Review of InterMET Asia - Extreme Weather Expo 2017 21-23 March 2017, Suntec, Singapore InterMET Asia - Extreme Weather Expo 2017 was the fourth annual event in the series and following the previous editions (2014 – Singapore Expo; 2015 – Suntec; 2016 – Marina Bay Sands) it was staged for the 2nd time at Suntec. 2017 also saw further repositioning of the event. Previously, the focus was ‘hydrometeorology technology’ (2014), ‘hydrometeorology technology and services for end users’ (2015), and ‘weather and climate services’ and ‘public and private sector co-operation’ (2016). While for 2017, the focus was still very much on ‘public- private sector co-operation’, the emphasis this year also embraced the need to apply hydromet data to the task of building social and economic resilience and adaptability to extreme weather and climate change. The significance of 'extreme weather' in the event programme was reflected in the decision to dual brand the event as InterMET Asia - Extreme Weather Expo 2017. This repositioning is very much in line with our overall view that InterMET should be an event that is primarily focused on weather affected public and private enterprises. That is, the end users of meteorological technology and the value added data it provides, whilst also acting as an informal forum to facilitate the frank exchange of views between the public and private sectors, international agencies and development banks, and the providers and end users of raw and value added hydrometeorological information. The decision to continue the focus on 'public-private sector co-operation', was well received, as the need for such co-operation is increasingly being seen as central to the success of the global weather enterprise. It is understood that in 2017 and subsequently, the WMO itself will be placing much greater emphasis on the importance of public-private sector co-operation in its work. For the 3rd year, InterMET Asia enjoyed the major support of the World Bank-Global Facility for Disaster Reduction & Recovery (GFDRR) and there was general agreement that the Special Sessions on 'Public-Private sector co-operation in the provision of forecasting services' were a success in promoting high quality discussions between senior representatives of the public and private sectors. The main deliverable for 2017 is a Report & 1 Recommendations for GFDRR to consider in its cooperative working relations with the WMO, national meteoroogical & hydrological services, and the private sector. Outcomes will be made available to the WMO as it considers public-private engagement. See Appendix 3. The 2017 event was again supported by the Hydro-Meteorological Equipment Industry Association (HMEI), the International Society of Precision Agriculture (ISPA), the Singapore National Environment Agency (NEA) and the World Energy & Meteorology Council (WEMC). A new supporter for 2017 was the Weather Risk Management Association (WRMA). Since launch in 2014, InterMET has comprised a session dedicated to the use of insurance-type products as weather risk management tools and, for 2017, WRMA hosted a half-day Symposium featuring a number of leading experts. Other new supporters for 2017 were Meteorology Services Singapore (MSS), the Singapore Environment Council (SEC), and the Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore (SEAS). Some Testimonials "I found the GFDRR session during InterMET Asia very interesting and stimulating. The issue of public-private engagement is of high importance for WMO and we will be happy to continue cooperating in similar events in the future. As was indicated during the session, both public and private players need more opportunities to continue this dialogue and WMO could facilitate such dialogue as well as the development of some guiding principles for the global weather enterprise." Dimitar Ivanov, Chief, Aeronautical Meteorology Division, World Meteorological Organisation "Thank you for your great effort on InterMET Asia and the Extreme Weather Expo. As in my previous mail on 26 March, I very much enjoyed the whole event and stimulus presentation at Extreme Weather EXPO, though it was regrettable that I could not attend the GFDRR special sessions on Thursday 23." Dr. Kazuo Saito, Senior Director for Research Affairs, Meteorological Research Institute, Japan Meteorological Agency 2 "We were happy to participate again this year. We see Asia as a growing market for us where our solutions map well to the challenges faced in the region. Your conference is a unique opportunity to build the community in the region." Jim Anderson, Senior Vice President, Global Sales, Earth Networks "It certainly was a good experience for me. I benefitted most by knowing the cutting edge technological advancement made in this field which may be utilized in my own country. The platform is really good where you have all stakeholders in this business to interact and find common goals of interest and business. In future, I would be happy to contribute in flood management topic both urban and regional." Abu Saleh Khan, Deputy Executive Director (Operations), Institute of Water Modelling, Bangladesh "InterMet Asia 2017, was a great opportunity for like-minded experts and industry to come together to share, discuss and collaborate to deliver impact in their respective fields. As a platform it delivered the promise." Dr. Sanjay C Kuttan, Program Director, Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore "Intermet 2017, was the best ever. We have been attending the Conference for the last four years and this year the caliber of industry presenters and participants was very high. It was good to note that Intermet once again managed to cover the complete spectrum of the industry so we we able to get a good feel and what our industry was doing. Also, it was great to see our peak governing body