Overview - Project Description

On the kind invitation of the Government of Croatia through the Meteorological and Hydrological Service and with the kind support of the Service and of the Tourist Board of Metkovic, the second meeting of the Initial Co-ordinating Group (ICG) was held in Metkovic (Croatia) from May 12-14, 1997.

The list of participants is given in Appendix 1. The representatives of The World Bank, of Medias-France and of Friend-Amhy were unable to participate.

Mr Marc Morell, Co-ordinator of the MED-HYCOS Pilot Regional Centre (PRC), welcomed the participants.

Mr Ivo Margeta, Mayor of Metkovic warmly welcomed the participants and expressed his wishes to all of them for a fruitful and pleasant meeting in the city.

Mr Morell was appointed chairperson.

Mr John Bassier, representative of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) thanked the Meteorological and Hydrological Service, the PRC team and the local authorities for hosting the RTF1 and ICG meeting and for providing excellent facilities.

Mr John Bassier, in his opening address recalled the main goals of the MED-HYCOS project and emphasised three points :

how to involve more actively the countries in the activities of the project ?
should the project purchase more Data Collection Platforms (DCPs) or reinforce the activities of co-operation between the countries ?
how to implement the Hycos project in the Black Sea area ?

Several presentations were made :

Mr Kreso Pandzic representing the Director of the Meteorological and Hydrological Service of Croatia gave a general presentation of this Service.
Mr Milan Zupan the head of the Hydrological Department presented an overview of the water resources of Croatia.
Mr Marc Morell gave a global presentation of the implementation of the MED-HYCOS project and the objectives of the RTF 1 training session and of the ICG meeting in Metkovic.
Mr Serge Pieyns from WMO gave some information on other regional components of the WHYCOS Programme.
Mr Robert Gouyet, from PRC Montpellier France, presented the MED-HYCOS Web site.

2. Organization of work

Mr. Serge Pieyns WMO was appointed chairperson.

The meeting agreed on the agenda (see Appendix 2) and accepted to include a short presentation of the Global Runoff Data Centre (GRDC) in the discussion on RTF2 (Regional Data Base).

The ICG specific task is to make any modification necessary of the activities planned in 1997.

The MED-HYCOS implementation programme is divided in 5 immediate objectives.

Objective 1 : installation of the DCP network
Objective 2 : development and implementation of the regional data base
Objective 3 : improvement of national hydrological services
Objective 4 : creation of an infrastructure to facilitate communication and co-operation
Objective 5 : implementation of a regional computer network

Objective 5 is under the responsibility of WMO. Each of the 4 objectives administrated by the PRC, call for the establishment of working groups called Regional Task Forces (RTFs) and made up of experts from the countries.

These working groups are constituted according to their competencies, and their interest. Bearing in mind their geographical localisation, the PRC tries to involve all of the participating countries.

3. PRC Report 1996 activities

Two documents were sent to the participants prior to the meeting :

the report on the first ICG meeting (March 1996)
and the report on PRC's activities in 1996.

The report on PRC's activities in 1996 presented the activities carried out from the last meeting to date.

The activities planned in 97 are listed in the agreement between Orstom and WMO, appended to this PRC report.

The meeting considered the report of activity prepared by the PRC for the period March 1996 to March 1997.

The meeting noted that during the last year, it had requested the PRC to circulate the report to all participating countries.

4. OBJECTIVE 1

4.1. Presentation by the Co-ordinator

He recalled that the main objective is to set up the data collection platforms (DCPs) network.

20 platforms have been delivered to the PRC in August 96. All of them have been tested by the PRC electronics engineer.

The first training session was held in Montpellier (September 1996) and the second one in Metkovic.

Until now, Syria, Palestinian Territories and Egypt are the only eligible countries which have not attended a DCP training session. For these countries and territories, it is planned to organise specific training supports.

The following five countries fulfil the conditions necessary to receive DCPs :

Croatia, Cyprus , Slovenia , Tunisia, and Turkey

The other eligible countries will receive the remaining 13 DCPs :

Albania, Algeria , Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria , Israel , Jordan , Lebanon , Macedonia , Malta , Morocco , Palestinian Territories , Syria ,Yugoslavia.

In 1997, ten other platforms could be purchased by WMO with World Bank funds.

On the objective 1, the following questions were discussed :

with the available funds, do we have to expand the network or to intensify the activities as training or software development, for instance ?
besides, how to promote and finance the extension of the network ?
except the DCPs technologies, do we have, in this task force to work on hydrometrical technologies and practices ?
what kind of educational products can we set up ?

4.2. Discussion

4.2.1. Constitution of the RTF1

The ICG agreed that there should not be formal designation of RTF1 members. A list of potential experts/trainers should be established based on individual willingness expressed through a letter send to the PRC by the national focal point.

