APEC Project Database

Project Title

Operation of APEC Climate Centre for Climate Information Services

Project Year

2007

Project Number

IST 01 2007

Project Session

Not Applicable

Project Type

Standard

Project Status

Completed Project

Project No.

IST 01 2007

Project Title

Operation of APEC Climate Centre for Climate Information Services

Project Status

Completed Project

Fund Account

Operational Account

Sub-fund

None

Project Year

2007

Project Session

Not Applicable

APEC Funding

59,000

Co-funding Amount

70,500

Total Project Value

129,500

Sponsoring Forum

Industrial Science and Technology Working Group (ISTWG)

Topics

Science and Technology

Committee

SOM Steering Committee on Economic and Technical Cooperation (SCE)

Other Fora Involved

Not Applicable / Other

Other Non-APEC Stakeholders Involved

Not Applicable

Proposing Economy(ies)

Korea

Co-Sponsoring Economies

Australia; Hong Kong, China; Japan; Peru; Philippines; Chinese Taipei; Thailand

Expected Start Date

01/01/2007

Expected Completion Date

31/12/2008

Project Proponent Name 1

Dr. Chung-Kyu Park

Job Title 1

Executive Director

Organization 1

APEC Climate Center (APCC)

Telephone 1

+82 51 668 7470~2

Email 1

ckpark@apcc21.net

Project Proponent Name 2

Not Applicable

Job Title 2

Not Applicable

Organization 2

Not Applicable

Telephone 2

Not Applicable

Email 2

Not Applicable

Declaration

Not Applicable

Project Summary

APEC Climate Center (APCC), which embarked on its full operation since November 2005, has ushered in the new phase of the regional cooperation on global climate prediction and analysis ultimately to lead the regional prosperity by playing its part in the regional efforts to enhance the socioeconomic well-being. The project is to provide more effective, accurate and timely climate information, and to take the currently available climate prediction technology and skills to the next level of high accuracy so that member economies can protect their people more efficiently from extreme climate events.

This project will generate the most up-to-date and optimized climate prediction information and technology, and distribute them to member economies with an easy and open access. This project will also build on the capacities of Meteorological Services in member economies. The multi-model ensemble climate prediction data will be processed and disseminated in real-time to all the member economies. To further facilitate the data exchange and international cooperation on the development of climate prediction techniques, this project will organize the APCC Scientific Symposium in October 2007.

Relevance

This project responds to the priorities set by the 4^th APEC Science and Technology Ministers Meeting (STMM) held in New Zealand, the 27^th APEC Industrial Science and Technology Working Group (ISTWG) Meeting held in Singapore, the 1^st APEC Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) held in Seoul, Korea, the 28^th APEC Industrial Science and Technology Working Group (ISTWG) Meeting held in Gwangju, Korea, and the 17^th APEC Ministerial Meeting held in Busan, Korea

Ministers at the 4^th STMM recognized the work of the APEC Climate Network (APCN) as an example of a successful international S&T network. At the 27^th ISTWG Meeting, member economies supported the establishment of the APEC Climate Center (APCC) to provide the regional climate network with an institutionalized and concerted action, and a systematic infrastructure. At the 1^st APEC SOM and the 28^th APEC ISTWG Meeting, the establishment, and the function, and operation of APCC were endorsed respectively. At the 17^th APEC Ministerial Meeting, Ministers welcomed the establishment of the APEC Climate Centre (APCC) and underscored the need to set up an institutionalized communication channel for more effective exchanges of information on regional climate prediction and innovative techniques to mitigate adverse effects caused by extreme weather and climate events in the APEC region.

"Harness Technologies for the Future" in Manila Declaration in 1996 is to ensure that APEC joint activities promote the flow and expand the capacities of its members to absorb existing industrial science and technology as well as develop new technologies for the future, thus promoting a free flow of information and technology. Currently, twenty-one APEC members are participating in the climate data and information exchange activities and 15 climate centers including major national operational centers in the APEC region are actively providing multi-model ensemble (MME) prediction data for APCC. APCC is fulfilling its duty to meet the priority, described as to absorb existing industrial science and technology as well as develop new technologies for the future, thus promoting a free flow of information and technology, by serving as a communication channel for more effective exchanges of regional climate information and innovative techniques to mitigate adverse effects caused by extreme weather and climate, and also contribute to the regional efforts in meeting the goals of APEC: reducing negative economic impacts, protecting lives and properties, and bringing economic prosperities to member economies.

Objectives

The urgent need of global collaboration and co-response has already surfaced as one of the top priorities while deadly abnormal weather events wreck havoc on our societies. They claimed a huge number of innocent lives and caused astronomical economic loss to say the least. Besides, the damage done by those climates related disasters disregard national or political boundaries.