WRMA attending and taking a lead role in the Expo." Jonathan Barratt, CEO, Celsius Pro Australia "The extreme weather expo in Singapore is a unique chance to meet highly experienced experts of the industry community. The manageable size of the conference allows you to meet all the relevant key people for professional talks, discussions and exchange of ideas on the spot." Holger Czerwenka, Head of Business Development/Weather, Genossenschaft Meteotest "The conference focused to bring potential information on managing the risks of extreme events and disaster in Asia arising from extreme weather and climate change. The conference highlighted on the potential need for the development of technologies to enhance our fundamental understanding of the risks and the methods & applications to quantify it. The thematic sessions were a perfect platform to introduce and get familiarized with the advanced new technologies in the respective fields. In particular, the session on ‘Meteorology in Aviation’ offered excellent reviews of the present challenges and opportunities. The panel discussions, interactions with the delegates & Speakers and the experiences that we shared during this conference were lively and superb!" Anupam Kumar, Researcher, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 3 2017 Key Facts & Figures Overall participation: • 463 attendees from 44 countries as follows: - International - 59% - Attendees at senior management level - 84% - Scientists/Meteorologists/Specialists - 16% • 61 Expert Speakers • 42 Hosted Delegates from 22 countries • 43 Exhibitors from 15 countries However, there is still a clear need to address two key issues - Firstly, to increase the number of buyers attending the event. Second, to address the gender balance of the event, in particular those speaking or otherwise contributing. Action is being taken on both these fronts for 2018. Sponsors • Platinum Sponsor - The Weather Company (An IBM Business) - the main conference programme • Platinum Sponsor - Earth Networks - End of Day 1 Reception • Gold Sponsor - Baron (Hydrology & Severe Weather Workshop; Tropical & Maritime Weather Workshop) • Silver Sponsor - MetraWeather Official Welcome World Meteorological Organisation Co-operation Framework World Bank - Global Facility for Disaster Reduction & Recovery (GFDRR) Official Supporters • Hydro-Meteorological Equipment Industry Association (HMEI) • International Society of Precision Agriculture 4 • Meteorological Service Singapore (MSS) • Singapore Environment Council • Singapore Exhibition & Convention Bureau • Singapore National Environment Agency (NEA) • Singapore Tourist Board • Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore (SEAS) • Weather Risk Management Association (WRMA) • World Energy & Meteorology Council (WEMC) Media Partners • Asian Environmental Technology • Position Magazine Hosted Delegate Programme (World Bank-GFDRR and InterMET Asia) 25 delegates from 25 countries received funding to attend the event and the GDRR Special Sessions. For details on attendance, see Appendix 2. 2017 Exhibition Summary The 2017 exhibition comprised 43 technology companies, service providers and organisations from 15 countries: • Countries represented included China, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Slovakia, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States For details of Exhibitors see Appendix 1. 5 2016 Conference Summary The 2-day international conference had the main themes of 'Public-private sector co-operation' and 'Building resilience and adaptability to extreme weather & climate change'. The conference sessions covered: • Innovation & Opportunity in the Provision of Forecasting Services. • Meteorology & Energy. • Meteorology & Public Health. • Resilient Agriculture. • Urban Resilience & Flood Management. • Meteorology in Aviation. In addition there were: • Three sessions devoted to company technical presentations on a range of topics. • A half-day Symposium on Weather Risk Management organised in conjunction with the Weather Risk Management Association (WRMA). • Special Presentations by the International Forum of Meteorological Societies (IFMS); the GFDRR Innovation Lab ThinkHazard! Programme; and by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The unique Special Sessions organised in conjunction with the World Bank Group – GFDRR were dedicated to 'Public-private sector engagement in the delivery of forecasting services' and took place on the afternoon of Wednesday 22 March and all of the 23 March. Finally, there were two Workshop Sessions hosted by Baron covering 'Hydrology & Severe Weather' and 'Tropical & Maritime Weather'. Some Key Conference Figures • More than 100 people attended the opening keynote plenary session. • An average of 50 peoplettended each of the individual main conference sessions. 6 • The Baron 'Hydrology and Severe Weather' and 'Tropical & Maritime Weather' workshops which formed part of the conference programme were well received and attracted some 40 attendees. • Approximately 70 people attended each of the GFDRR Day 2 and 3 Special Conference Sessions. Priorities for 2018 • Explore and adopt a number of approaches to build the event and increase its value to actual and potential audiences, especially end users of weather data, and equipment buyers and specifiers. • Address the gender balance of the event. • Identify the best location. Several parties expressed an interest in staging the event for 2018, including India and Indonesia. However, unless there is a clear proposal placed on the table, it is expected that the 2018 event will be held in Singapore for a fifth year. • We hope to announce the date and location for 2018 at the earliest opportunity. 