4.2.2. DCPs distribution

The ICG noted that four eligible countries, namely Israel, Palestinian Territories, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, didn't take positive steps to participate in MED-HYCOS. The meeting asked WMO to send a letter to these countries with copy to the World Bank informing them that a 3 month extension is given to them to fulfil the requirement to receive the DCPs from the project. After this dead line DCPs would be offered to other eligible countries.

4.2.3. Funds investment

The ICG discussed the proposal made in the work plan for RTF1 in 1997 to buy 10 additional DCPs. Several alternatives were discussed : to buy less DCPs or to increase the number of sensors for some DCPs.

The meeting agreed that funds should be reserved in order to be able to provide one DCP for each of the four above mentioned countries, if they finally decided to join the project after the dead line. However, the ICG agreed that these funds should be only be held until November 1997. The ICG agreed that the remaining funds should be used to equip additional stations with satellite telecommunication facilities and for RTF3 activities (support to national Hydrological services).

The ICG agreed that later on some DCPs might be equipped with additional sensors (water quality) according to the performance demonstrated by the countries in real time data acquisition.

The ICG requested the PRC to prepare a proposal along these lines.

4.2.4. Countries financial distribution

In line with the recommendations from the World Bank, the countries should provide the PRC with the actual expenses incurred at the national level for the installation of MED-HYCOS DCPs (construction, transport, consumable, etc.), in order to reflect the counterpart contributions.

4.2.5. Role of RTF1

The ICG noted that the role of RTF1 should first of all be related to the establishment of the MED-HYCOS network and that close co-operation should be maintained with RTF2 in the fields of data processing, and with RTF3 in the fields of hydrometry practices, standards, etc.

5. OBJECTIVE 2

5.1. Presentation by the Co-ordinator

Objective 2 focuses on the development and the implementation of the regional data base. The PRC together with ORSTOM teams in Montpellier and in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso AOC-HYCOS), are presently working on this objective.

The PRC computer engineer, François Chevenet, is currently working on a data base using Oracle, as relational data management system, with a Web interface. He is using up to date management and communication technologies.

Right now, the first data collected on existing hydrometrical stations are already coming from several countries like Romania, Spain, Turkey and France.

The PRC needs data for two main reasons :

The first one is to test the functioning of the data management system.
The second one is to add information and data on the MED-HYCOS Web site.

The countries have to contribute by sending information and data as much as they can.

The first RTF2 meeting is planned to be held in Montpellier in July 1997. PRC will take advantage of this session, to present and to improve the first data base prototype.

The countries selected to participate in the RTF2 are : Algeria, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Romania, Malta and Turkey. The PRC selected the participants according to the candidates CV.

After this meeting, two or three data base experts will be selected. They will work two or three months each, at the PRC in Montpellier in close collaboration with Mr. François Chevenet.

The following questions were discussed :

how to formalise agreements between countries and the PRC concerning data policy, such as supply and management of information, access, dissemination and use of the data ?
how to standardise the elaboration and calculation of the daily discharges which will constitute our data base ?
which tools have to be developed to manage the data : selective inventories, statistical processing, graphic representations, spatial distributions, and so on ?
which connection between M-H data base and Geographic Information System, Topographic Numerical Models and Remote Sensing ?
how to establish co-operation with other data bases such as FRIEND and GRDC ?

5.2. Discussion

5.2.1. Regional Data Base implementation and management

The meeting recommended that the prototype of the data base must be developed according to the recommendation of the 1996 ICG meeting.

The ICG recommended that exchanges of knowledge in data base management system between experts of MED-HYCOS project and other organisations like GRDC, Friend-Amhy, etc., could be accommodated.

Real time levels received in PRC will be transformed in discharges by rating curves as established by national hydrological services. Real time levels will be stored by PRC.

Real time discharges will be provisionally stored and later validated by the hydrological services of the partner countries.

As previously recommended by the first ICG report, the hydrometrical stations with DCPs installation would preferably have reliable rating curve and a series of historical data.

5.2.2. Regional Data Base policy

PRC has to propose to each participating country a policy for data access, dissemination and use, in order to allow each partner to define its own publication strategy. This policy should be consistent with existing WHYCOS resolutions for transferring data to the GRDC.

However, the data collected by MED-HYCOS DCP must be available on free access by all participating countries as it was mentioned in the Project document :
"The use of the METEOSAT DCS will allow each of the participating countries and territories and the Regional Centre to receive, in "real or near real-time", data collected by the DCPs of the monitoring network, through ground-based METEOSAT Data Receiving Stations (MDRSs) and/or through the Global Telecommunication System (GTS) operated by WMO."