Along with this context, APCC, as one of the leading global climate centers, will produce and distribute most optimized climate prediction information among member economies. Utilizing Global Climate Prediction System and Multi-Model Ensembles, APCC will lead the global effort to generate the more advanced climate prediction techniques and to establish the most up-to-date climate prediction data production and utilization mechanism.

Since APCC is not a one-off project, but an established center that provides year-round climate information and data, it traces back to APCN (APEC Climate Network) of its beginning from 1998. In the year of 1997, El Nino arose as one of the critical issues that affected our lives and caused economic and social problem. This awakened people of all around the world to recognize the importance of establishing international climate network which can serve even to the countries without capacity to produce climate prediction data. As the unusual climate and natural disasters became a global concern and the UN emphasized "sustainable development" as one of Millennium Development Plan, APCC was proposed and initiated by Korea on a basis of consensual need for its establishment to fulfil, under the theme of "sustainability", as an international climate center for more effective exchange of climate information among APEC region.

Realizing that the climate prediction is a very complex and formidable task, and is beyond the capacity of just one single institution or a country, APCC is seeking regional cooperation. The APCC Scientific Symposium will be the most rewarding and worthwhile opportunity for the regional climate community to share insightful wisdom for the successful operation of APCC and issues on climate prediction and analysis. The symposium will also ensure all the regional scientific, industrial and stakeholder communities the rightfulness of comprehensive collaboration and examination over the climate issue with transparent review of the work done and works to be done down the road.

Alignment

Beneficiaries and Outputs

The direct beneficiaries of this project are the meteorological centers of APEC members without capacity to produce climate prediction data as well as the

the 15 institutions stated in Work Plan.

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With more accurate, efficient, and timely climate information of APCC, APEC member economies can boost their capability to protect people from the climate related natural disasters and to take precautious measures as the climate change proceeds. It all adds up to their improved productivity in their industries and economies.

Especially, reliable and timely-delivered climate information is vital in almost every aspect of our daily lives. Even though its importance has often been overlooked, there are quite a few industries where accurate climate information is taking a significant part. Among them are agriculture, forestry, health, energy and water management, to name a few. Although it is not easy to precisely point out how much benefit those valuable climate information can bring to the mankind in socioeconomic aspects, we can easily presume that the benefits would be incalculable considering a series of recent climate changes boding ill for the future of human beings. The project will be at the center of global efforts to provide the vital climate information and will work as the driving force to develop more advanced climate prediction technology and skill in climate community

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The private sector and non-governmental institutions can participate in this project in part. They may have opportunities to promote the research on the application of the final product and cost-benefit analysis by obtaining the latest climate forecast information through individual climate centers. In addition, they may offer advice on the climate forecast information to the climate centers involved in this project.

Dissemination

a. the nature of the target audience;

The target audience includes participants of the APCC project responsible for producing long-range weather forecast, worldwide national meteorological centers, and end-users of the forecast product such as private industries.

b. the form and content;

The form and content of materials will include presentations prepared by individual participating members and discussions on current status of climate prediction capability. The forecast information on global hydrologic distribution and possible occurrence of abnormal climate will be also included together with guidelines on how to use the final forecast information for the sake of end-users.

c. format (e.g. hard copies, floppy discs, internet uploading);

The format will involve hard copies of materials or CD-ROM - various documents
will also be placed on the APCC Web-site.

d. number of copies for the publication;

Four hundred copies will be published. The number of additional copies for publication will depend on the number of participants.

e. a publicity plan for:

i) briefing the general or specialist media about key components of the project;

A press release prior to the APCC Scientific Symposium

ii) the promotion of sales or other dissemination of the final product;

    Publications will be distributed to the national meteorological centers worldwide,
    disaster prevention centers, and WMO. The results will also be reported to the
    senior APEC fora.

f. a budget for publication and dissemination, to form part of the itemized budget.

US$6,000 has been allocated for the budget for publication and dissemination.

Gender

Female members of the the APCC Member Working Group will take part in decision-making process for allocation of resources and implementation of the project.

Every member of the APCC Member Working Group has an equal right as a representative of each APCC member. Representatives were nominated by a chief of meteorological administration or relevant organization in each APEC member economies.

Female representatives have been actively participating in the APCC Science Symposium and member Working Group meetings including four women representatives from Malaysia, Thailand, and U.S.A. More female participants are expected to participate in this project for economic benefit and natural disaster prevention without any difficulties and differentiations.