7 Appendix 1: List of Exhibitors 1. Aeronautical & General UK Instruments Limited 2. All Weather Inc. US 3. Baron Services US 4. Beijing SanTel Technology & China Trading Corp. 5. Biral - Bristol Industrial & UK Research Associates 6. BloomSky, Inc. New Zealand 7. CelsiusPro AG Australia 8. Cimel Electronique France 9. Degreane Horizon France 10. Earth Networks Inc. US 11. ELDES s.r.l. Italy 12. Enterprise Electronics US Corporation (EEC) 13. Everise Technology Ltd. China 14. FT Technologies UK 15. Furuno Electric Co. Ltd. Japan 16. Global Facility for Disaster Reduction & Recovery US (GFDRR) Innovation Lab 17. GRAW Radiosondes GmbH & Germany Co KG 18. Kipp & Zonen Asia Pacific Germany Pte. Ltd. 19. LEOSPHERE France 20. LSI Lastem Srl Italy 21. Lufft Germany 22. Metasensing BV France 23. Météomodem France 24. Météorage France 25. MicroStep-MIS spol s.r.o. Slovak republic 26. Mirae Climate Co., Ltd Republic of Korea 27. Nanyang Technological Singapore 8 University 28. nowcast GmbH Germany 29. OTT Hydromet Germany 30. Panasonic Avionics Japan 31. Radiometrics International US 32. Raymetrics S.A. Greece 33. Scintec AG Germany 34. Sea and Land Technologies Singapore Pte. Ltd. 35. Sigma Space Corporation US 36. Singapore Environment Singapore Council 37. Sonic Corporation Jaoan 38. Swiss Re Switzerland 39. The Weather Company (An US IBM Business) 40. Vaisala Oyj Finland 41. Weather Risk Management US Association 42. Westenberg Engineering Germany 43. Wx Risk Global US 9 Appendix 2: Some attendance facts & figures Senior/Non  Senior  Management   3%   13%    Senior  Management    Non  Senior   Management     84%   Unspecified   WMO  Region   1%     RA  I  Africa   15%   18%     RA  II  Asia    RA  IV  North  America   12%    RA  V  South  Asia   Pacific   54%     RA  VI  Europe   10 Singapore  vs  Interna6onal     41%     InternaDonal   59%   11 Appendix 3: GFDRR Special Sessions 2017 Summary  and  Recommendations  of  the  GFDRR  Special  Sessions  at   InterMET  Asia,  22-­‐23  March  2017,  Singapore   Summary   The weather, water and climate enterprise is a vital part of the global community’s efforts to protect life and property and increase prosperity. The public, private and academic sectors, which comprise this enterprise, are all providing crucial contributions towards this goal. When severe weather forecasts and warnings are acted on, loss of life is reduced and property and livelihoods are protected; short-, medium, and long-term forecasts enable better planning and operation, taking full account of weather and climate variability and change. Tailored forecasts enable better financial decisions, increased efficiency, which improves economic performance. Research and development are the backbone and very foundation of all forecasts and underpin improvements in models; new technologies improve observations and operational concepts. Fundamentally, the ability to protect people and achieve sustainable social and economic development everywhere depends on the full engagement, development, and funding of all of three sectors. At InterMET Asia 2017, the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) convened special sessions to explore ways National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs), academia, and private companies could exploit opportunities and reduce obstacles to strengthening the enterprise. Representatives of all sectors were invited along with development partners and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Participants are listed in Annex 1. The complete agenda is in Annex 2. The special sessions comprised four parts: an overview from key stakeholder groups; a panel focusing on opportunities for public, private and academic sector engagement in developing and 12 developed countries; a panel focusing on the obstacles; and a roundtable aimed at a way forward to address the issues raised in the preceding dialogues. The discussions touched on the following issues: • The need to substantially grow the weather, water and climate enterprise to meet the ever- increasing demands of modern society; • Recent developments in the public and private sectors in meteorology; including in (i) science and technology as well as in forecasting services, and (ii) the relationship between key operational service agents such as national met agencies, private sector providers, development partners and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO); • Ways in which better public-private sector collaboration could benefit the enterprise; • Obstacles that exist now or in the future that might inhibit or prevent beneficial collaboration and partnerships; • Ways to overcome the obstacles and enable society to capitalize on the capacity and capabilities of the public and private sectors to sustain, strengthen and build the weather, water and climate enterprise; • Changing the public and private sector perceptions of each other; For example, by WMO and the HMEI working together to lead these discussions on facilitating this change, bringing them to a timely conclusion; • Mechanisms for partnership including the role of better regulation, legislation and clarity in the respective roles and responsibilities of the public and private sectors; opportunities for a regulatory framework for the provision of meteorological and hydrological services and the implications for society, providers, development partners, and the WMO; • the impacts of the enlarging role for the private sector and of increasing public-private sector cooperation in developing countries, Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Recommendations   1. It was agreed that improving the engagement and co-operation between the public and private sectors1 in meteorology would be 1  The  term  public  and  private  sectors  is  intended  to  include  all  actors  and  stakeholders  in  the  weather   enterprise  including  companies,  NMHS’s,  international  organisations,  universities  and  research  institutes.   