• Closer cooperation between hydrology and meteorology should be promoted, especially when hosted in separate institutions, or in the context of international river basins.
• Ever more collaboration between the Commission for Hydrology (CHy) and the regional working groups on hydrology can be observed.
• Increasing cooperation between European Commission bodies, and National Hydrological Services can be observed through the implementation of the Water Framework Directive.
• An appropriate balance between meteorological and hydrological considerations should be retained in the formulation of RA-VI strategic plans and expected results.
• Hydrological observations and data processing standardization should be strengthened.
• Enhanced capabilities for members to provide more accurate hydrological forecasts and assessments was emphasized as an expected result for RA-VI.

1.2 Relevant Discussions of Cg-XV, XIII-RA VI, CHy-XIII, EC-LIV, EC LV and EC-LVI

• RA-VI members are encouraged to deepen their cooperation with the European Commission through the implementation of the Water Framework Directive, European Union Action Plan on Risk Management and the European Flood Alert System.
• Cg-XV recognizes the declining level of support for National Hydrological Services and their activities and the need to address this issue, particularly since many of the Millennium Development Goals are closely related to hydrology and water resources management.
• EC-LVIII expressed support to the proposal to have WMO regional training centres for hydrology, while encouraging RA-VI members to identify suitable national and/or regional institutions for these activities.
• CHy-XIII adopted the following themes as a priority for its work for the next intersessional period:
    • Quality Management Framework for Hydrology
    • Water Resources Assessment
    • Hydrological Forecasting and Prediction
    • Water, Climate and Risk Management
• CHy will take responsibility for producing various technical guidance and best practice documents for hydrological data quality, hydrological products and services as well as hydrological training and supportive materials, with the assistance of members and other organizations.
• WMO states that some technical guidance and best practice documents can be expected to be published during the end of 2009.
• WMO and ISO have entered a working agreement aimed at strengthening the development of international standards and in order to avoid duplication of work.
• The development of a pilot Flash Flood Guidance System, for the region of RA-VI is under consideration.

2. REPORTS ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE RAPPORTEURS OF THE WORKING GROUP

2.1 Report of the Chairman of the Subgroup on Flood Forecasting and Warning

• Cooperation with EXCIFF in formulating a guide: "Good Practices for Delivering Flood-Related Information to the General Public. This guide is available at:http://ies.jrc.ec.europa.eu/land-management-unit---scientific-reports 
• The subgroup participated in the workshop "Enhanced Flood Forecasting in Europe", which dealt with uncertainty in numerical weather forecasts, hydrological ensemble forecasting and communication of uncertainties.
• The subgroup produced a questionnaire on flood forecasting activities with the following results:
  • The dominating role of National Hydrological Services is flood forecasting.
  • Unexpectedly widespread utilisation of meteorological forecast ensemble products for hydrological forecasting.
  • A need for improving forecast capabilities for urban flood and flash flood exists.
  • Dealing with uncertainties related to hydrological forecasting and communication of this information to end-users of hydrological services requires further attention and improvements.
  • Forecast verification methods are still on a fairly elementary level and require further attention.
  • Improving forecast accuracy, lead-times and dissemination of short lead-time forecasts were the most commonly expressed needs.
  • The possibility of more widespread utilization of Open Source modelling software was also mentioned as an important area of further investigation.
  • Duplicate operations, such as data collection, management, modelling and forecast dissemination conducted by private sector entities may undermine many national hydrological services and produce problematic contradicting information.
  • During the discussion it was also noted that forecasting of floods caused by ice jams is of interest for a substantial number of member countries.

2.2 Public Relations and Visibility of Hydrological Services

• A proposal for developing a web site for the RA-VI water related activities was formulated and presented to the meeting.
• The enhancement of the visibility of national hydrological services and the recognition of their role by national authorities was emphasized.
• The issue on how to make scientific information more visible and understandable to the general public and to the decision-makers should be addressed.
• Although the visibility of hydrological services were seen as a great concern on a national level, regional cooperation attracted very little support.