The data management system must allow sufficient security as required by the participating countries.

WMO will provide information on the proposal concerning the hydrological data exchange which will be discussed by the WMO Executive Council in June 1997.

Presently, the regional data base is being implemented and managed by the PRC and will be distributed later on to the countries hosting the regional poles.

The data management system which is being developed within the framework of the MED-HYCOS project will be made available to the national hydrological services in order to manage their own data.

6 .OBJECTIVE 3

6.1. Presentation by the Co-ordinator

Objective 3 consists in improving the national hydrological services and networks, notably through the provision of new equipment and development related training programs.

Work towards this objective has not started yet. However initial exchanges have taken place between the 15 experts representing the countries at the first RTF 1 meeting.

The needs of each hydrological department regarding equipment, software and training will be listed and detailed.

The first RTF 3 meeting will take place next September. The countries involved in this task force could be :

Albania, Cyprus, Spain, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia

Special care must be given to the definition and the organisation of training sessions on :

Hydrometrical practices
Collecting and Processing data
Dissemination of information
etc.

These sessions must produce various types of support and products using modern pedagogic technologies; as CD-ROM, for instance.

6.2. Discussion

6.2.1. RTF3 constitution

The PRC informed the ICG that the first meeting of RTF3 will be held in September 1997. However the meeting recognised that it was necessary for the MED-HYCOS participating countries to identify their needs in advance of the meeting. Therefore, it was suggested that a questionnaire will be circulated by the PRC to all the MED-HYCOS participating countries. Bulgaria and Slovenia presented to the ICG some guidelines for this questionnaire (Appendix 5). The ICG requested Bulgaria and Slovenia to finalise the questionnaire in collaboration with the PRC using the questionnaire already circulated by WMO for global survey on telemetry and data transmission systems.

6.2.2. RTF3 role

The ICG recommended that most of the funds to be available to WMO from the World Bank (third trench) should be used for the improvement of standards of national hydrological services, especially related to the MED-HYCOS stations data acquisition and processing systems, as well as to increase the number of MED-HYCOS stations through the provision of satellite telecommunication facilities (see RTF1 paragraph ).

The ICG insisted on the need for close co-operation between RTF3 and RTF1 (see paragraph). The ICG agreed that the role of RTF3 should be to improve the situation of the MED-HYCOS participating countries, in terms of available equipment including software and training, while RTF1 should focus on the establishment of the MED-HYCOS network.

7. OBJECTIVE 4

7.1. Presentation by Co-ordinator

Objective 4 consists in the creation of an infrastructure to facilitate communication and co-operation between participating countries and other regional development initiatives.

Since the beginning of the program, three sites have been set up in Slovenia, Croatia and Bulgaria.

This objective is already very advanced thanks to the implementation of the MED-HYCOS Web site on Internet.

It was noted that the MED-HYCOS electronic forum was not a satisfactory way of exchanging information. On the other hand, the Web site encounters a large success and allows a great and numerous exchange of information between the partners and towards other visitors concerned by the project.

The presentation and the contents of the documents displayed in the Web must be discussed :

Newsletters,
Meetings and Periodical Reports,
Technical Papers,
Thematic and Regional Studies,
Software, Tools, etc.

In fact, RTF 4 is also in charge of the establishment of co-operation mechanisms :

on one hand with organisations or programs working on environmental and water issues in the Mediterranean and Black Sea areas
and, on the other hand with agencies with a potential to finance some MED-HYCOS activities.

The first meeting of the RTF 4 will be held in Montpellier next July with the participation of :

Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Italy, Slovenia, Syria, and Yugoslavia

7.2. Discussion

7.2.1. MED-HYCOS Web site

The MED-HYCOS Web site is designed to provide administrative and technical information on the project and to allow data access and transfer.

Concerning its development, the meeting proposed to the participating countries, which are able to manage a Web site, to share the related task with PRC.

The countries are also urged to have their hydrological services linked to Internet as soon as possible.

The meeting recommended that the RTF4 identifies the specific tools which will be developed concerning data presentation and processing on the MED-HYCOS Web site.

7.2.2. Funds rising

Besides, a small team should be set up for the purpose of proposing ways and means of securing funds to further support the MED-HYCOS Project. The members of this working group will use their contacts with international organisations in order to promote MED-HYCOS and obtain financial support. The ICG recommended that this team be made up of representatives of WMO secretariat and PRC.

8. OBJECTIVE 5

Objective 5 concentrates on the implementation of a regional computer network. WMO which is responsible for the implementation of this objective is carrying out a survey to evaluate the status in the countries regarding Internet and the Global Telecommunication System (GTS).