13 advantageous to all in the community. Furthermore, a goal should be to create a partnership between the public and private sectors. To do so, a number of steps should be taken as outlined in this summary document. 2. The concept of an inclusive global weather enterprise (GWE)2 involving all public and private sector stakeholders/actors was fully supported. Given the recent evolution and likely future evolution of the GWE, it was felt that a common vision and roadmap for the GWE should be developed that includes the public-private partnership. It was recognized that the public and private sectors share a common mission to save lives, protect property and enhance economic development. To achieve this mission, a substantial expansion of the GWE is required to reach all those exposed to and affected by high-impact weather events. A common expectation for this growth was discussed and it was projected that the global weather enterprise should have the goal to grow by a factor of 10 over the next 10 years to fill existing gaps, increase its effectiveness and maximize its benefits to society. This ambitious goal would involve growth that would be fuelled by several factors including: greatly increased societal need for more accurate and reliable forecasts, mobilisation of private capital, economic growth in many countries, sustained increased funding for research and development, stronger cohesive engagement between the public, private and academic sectors, and scientific and technological advances. 3. The complexity of the current GWE in terms of level of engagement of different stakeholders with their roles, target clients, related national and international regulatory frameworks, various technical capabilities, investment and market policies and strategies, partnerships, etc, has been recognized. This complexity will grow rapidly with the development of the enterprise; therefore, a landscaping and scoping analysis would be helpful in building common understanding and situational awareness. Such an analysis should describe the current landscape of the GWE, identify opportunities and show-stoppers as well as analyse development tendencies; thus, enabling informed strategic planning by individual stakeholders and the whole GWE. 4. Suitable fora should be created bringing the GWE stakeholders together to develop and agree this vision and roadmap, and address any issues to be resolved regarding the public-private partnership. These fora should be targeted at different groups of contributors so 2  The  Global  Weather  Enterprise  includes  the  entirety  of  weather,  water  and  climate.  The  discussion,   however,  focused  mostly  on  weather-­‐related  issues;  therefore,  for  the  purposes  of  this  report,  the  Global   Weather  Enterprise  is  restricted  to  the  weather-­‐related  issues.   14 that the appropriate type and level of discussion can be facilitated, e.g. one forum could constitute technical experts, while another could consist of the highest-level executives and decision-makers. It would be appropriate and advantageous for the WMO to support and facilitate such fora and in doing so the WMO is encouraged to further reach out to the private sector and academia so that, on an equitable basis, all sectors of the Member states of the WMO in the GWE are embraced. Additionally, independent sponsors could be sought. This dialogue should be sustained and continuous providing regular opportunities to resolve issues cooperatively thereby building positive relationships. The initiation of a public-private dialogue by the WMO at the level of its Executive Council has been recognized as a positive development, however, it should be transformed into a continuing consultative platform. The meeting proposed that whenever a consolidated representation of the private sector in such consultative mechanisms was needed that could be provided by the HMEI. 5. There is an urgent need for greater independent scrutiny, including processes such as accreditation, certification and oversight of the operational activities within the GWE so that the quality of inputs (e.g. observations) and outputs (e.g. weather forecasts) of the GWE can be rigorously quantified to provide user confidence in their sustainable quality and integrity. It would be natural for this to be managed at international level by the WMO but it would need to be implemented and enforced within national jurisdictions. 6. It was recognized that a culture change is needed within each of the sectors of the GWE such that trust, respect, and mutual support between the sectors becomes the norm, building on positive developments already occurring across the GWE. This will include overcoming the current “language” issue through unambiguous and uncontentious descriptions of key concepts for use across the breadth of the GWE. This will go a long way to remove misunderstandings that are present now between the public and private sectors. A culture of collaboration based on an agreed code of conduct is needed. 7. The global observing system is a precious resource that underpins the enterprise and that is predominantly, but not exclusively, funded by governments. Today around 40 million observations are used per day for numerical weather predictions; however, current model resolution requires over 40 billion data points to be specified so that there are far fewer observations available than needed. This means that a substantial opportunity exists to improve forecast skill if the number of observations produced by the global observing system could be greatly increased. This opportunity can be exploited by using both public and private sector additional sources of quality observations. New business 15 models must be developed to enable effective use of privately- supported data services that are consistent with WMO Resolution 40 and WMO Resolution 60 with a goal for these be acquired through a single payment mechanism and distributed either everywhere or to public weather service providers for public weather forecasting. Without such functioning business models the risk exists, that a fragmented landscape of observational resources would result and weaken the potential quality of numerical weather models. 