WMO/NOAA INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON FLASH FLOOD FORECASTING, 
13-17 MARCH, 2006, SAN JOSé COSTA RICA

HMEI Manufacturers who made presentations and exhibited at this event were:
ALMOS BV (Telvent) - Netherlands (Spain)
EEC (Enterprise Electronics Corporation) - USA
OTT Messtechnik - Germany
SEBA Hydrometrie GmbH - Germany
SELEX - Germany
SIAP + MICROS - Italy
SUTRON - USA
VAISALA - Finland
WDT (Weather Decision Technologies) - USA

Some comments HMEI has received from Member participants, on their experience of the event, follow: 

Kurt Nemeth
OTT MESSTECHNIK GmbH & Co.KG
"Due to other activities in the workshop week, I arrived just before my presentation and unfortunately I left the nice conference area the next day. I have enjoyed the Costa Rica entertainment dinner at the dancing spot and I am absolutely sure that I have missed lots of mutual and competent presentations and conversations during, before and after the official workshop. Next time I shall be present the whole time and be part of the workshop community and will appreciate the friendly and competent atmosphere of the workshop happening."

Wolfgang Zasche
SEBA Hydrometrie GmbH
"The conference in general was very well booked. Participants from all central America, USA, Europe and Asia have been there. Only a few number of experts from South America. It was very well organized and I think all participants have been satisfied. The exhibition itself was not very well visited, as the interest in instruments was small. Nevertheless it was worth to have participated."

Irma Ylikangas
Business Development Manager
Vaisala Oyj
"The congress in general was very good.
We had some slight difficulties with the exhibition. The exhibition was in separate room and the coffee breaks where kept in other areas. I asked the organizer to put the coffee to the same room than where the exhibition was after that we had two coffee breaks in the exhibition room and then the room was crowded. Also the exhibition was not that well marketed in the beginning and some of the vendors took the board and wrote on it an arrow to the exhibition.
I want to give my best thanks to the organizer that vendors did have a chance to give a presentation. This was organized very well. The presentations where the last ones of the day, but the audience stayed in the room until the end. My best thanks to audience about it."

Dr. Shanker Man Shrestha
Meisei Electric Co., Ltd.
"It was an immense pleasure and honour to participate in the International Workshop on Flash Flood Forecasting held in Costa Rica, 13 to 17 March 2006. We (Meisei Electric Co. Ltd) got an opportunity to meet the researchers, scientists, executives and professionals from various country and international organizations in the sideline of the conference. In addition, we received first hand feed back from the end user of various country representatives, which is a great assets for the system manufacture like MEISEI, to design and manufacture highly precise, reliable, user friendly and low cost Flash Flood Forecasting equipment using our cutting edge technology. Since the flash flood is a global problem and the disaster and catastrophe are on an unpredicted scale in terms of life and property, cooperation and partnership among the global communities, such as, scientist, policy maker, system manufacturer and end users, is an essential aspect to combat with the flash flood challenges. In this seminar, we had an opportunity to talk with the representatives from the various countries and also had an opportunity to examine the possibilities to promote the partnership, collaboration and business among the international funding organization and business organizations. We are pleased to notice that great efforts have been done by the developed and the underdeveloped countries form their level to combat the flash flood problem using technology, such as satellite, radar, rain gauze measuring devices and so on. In this scenario, MEISEI would like to take pleasure to present the proposals for Flash Flood Forecasting (FFF) using its high tech and high touch technology to simple and reliable technology, which is explained as in the attachment."
Also see Meisei's Costa Rica Presentation

Luis Gomez
Siap+Micros
"We want to high-light the following points:
 
•       The requirement to develop an end-to-end (from monitoring and prediction through to appropriate on the ground action to save lives and economic impact) system to reduce the impacts of flash floods.
 
•       Any end-to-end flash flood forecasting and warning system will only be as strong as its weakest link. The best forecasts alone will not save lives unless the impacted communities translate them into appropriate actions for life saving activities.

•       There is a need for national disaster management strategies that integrate many types of disasters, that is, a multi-hazard approach needs to be implemented.
 
•       Communities have a major role to play in the management of flash flood risks. The concept of ‘Community Based Disaster Risk Management’ (CBDRM) should be promoted in parallel with the concept of ‘Community-based Natural Resources Management’ (CBNRM) since the management of resources and risks go hand in hand.

•       The existing meteorological and hydrological networks for data collection and transmission in many countries are inadequate for forecasting and to provide early warning.

•      There were illustrated some case studies about regional satellite rainfall estimation over ungauged basins for flood forecasting purposes, the results confirmed that without ground-based observations, the error estimation and the risk of false alarms can be very high. 

•      The workshop final session discussed future demonstration projects, donors, international cooperation etc, unfortunately the progress in this field was very little. The USAID Agency that was one of the organizers didn't show any specific proposal.

Within our presentation we highlighted the fact that the EuropeAid Agency was not invited to participate, which have a specific cooperation programme in this field. The  DIPECHO Disaster Preparedness ECHO Programme funded between 1996 and 2004  more than 319 projects worldwide with an overall amount of €78 million."