The meeting noted that two countries (Morocco and Tunisia) had already been visited and proposals made in order to improve the situation. It was recognised that further collaboration between the Meteorological and Hydrological services would be more cost effective regarding in particular the telecommunication aspects of the project.

9. AGREEMENT BETWEEN ORSTON AND PRC

9.1. Presentation by Co-ordinator

It was emphasised that this project will be successful, only if the countries invest strongly their competencies in the different activities presently administrated by the PRC.

The start of the implementation programme was delayed. The agreement between ORSTOM and WMO was only signed by WMO in December 1996 and by ORSTOM in March 1997. Despite this delay, WMO and ORSTOM teams, both invested much effort in implementing the project. It was stressed that the PRC and the partner countries will have to carry out in the next 12 months (June 97-May 98) the activities previously programmed over 2 years.

The total budget provided under the agreement is 870,000 US $ of which 410,000 US $ are administrated by the PRC. The PRC running costs for 2 years is 36,000 US $. ORSTOM has provided three full time staff for MED-HYCOS project.

9.2. Discussion

The ICG agreed the agreement between WMO and ORSTOM.

10. GENERAL DISCUSSION

10.1 Proposal of Spain : DCPs and training

The representative of Spain informed the meeting that Spain has designated six stations of its national network for inclusion in the MED-HYCOS project. These are equipped with ESPASAT Data Collection Platforms (DCPs). The historical series of data are in this moment on the Web pages of the MED-HYCOS project. Spain is offering assistance for the development of training programmes for the Riparian Mediterranean sea and Black sea countries.

The ICG welcomed the offer of Spain to develop in co-operation with the PRC training programmes for the MED-HYCOS participating countries and requested Spain and the PRC to prepare a detailed proposal for this training.

10.2. Proposal of Italy : DCPs and training

The meeting noted that Italy participates in MED-HYCOS through the Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service of the Department for National Technical Services. It appreciated that six of the Service's existing stations have been designated as part of the MED-HYCOS network. These stations are located on the rivers Po, Reno, Arno, Tiber Pescara and Ofanto. These stations are to be equipped with CEIS-TM transmitters for data transmission to the PRC via METEOSAT. The meeting was informed that historical data from these six stations had already been partly transmitted. This activity will be pursued so as to complete the data archive pertaining to the basins concerned.

The representatives from Italy reiterated the offer of their country to fully support a training activity to the RTF1, at this stage. The meeting welcomed this offer and urged Italy to co-operate with the PRC to organise such an event.

10.3. Proposal of Malta : host RTF3 constitution meeting

The representative of Malta offered to host the first meeting of RTF3 to be held in September 1997. The ICG accepted with thanks this proposal.

10.4. Proposal of Bulgaria : host a meeting

The representative of Bulgaria also informed the meeting that he would like to host one of the next events to be organised within the framework of the MED-HYCOS project.

10.5. Non eligible European countries

The meeting emphasised the fact that the signature of the project document by non eligible countries such as France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal, would be of great support notably for fund rising purposes. It urged the countries concerned to take the necessary actions to have the document signed. WMO will provide further copies of this document as required.

10.6. Decentralisation of the activities

The meeting expressed its gratitude to ORSTOM for its continuous support to the MED-HYCOS project by hosting the PRC at Montpellier. However, the meeting took note that in the future there would be a need for decentralisation of the activities by the means of regional poles based on national competencies and willingness.

10.7. Submission of Slovenia

The ICG took note of the request of Slovenia to become a permanent member of the Initial Co-ordinating Group. The meeting welcomed unanimously the proposal and requested Slovenia to submit to WMO a formal request for that purpose.

10.8. Black sea countries

The Black sea countries members of the ICG urged WMO to take the necessary action to extend the project activities over the Black sea basin and recommended that it might contact BSEC (Black Sea Economic Commission Secretariat) in this connection. This recommendation is fully endorsed by the ICG.

11. APPROVAL OF THE REPORT

The participants considered and adopted the draft final report of the meeting with its Appendixes. The meeting requested the PRC to undertake all editorial changes deemed necessary to finalise the report and to circulate it to all members of the Initial Co-ordinating Group and to all the participating countries.

12. CLOSURE OF THE MEETING

In their closing addresses, both the representative of the WMO Secretariat and the PRC Co-ordinator thanked the Croatian authorities for their warm hospitality and the excellent facilities provided, joined their voices to thank all the participants for their strong support and active involvement in MED-HYCOS.

The meeting was closed on May 14th, 1997, at 18.00 hours.