8. Modern weather forecasting relies on global numerical weather prediction. The necessary increases in resolution, model complexity, and ensemble size and the ability to utilise increased observation volumes requires a substantial increase in the high-performance computing used by the GWE. This can be achieved partly by so-called scalability advances as well as more rapid and effective uptake of new computing and networking technologies. Indeed, along with the observation volume, the size of the currently available computer resources is a limiting step to growing the GWE. A close cooperation of all partners of the GWE with the hardware industry is necessary to strengthen the niche of necessary hardware components specially needed for the field of numerical weather prediction. Another essential ingredient for progress is increased scientific knowledge of the weather system and there is a recognition that sustained and indeed increased funding must be provided so these crucial advances will continue to be made. 9. The distinctive roles and responsibilities of the public, private and academic sectors should be more clearly articulated to prevent confusion and unnecessary duplication. A case in point is the concept of a “single authoritative voice” in the provision of warning services that is a key element in the mission of NMHS’s. This concept could be misinterpreted by some stakeholders as giving an exclusive role to public stakeholders, if taken out of the context of the national civil protection systems and procedures through which governments exercise their duty of protecting their citizens from natural hazards. In this regard, the designation of an official, accredited and accountable provider of decision-supporting information for crises management is normally required. Collaboration with the private sector, for instance, telecommunication companies, to ensure better outreach of the public warnings to those endangered, was a good example of public-private partnership. As warnings sit alongside general forecasts, a clear distinction between the two can sometimes be difficult to interpret, but is still necessary. An open dialogue between all stakeholders involved is a prerequisite for solutions which help users in all sectors of the economy and public safety. 16 10. Another challenge for the GWE is conveying uncertainty and risk- based forecasts to society. As all weather-forecasts should be probabilistic there need be no conflict between a warning with appropriate risk-based wording and any particular forecast that is a member of the grand ensemble taken into account to produce that warning. Without societal understanding of probabilistic forecasting and its intrinsic uncertainties, apparent conflicts may arise in the minds of users. Resolving the perception of such conflicts is a pressing challenge for the GWE but certainly involves a step-change in communicating the underpinning principles of probabilistic forecasting to society and understanding how society interprets and uses forecasts. This is a challenge for the public, private and academic sectors. 11. Making high-quality global predictions (for example from advanced centres) available to developing, least developed countries and small island states is a pressing need. The economic case for the benefits of good weather forecasts in creating jobs and economic activity (as well as the benefits in preventing loss of life and property) needs to be articulated so that governments of developing countries can be persuaded to invest in and support meteorological capacity in their country. The goal of improving the uptake and use of weather information within a country requires both investments within country to develop intelligent customers of forecast outputs as well as enhancements to global prediction capabilities by maintaining and developing national observations and understanding of national and local hazards and risk profiles to make forecasts as impact-based as possible. Additional support needs to be provided by international development programmes to scale up national processes and to provide best practises acquired in other countries. 12. The use of advanced weather information to help create appropriate insurance, re-insurance and hedging instruments to manage weather- dependent risks is rapidly growing. This has the potential to both provide increased funding for the GWE and to reduce people’s and businesses exposure to financial, livelihood and infrastructure losses from weather hazards. This could become a major mechanism with weather information at its core to enhance development in the developing countries, LDCs and SIDS, contributing to ending extreme poverty and protecting income growth. 13. The GWE is today producing multiple weather forecasts from both public and private sources. These range from public weather forecasts, including those to protect life and property, to tailored outputs from numerical predictions for specific applications by businesses. To create 17 an optimal market for weather forecasts and services it is essential to ensure there is a level playing field such that commercial arms of NMHS’s, where they exist, and private companies can compete on equal terms without, for example, undue subsidies distorting the nascent and fragile commercial market. The production of public weather forecasts for the protection of life and property is most appropriate for NMHSs to carry out.   18