2.3 Networking for Contributions to Regional Initiatives Related to Water

• Implementation of the water framework directive has slowly but eventually acknowledged the increasing role of integrated river basin management as a fundamental component for the Common Implementation Strategy (CIS).
• Each RA-VI working group on hydrology member institute, and relevant groups of interest can appoint one or more networking partners
• The role of RA-VI working group on hydrology networking partners, within the CIS has evolved over the years, from supplying of basic information to concrete influence within the CIS.
• The importance of networking ("having a man inside") and contribution to regional water related initiatives was emphasized.
• However, the working group on hydrology and networking partners cannot be effectively be represented in CIS bodies without a budget.
• Effective, meaningful operation of the network requires active participation from all of its members.

2.4 Climate and Water

• The report focused on disseminating information related to climate change scenarios, and their affect on lake characteristics in Europe. These scenarios were provided by regional climate models.
• The study focused on how these results should be presented to end users dealing with water resources management
• A map-based tool (CLIME-DSS) was developed for displaying the scenario impacts. The tool can be downloaded from the following link:
  http://geoinformatics.tkk.fi/bin/view/Main/CLIMEDSS
• A questionnaire, inquiring opinions on the dissemination strategy was sent out to experts dealing with climate change scenarios and their affect on water resources.
• The overall response from the recipients was good, although it was noted that the methods behind the visualisations and tables should be more transparent.

2.5 Water Monitoring and Assessment

• A goal of the study was to evaluate current methods used for monitoring and assessment of surface and ground water and review on-going monitoring programmes as well as methods and criteria for the classification of the state of rivers and groundwater bodies.
• Terrestrial Observing Panel for Climate (TOPC) has been preparing a review on the terrestrial Essential Climate Variables (ECVs). Four ECVs; discharge, water use, ground water and lake levels, refer to the field of hydrology.
• A standard review of each ECV is given under the following topics:
    • Terminology and definitions
    • Observed parameters
    • Measurement methods (in-situ and satellite ones)
    • Existing standards
    • Recommendations on improvement of monitoring of individual ECVs.
    •Details on why observations of these ECV's are needed.
• The TOPC-ECV review highlighted the needs for:
    • Standardization of methods
    • Harmonization of data
    • The major observational gaps
    • Funding requirements.
• An international Data Centre on Hydrology of Lakes and Reservoirs (HYDROLARE) was established at the State Hydrological Institute (Russian Federation), in accordance with an agreement singed between WMO and Roshydromet.
• A great deal of discussion and debate was centred on the challenge of distributing and sharing of hydrological data between national and international institutes.

2.6 Drought Assessment and Forecasting

• The study addressed issues related to the use of satellite and in-situ data in drought monitoring and forecasting and identified ways of promoting data the exchange.
• As a conclusion the report proposes that the Water Framework Directive needs to be fully implemented, and the following issues should be appropriately addressed;
    • Water pricing policies (putting the right price tag on water) require revision.
    • Water-saving culture in Europe should be promoted.
• The report suggests that land-use planning and water allocation between economic sectors should be improved in order to address;
    • The issue of wasteful use of water resource and improve policy practices.
    • The feasibility of constructing further water supply infrastructures.
• The report emphasized that several knowledge gaps need to be filled, by;
    • Improving data collection, management and sharing
    • Establishing an observatory and early warning system for droughts
    • Funding and promoting research related to water efficient technologies and practices.

2.7 Potential Extreme Flood

• The study focused on surveying best available practices and standards in estimation of hydrological design, data for extreme floods occurrences even in ungauged basins, and to carry out an investigation of methods for PMP/PMF derivation
• The group has also cooperated with experts on climate change and water with respect to their results concerning potential impacts of extreme floods.
• Documentation on GRADEX-KC and GRADEX-ZN methods for computing maximum discharge with given probability of exceedence in poorly gauged basins is currently under revision - publication is expected to occur by the end of 2009 .
• Documentation on best practices in methods for river discharge characteristics estimation is in preparation - publication is expected to occur by the end of 2009 .
• Introductory documentation on methodology for safety of water management structures and river-flood risk potential is currently under revision.
• The future activities for the group are suggested to include preparation of documentation on best practices and standards in estimation of design data for extreme flood events and preparing documentation on best practices for flood monitoring, early warning and protection systems on local, national and international levels.