13. APPENDIX 1

List of the participants
ICG meeting and RTF 1 training session

ICG Meeting	COUNTRY OR ORGANIZATION	First name	Surname
	BULGARIA	DIMITROV	DOBRI
	ITALY	RUSSO	MARIO
	ITALY	FORNACIARI	CARLO
	MALTA	MANGION	JOHN
	ROMANIA	FUGACIU	LILIANA
	SLOVENIA	MUZIC	ANTON
	SPAIN	RODRÍGUEZ-FONTAL	ALBERTO
	TUNISIA	KALLEL	RIDAH
	FRANCE	HUBERT	PIERRE
	CROATIA	PANDZIC	KRESO
	CROATIA	ZUPAN	MILAN
	WMO	BASSIER	JOHN
	WMO	VAN DE VYVERE	DIDIER
	WMO	PIEYNS	SERGE
	ORSTOM	FRITSCH	JEAN-MARIE
	GRDC	HILS	MICHAEL
	PRC	PERRAUD	MANUELLE
	PRC	MORELL	MARC
RTF 1 training session	COUNTRY OR ORGANIZATION	First name	Surname
	CROATIA	SMALCELJ	IVAN
	CROATIA	MALOVIC	VLADIMIR
	CROATIA	CESAREC	KNENIJA
	CROATIA	TRNINIC	DUSAN
	CROATIA	LOVOSEVIC	BORIS
	BOSNIA	HADZIC	DZEVAD
	CYPRUS	SKORDIS	PANAYIOTIS
	MACEDONIA	MILEVSKI	JOSIF
	MALTA	GRECH	ANGEL
	ROMANIA	LUCASCHI	BOGDAN
	SLOVENIA	CERNAC	BOJAN
	TUNISIA	NASRALLAH	SALEM
	TURKEY	SEZEN	NURULLAH
	YUGOSLAVIA	PERIC	KRISTINA
	PRC	GOUYET	ROBERT
	PRC	MARCHAND	PIERRE

14. APPENDIX 2 Addresses of the participants ICG - 12-13-14 May 1997
NAME		ORGANISME	ADRESS	PHONE Number	FAX	e-mail
DIMITROV Dobri	Head Forecasting Department	National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology	66 Tsarigradsko Shosse Blvd 1784 Sofia, Bulgarie	(359 2) 973 35 78	(359 2) 973 35 59	dobri@hp.cfd.meteo.bg
FORNACIARI Carlo	Expert Department for National Technical Services	Presidency of the Council of Ministers	Via Curtatone 3 Rome 00185 Italie	(39 6) 44 44 26 73	(39 6) 49 59 179
FRITSCH Jean Marie	Directeur de Recherche	ORSTOM	911 Avenue Agropolis BP 5045 34032 Montpellier cedex 1 France	(33) 04 67 41 62 19	(33) 04 67 41 18 06	J-Marie.Fritsch@mpl.orstom.fr
FUGACIU Liliana	Head of Informatic Systems Designing Team	National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology	Sos Bucuresti Ploiesti 97 71552 Bucarest Roumanie	(40 1) 230 28 85	(40 1) 230 31 43	liliana@meteo.inmh.ro
HUBERT Pierre	Président du CNFSH	CIG Ecole des Mines	35 Rue St Honoré 77305 Fontainebleau France	(33) 01 64 69 47 40	(33) 01 64 69 47 03	hubert@cig.ensmp.fr
BASSIER John		Département de la Coopération internationale OMM	41 Avenue Giuseppe Motta Case Postale 2300 1211 GENEVE 2 SUISSE	(41 22) 730 83 54	(41 22) 734 82 50	jbassier@www.wmo.ch
VAN DE VYVERE Didier		Program manager Europe and Newly Independant States PM/ENI	41 Avenue Giuseppe Motta Case Postale 2300 1211 GENEVE 2 SUISSE	(41 22) 730 82 98	(41 22) 734 23 26 (41 22) 740 02 07	vdVyvere_d@www.wmo.ch
MANGION John	Head Water Production	Water Services Corporation	Qormi Road Luqa LQA05 Malta	(356) 23 45 15	(356) 25 999 370	ariolo@maltanet.omnes.net
PERRAUD Manuelle	CRP administrator	MED-HYCOS CRP c/o ORSTOM	911 Avenue Agropolis BP 5045 34032 Montpellier cedex 1, France	(33) 04 67 63 64 29	(33) 04 67 41 21 33	manuelle. perraud@orstom.fr
MORELL Marc	CRP coordinator	MED-HYCOS CRP c/o ORSTOM	911 Avenue Agropolis BP 5045 34032 Montpellier cedex 1, France	(33) 04 67 63 64 28	(33) 04 67 41 21 33	marc.morell@orstom.fr
PIEYNS Serge	Senior Scientific Officer	Département de l'Hydrologie et des Ressources en Eau OMM	41 Avenue Giuseppe Motta Case Postale 2300 1211 Genève 2 Suisse	(41 22) 730 83 39	(41 22) 734 82 50	spieyns@www.wmo.ch
RODRÍGUEZ FONTAL Alberto	Chief of Hydraulic Resources Services	Ministerio de Obras Publicas, Transportes y Medio Ambiente	Plaza San Juan de la Cruz 28071 Madrid Espagne	(34 1) 597 67 67	(34 1) 597 59 09	moptma06@sarenet.es
HILS Michael		GRDC	c/o Bundesanstalt fuer Gewaesserkunde Kaiserin Augusta-Anlagen 15-17 56068 KOBLENZ, GERMANY	(49) 261 13 06 265	(49) 261 13 06 280	grdc@koblenz.bfg.bund400.de
MUZIC Anton		Hydrometeorological Institute of Slovenia	vojkova, 1/b 1001 LJUBLIANA SLOVENIA	(386) 61 327 461	(386) 61 133 13 96	Tone.Muzic@hmz.sigov.mail.si
RUSSO Mario	Ingénieur	Ufficio Idrografico e Mareografico Nationale	L/go Frentani 65100 PESCARA ITALIE	(39 85) 63 933	(39 85) 69 17 00	russo@plm.mstn.simn.it
ZUPAN Milan		Meteorological and Hydrological service	GRIC 3 10000 ZAGREB CROATIA	(385) 127 72 01	(385) 127 33 25	zupan@cirus.dhz.hr
KALLEL Mohamed Ridah			41, rue Manoubia 1008 Tunis TUNISIA	(216) 1 494553	(216) 1 391549

