the project has been a freely accessible web viewer, installed on the Centro Clima webpage (https://centroclima.org/escenarios-cambio-climatico/), managed by CRRH-SICA, where all information generated during the project is available for consultation and data downloading by the different sectors of users.</p><p>A key element in this project has been to integrate many downscaled projections based on different methods (dynamical and statistical), totalizing 45 different projections, and aiming at estimating the uncertainty coming from different sources in the best possible way.</p><p>Another essential element has been the strong involvement of the different user sectors through national workshops, first, at the beginning of the project for the identification and definition of viewer features the project, and then for the presentation of results and planning of its use by prioritized sectors.</p><p>In a second phase of the project, a regional working group made up of experts from the NMHSs will be in charge of viewer maintenance and upgrade, including new sectoral parameters, developed in collaboration with interested users, and computation and addition of new downscaled projections from CMIP 6 in collaboration with AEMET.</p><p>Finally, following the request of CIMHET, the possibility of replicating this project for other areas of Ibero-America is being evaluated.</p>

Next-generation EUMETSAT satellite missions: key features, improvement to meteorological forecasting, and user preparation

<p>Starting in 2022, EUMETSAT is launching its next generation satellites Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) and EUMETSAT Polar System – Second Generation (EPS-SG) as a follow on to its current operational Meteosat and EPS programmes. Data from these new missions will provide enhancement to operational forecasters as well as offer great research potential for better characterising convection, clouds, aerosols, atmospheric chemistry, and other parameters. Meteorological applications based on nowcasting and NWP are expected to benefit significantly.</p><p>EUMETSAT is supporting users in operational services as well as in research and academia in their preparation for next-generation satellite data through the MTG User Preparation (MTGUP) and EPS-SG User Preparation (EPS-SG UP) projects. The main objective are to ensure an early uptake of data from the heritage instruments of MTG and EPS-SG thus ensuring a smooth transition and continuity of operations for the National Meteorological Services. A second objective of the UP projects is to support the users in their preparation to gain advantage from the enhanced capabilities of the heritage missions and novel missions that are part of MTG and EPS-SG.  These projects also provide a platform for the user communities to share their experiences and cross-fertilise their user preparation activities.  The User preparation activities are centered around five core themes: Science support, Test data and format support, User information and communication, training and data access support. </p><p>This paper will highlight key features of the next-generation operational EUMETSAT missions, cover the achievements of the user preparation projects over the last two years and the plans for the period 2021-2025. EUMETSAT joins hands with partners and Member States, particularly in national meteorological and hydrological services, in the user preparation activities.</p>

Updated gridded datasets version 2020 provided by the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC)

<p>Since its founding in 1989, the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) has been producing global precipitation analyses based on land surface in-situ measurements. In the now over 30 years the underlying database has been continuously expanded and includes a high station density and large temporal coverage. Due to the semi-automatic quality control routinely performed on the incoming station data, the GPCC database has a very high quality. Today, the GPCC holds data from more than 123,000 stations, about three quarters of them having long time series.</p><p>The core of the analyses is formed by data from the global meteorological and hydrological services, which provided their records to the GPCC, as well as national meteorological and hydrological services from all over the world.  In addition, the GPCC receives SYNOP and CLIMAT reports via the WMO-GTS. These form a supplement for the high quality precipitation analyses and the basis for the near real-time evaluations.</p><p>Quality control activities include cross-referencing stations from different sources, flagging of data errors, and correcting temporally or spatially offset data. This data then forms the basis for the following interpolation and product generation.</p><p>In near real time, the 'First Guess Monthly', 'First Guess Daily', 'Monitoring Product', ‘Provisional Daily Precipitation Analysis’ and the 'GPCC Drought Index' are generated. These are based on WMO-GTS data and monthly data generated by the CPC (NOAA).</p><p>With a 2-3 year update cycle, the high quality data products are generated with intensive quality control and built on the entire GPCC data base. These non-real time products consist of the 'Full Data Monthly', 'Full Data Daily', 'Climatology', and 'HOMPRA-Europe' and are now available in the 2020 version.</p><p>All gridded datasets presented in this paper are freely available in netcdf format on the GPCC website https://gpcc.dwd.de and referenced by a digital object identifier (DOI). The site also provides an overview of all datasets, as well as a detailed description and further references for each dataset.</p>