2.8 International Standards for Hydrological Observations and Processing in the RA-VI Region

• The rapporteurs essentially addressed the question of: "Do we have comparable hydrological data for trans-boundary co-operation"?
• The group prepared a survey on standards for both measuring and management of data related to observations of; Water level and temperature, discharge as well as suspended and bottom sediment loads. The survey also inquired about standards for ground water level and temperature measurements and data managements standards.
• A total of 14 national institutes responsible for hydrological services responded with the following results, indicating most common ISO standards;
    • ISO 748 Measurement of liquid flow in open channels using current-meters or floats (Reported by 7 countries).
    • ISO 6461 Measurement of discharge by ultrasonic (acoustic) methods (Reported by 4 countries).
    • ISO 772 Hydrometric terminology for terms, definitions and symbols (Reported by 3 countries).
    • ISO 2537 Measurement of liquid flow in open channels using rotating element current-meters (Reported by 3 countries).
    • ISO 4373 Measurement of liquid flow in open channels by utilizing Water-level measuring devices (Reported by 3 countries).
    • ISO 3475 Hydrometric determinations by utilizing cableway systems for stream gauging (Reported by 3 countries).
  
  3. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE HYDROLOGY AND WATER RESOURCES PROGRAMME
  
  The group was informed about the strategic plan process which is shaping the implementation of WMO programmes and activities at global and regional levels. The working group reviewed the objectives set in the hydrological part of the RA-VI strategic plan 2008 - 2011 and found that they remain relevant - while only demanding minor amendments to reflect the outcomes and findings of the work of the group;
• Expected Results 3 - Enhanced capabilities for members to provide more accurate hydrological forecasts and assessments:
    • Calculation of water balance.
    • Cooperation with the European Drought Observatory.
    • Review meteorological forecasting systems for flash flood guidance and short lead-time forecasting.
   
• Expected Results 7 - Enhanced capabilities for members to provide and use weather, water and environmental applications and services:
    • Replace the development of the web site with the definition of a communication strategy for hydrological activities.
   
• Expected Results 9 - Enhanced capabilities of national hydrological services in developing countries, particularly LDCs to fulfil their mandates on weather, climate and water
    • To be removed in consideration of the departure of the group member responsible for the task.

It was also noted that the management group also proposed to review the structure and number of regional working groups as follows;

• Working group on development and implementation
• Working group on climate and water
• Working group on service delivery and partnership
• Management group

Visit to SCHAPI: In the picture on the left, Jutta Thielen (JRC) and right Caroline Wittwer (MétéoFrance)

The working group on hydrology debated this issue extensively and came to the conclusion that hydrological activities represent a high priority for the region's members and should be adequately reflected in the future structure and plans. As a major concern it was expressed that the new proposed structure may lead to dispersion of hydrological expertise in the region, thus weakening the profile of WMO in water related matters. Further, the meeting acknowledged the valuable cooperation between meteorologists and hydrologists within the framework of ongoing activities of the subgroup on flood forecasting and warning. It also stressed the need for further improving cooperation between hydrological and climatological communities and continued institutional cooperation with EU in the implementation of the water framework directive through networking, debating and coordination. Re-establishment of The working group on hydrology was finally suggested as the most appropriate course of action.

4. FUTURE ACTIVITIES OF THE REGIONAL ASSOCIATION VI (EUROPE)

The working group in view of the debate on the implementation of Hydrology and Water Resources programme in relation to the needs of the region proposed the following topics for future work in hydrology and water related matters;

• Flood forecasting
  • Contribution to flood risk management through preparations of recommendations on best practices and standards.
  • Promotion of cooperation between meteorologists, hydrologists and end-users.
  • Strengthening regional initiatives and projects such as EFAS.
   
• Networking for contribution to regional initiatives related to water
   
• Water monitoring and assessment
  • Evaluation of current methods for water balance assessment and ground water.
   
• Hydrological measurement - instruments and techniques
  • This task will be implemented in close cooperation with CHy activities under QMF thematic area and the relevant experts (notable the project on Assessment of the Performances of Flow Measurement Equipment and to further cooperate with ISO and CEN on development of international standards for hydrological observations and data processing).
   
• Climate and water
  •  Use of reservoirs in the adaption, mitigation of changing flood and drought risks
   
• Drought monitoring and assessment
   
• Visibility of hydrological activitie
  • Development of a communication strategy on a broad scale

5. CLOSURE OF THE MEETING

The meeting recognized the work of Mr. Jan Kubát during his last two intersessional periods as chairman. The group went on to nominate Mr. Markku Puupponen to serve as the new chairman during the next intersessional period.