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Flash Flood Guidance System With Global Coverage Programme Management Committee Technical Support Group

Activity Areas (1)

Hydrology and Water Resources

Background

The FFGS/WGC Sustainability Strategy (Strategy) has been endorsed by World Meteorological Congress in 2021 at its extraordinary session (Res. 5 Cg-Ext (2021)). The Strategy outlines the need for a more inclusive governance forum termed the new Programme Management Committee (PMC). The Strategy expands the current four-party Management table (currently including the four signatories of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the implementation of a Flash Flood Guidance System with Global Coverage, that is WMO, HRC, NOAA and USAID) to include representation of those contributing to and benefitting from the overall effort. The Strategy also calls for a FFGS Technical Support Group (TSG) reporting to the Programme Management Committee (PMC) and the Executive Group (EG). The PMC and/or the EG appoints the Chair and Co-Chair of the TSG, with the Chair or Co-Chair of TSG appointing experts of the TSG.

The TSG’s roles are to oversee and coordinate development and make recommendations to the PMC and EG in general on technical matters regarding the sustainability and operations of the FFGS/WGC, the implementation and future development of the System. The TSG provides a forum for technical experts to discuss technical issues and devise possible solutions.

Terms of Reference

The Technical Support Group shall:

  1. Manage technical activities and tracking matters for the FFGS/WGC;
  2. Form technical task teams, that could be thematic or topical by nature, such as training, marketing, and any other FFGS-related topics, as it deems necessary;
  3. Develop work plans based on the activities of the implementation plan and other FFGS-related matters for consideration and necessary action by PMC or EG;
  4. Monitor, evaluate and advise PMC or EG on the sustainability of operations of implemented FFGS applications worldwide. It shall advise on how to ensure the continuity of operations such as system maintenance, maintaining and advancing data exchange (as per agreed in the WMO Data Policy), product utility, guidance logs, IT, etc.;
  5. Oversee and advance the flash flood research to operations (R2O) process, such as to initiate, through appropriate channels, assessment of users’ and stakeholders’ needs;
  6. Develop the functionalities and technical requirements of the “analysis” version of FFGS (AFFGS) and evaluate final AFFGS implementations with respect to meeting requirements;
  7. Facilitate and coordinate R2O activities including those of the AFFGS to ensure transference of improvements into the FFGS operational System;
  8. Coordinate and collate the assessments, as provided by the RCs, of users and stakeholders’ needs on the FFGS operational System and its products identify and prioritise the activities to address those needs;
  9. Manage and facilitate a broader and more inclusive development culture within the R2O Process, involving ever wider community participation;
  10. Support version control of the system as feasible to be broadly implemented and used;
  11. Recommend to the PMC or EG on the prioritization to be given for development and implementation aspects, but also any changes to the delivery structure of the FFGS including the need for new centres, as well as any modifications to the roles and responsibilities of all pieces of the overall system (Global Centres (GCs), Regional Centres (RCs), and National Centres (NCs));
  12. Advance the programme of system component enhancements, based on expressed need or because of advances in data and in established operational applications: assess and advise on the prioritization of needed system enhancements for improved FFGS products and operations, on availability of new types of data for ingest to obtain more reliable products, etc.;
  13. Periodically review its Terms of Reference (ToRs) and its membership and provide recommendations to PMC or EG;
  14. Undertake activities at the request of the PMC or EG to support the overall sustainability and technical development of the FFGS/WGC;
  15. The Chair of TSG shall recommend the appointment of members of the TSG for the consideration of the Chair of PMC;
  16. The Chair of TSG may invite experts to contribute to the work of the TSG;
  17. The TSG reports to the PMC and EG.

Composition

The Technical Support Group shall be composed of:

  • One (1) representative from each of the FFGS MoU Partners, namely NOAA/NWS, USAID/BHA, WMO Secretariat and the Hydrologic Research Center, as appropriate;
  • One (1) representative from each of the two WMO Technical Commission(s), as appropriate;
  • One (1) representative from the WMO Hydrological Coordination Panel (HCP), as appropriate;
  • One (1) representative from each of the FFGS Global Centre(s) contributing to the implementation, development, and on-going operations of the FFGS/WGC, when applicable;
  • Representative(s) from FFGS Regional Centres (RCs), numbers depend on RCs requests to be the part of TSG;
  • Representatives from different regional FFGS application’s participating countries NCs (i.e., not from the FFGS RC), as appropriate; and 
  • Invited experts from academia, learned organisations or other groups/individuals (not identified above) that can contribute to the work of the FFGS TSG.

 
Modalities of work

The FFGS TSG will meet twice a year, or more often at the request of the Chair. This meeting will be held virtually, face-to-face or in hybrid form in location to be recommended by the TSG, as appropriate.
The TSG’s Chair is ex officio member of the PMC and EG. 
Preparatory work will be conducted by tele/video conference and correspondence including email exchanges and other appropriate online interactions, in order to optimize the duration of the meetings.