15. APPENDIX 3 : AGENDA

Sunday 11th :
Welcome participants in Dubrovnik 17 h 40 Transfer to Metkovic by bus (Narona or MB Hotel)
Monday 12th :
10h00	Welcome of the participants of both meetings in the Cultural Centre (in front of Narona Hotel) Information on the organisation of the stay Administrative formalities
12h00	Lunch time
14h00	Allocution of Mr Ivo Margeta, Mayor of Metkovic
14h15	Presentation of the hydro-meteorological service of Croatia by Dr. Kreso Pandzic representing the Director
15h00	Presentation of the hydrological resources of Croatia by Milan Zupan
15h45	Pause
16h00	Presentation of MED-HYCOS project and of the meetings agenda by Marc Morell, Pilot Regional Centre (PRC) Co-ordinator
16h45	Presentation of the MED-HYCOS Web Site by Robert Gouyet -PRC-
17h30	Discussion
Tuesday 13th :
09h00	Meeting presentation
09h15	Project document signature, Mobilisation of funds, etc. by Serge Pieyns WMO
09h45	Presentation 1996 activities and 1997 planned activities by Marc Morell CRP
10h15	Pause
10h30	Objective 1
12h00	Lunch time
14h15	Objective 2
15h00	Objective 3
15h45	Pause
16h00	Objective 4
16h45	Objective 5
Wednesday 14th :
09h00	Discussions and propositions Writing of the meeting report
12h00	Lunch time
14h00	Approval of the meeting report
18h00	Closure of the meeting
18h15	Visit of the roman Narona City offered by local authorities
20h00	Dinner offered by local authorities
Thursday 15th :
Departure from Metkovic to Split

16. APPENDIX 4

General presentation of the meetings in Metkovic by Marc Morell - May 12th 1997

Ladies and gentlemen.

First, I'd like to thank very much our Croatian hosts, especially :

Mr. MARGETA, Mayor of Metkovic,
Mr. PANDZIC, representing the Director of the Meteorological and Hydrological service,
Mr. ZUPAN, the MED-HYCOS representative
and Mr. SMALCELJ

for welcoming us, and for the work they have put in, in organising this meeting.

This afternoon, I'd like

first, to remind you the main goals of the MED-HYCOS Project.
and, secondly, to present the objectives of the RTF 1 training session and of the ICG meeting.

In 1993, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), with the support of the World Bank, started to promote the development of a World Hydrological Cycle Observing System (WHYCOS).

This global network of reference stations is being developed through regional components with the aim of promoting modern technologies and a regional approach to water related problems, by improving the capacities of the hydrological services and by encouraging co-operation between hydrologists.

The first regional component, called MED-HYCOS, concerns the riparian countries of the Mediterranean Sea, with a possible extension to Black Sea as additional funds would be made available to the project.

At short term range, the purposes of MED-HYCOS project are to promote modern technologies, and to encourage co-operation between hydrological services.

