WMO/FAO/EUMETSAT/MeteoRomania Virtual Training Course on the Use of Satellite Products on Drought Monitoring and Applications in Agrometeorology

Romania, Virtual Training
23 Nov. - 10 Dec. 2020

Agenda

Final Report

List of Participants

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About this course

Rationale

Drought is a slow onset natural hazard the effects of which are experienced gradually. It is one of the key hazards affecting Central and Eastern Europe populations and economy and its frequency and intensity are expected to be increased by climate change. The effects of drought are not only due to the physical nature of the hazard, but also to society’s ability to manage the associated risks. Drought monitoring, prediction and early warning are not adequate in the region and obviously need to be improved.

Satellite data and products play a key role in the development of agrometeorological information and the provision of effective services on drought monitoring, food security and enhanced food production. In particular, mid latitude regions could benefit from rainfall estimations, vegetation development and seasonal evolution, soil moisture monitoring, changes in solar radiation due to cloudiness among other satellite products from geostationary and low earth orbit satellites. Plants, trees, grass cover for livestock evolve according the distribution of rains and solar heating modulated by the season but also by inter annual climate variations. Modern satellites provide a high data and product flow for a wide range of users.

The major output, building upon national initiatives, shall be a coordinated regional framework for drought monitoring, early warning, prediction and management, accompanied by a set of guidelines and tools for the development of regional, national and local drought policies and plans. The Integrated drought management programme for Central and Eastern Europe has been launched in 2013 jointly by WMO and the Global Water Partnership and is being used as a suitable mechanism for sharing information and knowledge among the Central and Eastern European countries. The Programme coordinates with other relevant international, regional and national initiatives to avoid duplication of efforts, increase efficiency in the use of resources and build on synergies.

Organizers and contributors

EUMETSAT, FAO, WMO with the support of the Romanian National Meteorological Administration (Meteo-Romania) with its evolving Regional Agrometeorological Centre, Belgian Meteorological Service, the Drought Management Centre for South Eastern Europe (DMCSEE), the Serbian Hydro-Meteorological Institute, and the Technical University of Wien.

Output and format of the course

The expected output of the course is to build the capabilities of the experts of the Southeastern Europe to use the satellite products and agrometeorological applications for drought monitoring. The expected outcome is to improve data and product quality for drought monitoring and service delivery to users and decision-makers. That information shall be coupled with other tools such as seasonal forecasts, crop models and geographical information systems. Beneficiaries are the experts from National Meteorological Services and Ministries of Agriculture from Albania, Armena, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosina-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Republic of Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey and Ukrine.

Format

The course was accommodate the following thematic modules:

Module 1: EUMETSAT products and database access. Use of remotely sensed land products, led by Jose Prieto Jose Prieto and Christine-Traeger Chatterjee (EUMETSAT);
Module 2: H-SAF Rainfall and soil moisture. Regional and global products, led by Mariette Vreugdenhil (H-SAF and TUWien) and Jose Camacho (WMO);
Module 3: Land SAF Products and access, led by Carla Barroso (IPMA) and Celia Gouveia (IPMA);
Module 4: JRC MARS European Crop monitoring and Yield forecasting System – approaches and tools, led by Andrea Toreti, Bettina Baruth, Maurits Vandenberg and Felix Rembold (Joint Research Centre, European Commission);
Module 5: FAO tools for agricultural drought monitoring (ASIS), climate service for agriculture and the FAO-AquaCrop model, led by Oscar Rojas (FAO), Ana Heureux (FAO) and Jorge Alvar (FAO);
Module 6: Central Eastern Europe. Drought monitoring with Meteo Romania and DMCSEE, led by Daniel ALEXANDRU (Meteo Romania), Oana-Alexandra OPREA (Meteo Romania), Maria-Alexandra RADU (Meteo Romania), Gregor GREGORIC (DMCSEE), Andreja SUSNIK (Slovenian Environment Agency).

The Romanian National Meteorological Administration hosted the event and provide technical and scientific support via the Microsoft Teams application and the Moodle platform.