Eight female staffs are participating in data processing, data exchange, and administration in APCC. Female staffs are also actively involved in the model development and data processing in individual member economies with 5 female visiting scientists out of 9 as a whole.

----------------------------

Through this project, female participants have great opportunities to learn and share much more advanced skills and they can improve their ability in long-range weather prediction. Female participants will take important role in improving climate prediction services in various aspects including model development, data processing and information dissemination through Internet services.

Assessment on gender criteria will be given by number of female participants in the APCC related meetings and female staffs involved in APCC project in APEC member economies.

Work Plan

Climate Climate forecasting is one of the most challenging tasks that climate prediction centers encounter due to uncertainties in the currently available state-of-the-art climate prediction models. The multi-model ensemble technique will be used to minimize uncertainty, thus to optimize the climate forecast information by statistically combining useful forecast signals generated climate prediction data by other various individual climate models. Requested on some advices and reviews on risks involved with in this project, the scientists in APCC confirmed there has not been a main risk so far.

The climate prediction data will be collected from the limited number of climate centers which meet the requirements of producing dynamic climate prediction data in the global domain. These centers are Meteorological Service of Canada, China Meteorological Administration, Institute of Atmospheric Physics of China, Central Weather Bureau of Chinese Taipei, Japan Meteorological Administration, Korea Meteorological Administration, Meteorological Research Institute of Korea, Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environment Monitoring, Main Geophysical Observatory of Russia, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Centers for Environmental Prediction of US, the International Research Institute for Climate Prediction of US, and Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies of US, Bureau of Meteorology of Australia.

The multi-model ensemble climate prediction data will be processed and disseminated in real-time to all member economies, and consequently to end-users in the APEC economies.

To facilitate the data exchange and regional cooperation on the development of climate prediction techniques, this project organized the APCC Member Working Group, and Science Advisory Committee.

a. APCC Member Working Group

The Member Working Group consists of representatives from the NMHSs of all APEC member economies and participating institutions. The terms of reference are:

· to facilitate the exchange of regional climate information, particularly climate prediction among APEC member economies.

· to facilitate the individual efforts in operational centers and research institutes within the framework of APEC.

· to work closely with the Science team of APCC for the improvement of multi-model ensemble system (MMES) and development of new application areas.

b. Science Advisory Committee

The Committee consists of leading scientists appointed by the Executive Director in the fields of climate modeling and prediction, and other relevant areas of interest. The terms of reference are:

· to serve as a main science advisory body for the Executive Director on various issues relevant to the successful implementation of APCC.

· to provide guidelines on research and development activities related to APCC’s mission.

A timetable for the accomplishment of this project.

· climate prediction data collection from members (April, July, October 2007, January 2008)

· processing and dissemination of the multi-model ensemble climate prediction information to members (May, August, November 2007, February 2008)

· APCC Scientific Symposium (October 2007)

------------------------

a. APCC Member Working Group

All twenty-one member economies participate in the APCC Member Working Group; Australia; Brunei Darussalam; Canada; Chile; China; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Japan; Korea; Malaysia; Mexico; New Zealand; Papua New Guinea; Peru; Philippines; Russia; Singapore; Chinese Taipei; Thailand; U.S.A.; and Viet Nam.

b. APCC Science Advisory Committee

Thirteen committee members from six economies and 2 non-APEC economies; Prof. Jagadish Shukla (USA), Dr. Oscar Alves (Australia), Prof. Bin Wang (USA), Prof. Yihui Ding (China), Prof. Hui-Jun Wang(China), Prof. Akimasa Sumi (Japan), Prof. Toshio Yamagata (Japan), Dr. Vladimir Kattsov (Russian Federation), Dr. Chih-Pei Chang (USA), Dr. Anthony Rosati (USA), Prof. In-Sik Kang (Korea), Dr. Antonio Moura (Brazil), Dr. Antonio Navarra (Italy)

c. APCC Affiliated Sientists

Thirty scientists from nine economies:

Dr.Oscar Alves (Australia), Dr. Michael Coughlan (Australia), Prof. Ding Yihui (China), Prof. Huijun Wang(China), Dr. RuCong Yu(China), Prof. Johnny Chan(HK, China), Dr. George Boer (Canada), Dr. David Anderson(ECMWF), Dr. Tim Palmer(ECMWF), Dr. Franco Molteni(Italy), Prof. Akimasa Sumi (Japan), Prof. Toshio Yamagata(Japan), Prof. In-Sik Kang (Korea), Dr. Dmitry Kiktev(Russia), Dr. Valentin P. Meleshko (Russia), Prof. Chih-Pei Chang(USA), Prof. Fei-Fei Jin(USA), Dr. Ben Kirtman(USA), Dr. Arun Kumar(USA), Dr. William K.M. Lau(USA), Prof. Tim Li(USA), Prof. Lorenz Magaard(USA), Dr. Julian McCreary(USA), Dr. Andrew Robertson(USA), Dr. Siegfried Schubert(USA), Prof. Jagadish Shukla(USA), Dr Stephen Zebiak(USA), Prof. T. N. Krishnamurti (USA), Dr. Max J. Suarez (USA), Prof. Bin Wang (USA).