At middle and long term range, the purposes are to provide a reliable base, for assessment and management of water resources, and to contribute to the knowledge of the hydrological processes, in connection with climate and environment.

The Mediterranean basin is the world's largest nearly included sea. The characteristics of the basins which are flowing to the Mediterranean sea are :

A typical climate
Fragmented hydrological structures
Irregular streams' regimes
Resources highly demanded

The characteristics of the Black sea are

A highly polluted sea
Important water exchanges with the Mediterranean
Similar issues as with the Mediterranean

The technical conception of the program is based on

The set up of a Data collection platforms network
The implementation of a Regional operational data base
The output of hydrological products
The exchange and transmission of the information
The organisation of training sessions on activities related to the project

Now, I would like to present the Regional task force One (RTF 1), working on technological aspects of the MED-HYCOS project.

The objective of the RTF 1 training session in Metkovic, is the same as the one of the session held in France, in September last year. It is instruction on the installation, maintenance and exploitation of the Data Collecting Platforms, or DCP as they are usually called.

This training session will continue in Metkovic over the next two weeks. The installation of the first DCP in Croatia, will enable technicians from all MED-HYCOS countries represented in Metkovic, to gain the 'hands-on' experience they will need, to set up the platforms in their own countries.

I would remind you the main characteristics of the DCPs.

DCPs are multisensors, self powered and reliable data acquisition platforms. These DCPs are equipped by Meteosat transmitters. The installation, implementation and operation of these DCPs must be easy.

The parameters measured by the first 20 DCPs are :

water level,
rainfall,
water temperature, and air temperature.

The selection of the sites of the DCPs is under the responsibility of the countries. The network could expand with additional DCPs and with additional sensors. Each country is responsible for operation and maintenance of its DCPs.

Ineligible countries are by now France, Georgia, Greece, Italy, Moldova, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain and Ukraine.

We hope Bosnia, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia will be involved in the project as eligible countries.

20 platforms have been delivered to the PRC in August 1996.

The conditions necessary to receive DCPs are :

to be an eligible country
to have obtained the signature of their government on the project document
to have obtained an Eutmetsat channel
to have taken part in a DCP training session

As you can see ,in the next transparency, 5 countries fulfil these conditions.

7 DCPs were sent to these countries :

Croatia (1), Cyprus (1), Slovenia (1), Tunisia(2), and Turkey (2)

The other eligible countries will receive the remaining 13 DCPs as soon as they fulfil the 4 conditions.

In 1997, ten other platforms could be purchased by WMO with World Bank funds. They could be sent to the countries requiring a second station.

Tunisia must be congratulated for the starting up of their DCP. This DCP is the first one in the project transmitting data.

10 countries are taking part in the present training session in Metkovic.

After the course en Metkovic, about 25 experts from 21 countries have been trained.

In Metkovic, the 7 following experts assist for the first time a DCP training session :

Mrs. Kristina Peric from Yugoslavia
Mr Boris Lovosevic, Mr. Dusan Trninic, and Mr. Knenija Cesarec from Croatia,
Mr. Dzevad Hadzic from Bosnia,
Mr. Panayiotis Skordis from Cyprus,
and Mr. Bojan Cernac from Slovenia

Experts from 6 countries who took part in the training session in France, last September, will be the instructors during the first week.

These persons are :

Mr. Yvan Smalcelj from Croatia
Mr. Josif Milevski from Macedonia
Mr. Angel Grech from Malta
Mr. Bogdan Lucaschi from Romania
Mr. Salem Ben-Nasrallah from Tunisia
Mr. Nurullah Sezen from Turkey

Unfortunately, Mr. Dimiter Gaytandjiev from Bulgaria couldn't attend this meeting.

Mr. Pierre Marchand, expert from PRC, will also intervene as instructor during this training session.

During the first week of the training session in Metkovic, you will study all the technical aspects of the management of DCP :

Meteosat, system, DCP installation, software, sensors, and so on

During the second week, every expert, present in Metkovic, will learn how to install the first Croatian DCP on site.

The present training session will enable you to pass on the expertise you have acquired here, to technicians in your own countries.

Until now, Syria and Palestinian territories are the only eligible countries who didn't attend the DCP training session. For them, we plan to organise individualised specific training sessions. The countries which are not represented today in Croatia will have the possibility during the installation of their DCP to get some technical support from some of you.

This session will also provide a forum for the exchange of information, between all the countries about their own departments, hydrological practices, hydrological software, data bases and so on, like in Montpellier last year.

I have asked Mr. Lucaschi from Romania and Mr. Zupan from Croatia to supervise the training session with the help of Mr. Smalcelj who will be in charge of organisational aspects.

You have already received the detailed program of these two weeks training session and also the report of the last meeting in France.

