Water & Climate Services

The Water and Climate Services Declaration

Description

The availability of accurate meteorological and hydrological data plays a key-role in food production, water management and the sustainance of environmental integrity. Around the world, and particular in developing countries, such data are often not available hampering the ability to cope with climatic variability and change and leading to unnecessary economic and human losses. Also, many professionals do not know about the fast developments in the world of climate information services. To close the gap between the climate information developers and the users of this information the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has initiated the development of the Global Climate Services Programme.

A recent Dutch initiative, the Water and Climate Services Declaration aims to contribute to the Global Climate Services Programme by improving information chains on integrated Water and Climate. . It is signed by more than 30 organizations specialized in space, Earth Observation, hydrology, food security, geomatics and climate. These organizations share knowledge and experiences in different regions and discuss solutions to effectively address climate change challenges by developing the information chain using remote sensing techniques: from data acquisition, measurement platforms, sensors, processing, modelling, development of decision support services, consultation and acceptance to skilled application by the end-users.