d. Participating Institutes in APCC Multi Model Ensemble Prediction System

Fifteen institutes from eight economies:

Meteorological Service of Canada, China Meteorological Administration, Institute of Atmospheric Physics of China, Central Weather Bureau of Chinese Taipei, Japan Meteorological Administration, Korea Meteorological Administration, Meteorological Research Institute of Korea, Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environment Monitoring, Main Geophysical Observatory of Russia, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Centers for Environmental Prediction of US, the International Research Institute for Climate Prediction of US, and Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies of US, Bureau of Meteorology of Australia.

Risks

Not Applicable

Monitoring and Evaluation

A questionnaire will be presented to the participants in the program for evaluation. In terms of the success of the project, conclusion shall be drawn based on the result of the questionnaires. Other option is to collect opinions and comments from supporting economies which collaborate with APCC for the project.

The project proponent will assess the extent to which the project establishes a concrete regional communication channel for the real-time exchange of dynamic ensemble climate prediction information among climate prediction centers in the Asia-Pacific region.

The impact of the project on expected beneficiaries will be measured by the extent whether the project provides feasibility to the reduction of economic and human loss due to natural disasters by enhancing capacity building in the monitoring and prediction of unusual climate.

Linkages

This project involves a variety of deliverables and is expected to meet the needs of the targeted beneficiaries in several ways including:

· Providing the real-time exchange of climate prediction information to member economies so they can prepare themselves with countermeasures against natural disasters such as floods, drought, and heat waves over the Asia-Pacific region.

· Sharing high-cost climate prediction data and information produced in major climate centers

· Enhancing the capability in the monitoring and prediction of unusual climate in the Asia-Pacific region.

· Supporting Travel and Accommodation cost of APEC member who are to participate in the APCC Symposium

In order to prevent climate related natural disaster, member economies should be supplied with accurate climate prediction. This project will add "APEC value" by providing a climate communication channel where gathered climate data can be transformed, and then redistributed as more reliable, sophisticated, and optimized form of climate forecast

This project will establish links to a variety of cooperative natural disaster prevention programs to ensure its work benefits and to complement with other regional/international programs and activities carried out by the Natural Hazards Research Center (NHRC) and the Asia Pacific Disaster Management Centre (APDMC).

This is expected to make a contribution on further strengthening already established cooperation among various APEC and national projects. The synergy effect of the project should be significant as APCC envisages itself to take the leading climate network channel in the region like European counterpart ECMWF.

This project will be built upon existing climate-related programmes and systems including those of WMO and regional entities such as the Asia-Pacific Network (APN), Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the South Pacific Regional Environmental Programme (SPREP). This project will be complemented by and interacted with existing related activities, and will include the holding of scientific seminars/symposiums in cooperation with these programmes and entities.

Sustainability

Not Applicable

Direct Labour

Not Applicable

Are there any supporting document attached?

Project No.
Project Title
Project Status
Fund Account
Sub-fund
Project Year
Project Session
APEC Funding
Co-funding Amount
Total Project Value
Sponsoring Forum
Topics
Committee
Other Fora Involved
Other Non-APEC Stakeholders Involved
Proposing Economy(ies)
Co-Sponsoring Economies
Expected Start Date
Expected Completion Date
Project Proponent Name 1
Job Title 1
Organization 1
Telephone 1
Email 1
Project Proponent Name 2
Job Title 2
Organization 2
Telephone 2
Email 2
Declaration
Project Summary
Relevance
Objectives
Alignment
Beneficiaries and Outputs
Dissemination
Gender
Work Plan
Risks
Monitoring and Evaluation
Linkages
Sustainability
Direct Labour
Are there any supporting document attached?
hdFldAdmin
Project Number
Previous Fora
Secretariat Comments
Reprogramming Notes
Consolidated QAF
Endorsement By Fora
PD Sign Off
Batch
Forum Priority
Committee Ranking Category
Committee Priority
PDM Priority
Priority Within Funding Category
Monitoring Report Received
Completion Report Received
PMU Field 1
PMU Field 2
PMU Field 3
On Behalf Of
Proposal Status
Originating Sub-Forum
Approval Status
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Content Type: Standard Proposal