Survey Report on the Basic Capability of NMHSs in RA II The Seventh Regional Conference of Management of the NMHSs in the Regional Association II Abu Dhabi, UAE, 10–11 Feb. 2017 Survey Report on the Basic Capability of NMHSs in RA II

SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE A survey questionnaire was conducted for the purpose of identifying the progresses of RA II Members during the inter-sessional period in the implementation of the Strategic Operating Plan for the Enhancement of NMHSs in RA II adopted by RA II-15 (Doha, Qatar, 2012).   Online survey tool “Survey Monkey” was used. Members were invited to complete the online survey in September 2016. The president of RA II has nominated Mr L.S. Lee of the Hong Kong Observatory to serve as the Lead of the Survey.

SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE The survey consists of 12 sections with 124 questions. Management Observing systems Telecommunications Data-processing and forecasting systems Natural disaster prevention and mitigation Climate, climate change and climate variability Agricultural meteorological services Aeronautical meteorological services Marine meteorological services and oceanography Hydrological forecasts and assessments Public weather services Partnership

PARTICIPATING MEMBERS 33 out of 35 RA II Members participated in the survey. Afghanistan* Hong Kong, China Kuwait Oman Tajikistan Bahrain India Lao People's Democratic Republic* Pakistan Thailand Bangladesh* Iran, Islamic Republic of Macao, China Qatar Turkmenistan Bhutan* Iraq Maldives Republic of Korea United Arab Emirates Cambodia* Japan Mongolia Russian Federation Uzbekistan China Kazakhstan Myanmar* Saudi Arabia Vietnam Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Kyrgyzstan Nepal* Sri Lanka Yemen* * = Least Developed Countries (LDCs) Blue = Not participated

BRIEF SUMMARY Members maintain highly qualified staff with specialized training and have a structured training plan for professional, technical and supporting staff, but some Members feel the difficulty in maintaining such staff members; Some Members feel difficulty in carrying out regular maintenance of observation systems and employing qualified maintenance technicians; Most of Members are operating NWP system, using and interpreting NWP products, and implementing automatic data reception, archival and data-processing; Members providing monthly and/or seasonal climate predictions have increased significantly; The number of LDC Members implementing cost-recovery of services and quality management systems increased.

Issues in LDCs in the Region All 8 LDCs in the Region responded to the survey questionnaires. The remarkable gaps in the Region were found in the observational infrastructure of the LDCs. 5 LDCs in the Region did not have qualified maintenance technicians. 6 LDCs did not have operational RBSN upper-air stations. 4 LDCs also had no weather radars. Furthermore no LDCs had operational lightning location network, and only 3 LDCs had interaction with Regional Instrument Centres (RICs). Although 4 LDCs had systems for automatic data-processing and NWP, 7 LDCs had an access to NWP products from major centres and mostly used and interpreted the NWP products in their forecasting operations. Training opportunities to develop their capacity on the use of NWP products are, therefore, necessary. 2 LDCs operated nowcasting system for high impact weather warning. This showed an improvement since 2011 when no LDCs operated nowcasting system. 7 LDCs had strong links with national disaster managers. 6 LDCs responded to the survey were designated as the meteorological authority for aviation services, but only 2 LDCs implemented cost recovery services. The number of LDCs implementing quality management systems meeting ICAO and WMO standards has increased from 0 to 4. This shows an improvement of quality management system among LDCs through training and twinning programme.

Recommendations (1) While the percentage of NMHSs maintaining high-quality staff with specialized training and the percentage of NMHSs with their staff acquiring professional certification rose from the last survey, more effort may have to put in to assist the remaining NMHSs to maintain high-quality staff with professional certification. The percentage of NMHSs with qualified maintenance technicians was only 75%. Again more effort may have to put in to assist the remaining NMHSs to acquire qualified maintenance technicians. Some NMHSs did not have ground reception system for high-resolution satellite images or weather radar. This would seriously limit their capability in delivering weather forecasting and warning services. Projects to assist these NMHSs may be required. Quite some NMHSs still did not benefit from WIS in terms of data and products exchange. In particular, some NMHSs did not have access to the Internet by broadband or even telephone dial-up. Capacity building for these Members may need to be strengthened.

Recommendations (2) Still some Members did not have GTS connection. This problem will need to be addressed. The use of a nowcasting system for high-impact weather warning has not yet been applied in many Members. This is also related to the lack of access to radar products by these Members. Projects to assist these Members may be required. The lack of public education programme on natural disaster prevention and mitigation in many Members is a concern. Percentage of Members fully meeting the competency requirements is just about 50%, noting that the deadline for implementation has passed. Still around 28% of Members did not verify the accuracy of their public weather forecasts. More may need to be done to assist their Members. There are rooms to increase the number of cities providing weather forecasts on WWIS. Members are encouraged to provide more city forecasts to WWIS.

A full survey report has been made available on the RA II-16 website as INF. 3(4). cbs-16@wmo.int

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