The World Bank Group recently published a policy research working paper entitled “Strengthening National Hydrometeorological Services through Cascading Forecasting: Investing for Sustainability and Impact across Global, Regional, and National Centers”. Co-authored by Corinne Graessle and Barzin Aryan, Master candidates in Development Studies, and Daniel Kull, Senior Disaster Risk Management Specialist at the World Bank, the paper is part of the Applied Research Seminar (ARS) in which students from our interdisciplinary programmes undertake projects with partners in Geneva.
The publication disseminates both quantitative and qualitative findings from interviews held with professionals working in various global producing centres (GPCs) around Europe, focusing primarily on the socioeconomic benefits and costs of producing and making the full suite of hydrometeorological data available to low-income countries – where significant constraints are being met to deliver information needed to effectively drive early warning and climate adaption.
The research demonstrates that it would be economically feasible for GPCs to provide their full suite of services to low-income countries, producing likely global socioeconomic benefits of USD 200 million to USD 500 million per year, outweighing costs by about 80 to one. In addition, to cover the costs of giving out information and services, the research determines that specialised financing mechanisms, such as the Green Climate Fund, could provide legitimate and sustainable means to finance GPCs to provide global public services in support of low-income countries. The paper ultimately recognises the need for more substantial investments in regional and national forecasting, early warnings, and preparedness capacities overall.
Full citation of the paper: Kull, Daniel Werner, Corinne Graessle, and Barzin Aryan. “Strengthening National Hydrometeorological Services through Cascading Forecasting: Investing for Sustainability and Impact across Global, Regional, and National Centers.” Policy Research working paper WPS 7609, World Bank Group, Washington, DC, 2016. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/03/26089546/strengthenin…