I encourage every participant of this training session to exchange as much information with other participants.

I trust you to produce a good job.

Now, let's jump to the Initial Co-ordinating Group meeting, called ICG.

Before presenting the objectives of the ICG meeting, I'd like to remind you that MED-HYCOS project institutional framework is made up of a Regional Co-operating Group named RCG, an Initial Co-ordination Group named ICG and a Pilot Regional Centre named PRC.

WMO is the executing agency of the project. The World Bank finances the activities of the project during its start up period, from May 95 to May 98.

The Regional Co-operating Group is composed by all the countries and organisations involved in the project.

The RCG is responsible for the definition of strategic, technical and operational aspects of the program.

The RCG has mandated the Initial Co-ordination Group (ICG), presently made up of 7 countries and 5 organisations :

Bulgaria, France, Italy, Malta, Romania, Spain, Tunisia
WMO, The World Bank, Friend-Amhy, Medias-France, and ORSTOM

To complete the presentation of the institutional aspects, there is a Pilot Regional Center (PRC), hosted by ORSTOM in Montpellier France.

PRC operates under the authority of the ICG and under the control of WMO. The PRC is in charge of the co-ordination of the activities related to the implementation of the project during its start up period. PRC acts as a focal point of a dynamic network grouping the MED-HYCOS partners. In the Initial Co-ordinating Group, the countries are represented by :

Mrs. Liliana Fugaciu from Romania,
Mr. Dubri Dimitrov from Bulgaria,
Mr. Pierre Hubert from France,
Mr. Mario Russo from Italy,
Mr. John Mangion from Malta,
Mr. Alberto Rodriguez Fontal from Spain,
Mr. Ridha Kallel from Tunisia.

In Metkovic, as host country, Croatia will naturally be taking part in the ICG meeting with Mr. Zupan. We also welcome Mr. Carlo Fornaciari from Italy, Mr. Anton Music from Slovenia, and Mr. Michael Hills from GRDC.

The organisations participating, permanently, in the ICG, are :

The World Bank : unfortunately, Mr. Geoffrey Matthews can't be with us to day.
WMO represented by Mr. John Bassier, Mr. Van de Vyvere and Mr. Serge Pieyns.
ORSTOM represented by Mr. Jean-Marie Fritsch.
Medias-France and Friend-Amhy are also members of the ICG, but their representatives couldn't be with us today.

During the first meeting of the ICG in March 1996, 5 immediate objectives were identified, as you can see on this transparency :

Objective 1 : installation of the DCP network
Objective 2 : development and implementation of the regional data base
Objective 3 : improvement of national hydrological services
Objective 4 : creation of an infrastructure to facilitate communication and cooperation
Objective 5 : implementation of a regional computer network

The report on PRC activities in 1996, you have already received, presents the activities related to these objectives from March 1996 to March 1997.

Before ending my speech, I would like to say that the main objective of the ICG meeting in Metkovic is to review in detail the activities proposed for the coming year.

These activities are listed in the agreement between Orstom and WMO included in the 1996 PRC report. Our specific task, in this meeting, will be to make any modifications necessary.

In conclusion, these meetings in Metkovic will contribute to the success of the implementation of MED-HYCOS project.

At short term range, this project will be successful, only if the countries invest strongly their competencies in the different activities presently administrated by the PRC.

At medium term range, the introduction of a technological advance and the promotion of data exchanges between the countries themselves, the MED-HYCOS project will contribute to improve a regional co-operation between hydrologists and between the main actors in water sector in Mediterranean and Black sea areas.

I hope you will benefit from these meetings.

Thank you very much for being here today and thank you for your attention and for your great interest in our project.

17. APPENDIX 5

Guide lines for the questionnaire related to RTF3

This questionnaire aims to determine the present status of the hydrological practices in hydrometry and telemetry in order to identify the needs of the National Hydrological Services (NHS) of additional recommendations, equipment and training to promote the rise of the national standards at certain international level, related to data acquisition, processing and communication, for the stations involved in the MED-HYCOS programme.

The questionnaire should focus on two main topics :

1 - Hydrometry, data processing, data validation including national standards, equipment and adequate skilled personnel.

2 - Data communication including :

availability of NHS access to the GTS and the specification of the necessary up-grade wherever needed for real time MED-HYCOS data dissemination;
availability of NHS access to INTERNET and the specification of the necessary up-grade wherever needed for the use of the MED-HYCOS products via the project WEB sites;
availability of software for visualisation and processing of the data accumulated in the solid state memory block of the DCPs and its possible up-grade.

The questionnaire should clarify the needs of the NHS by the means of series of questions and predefined answers in order to avoid unrealistic requests.

For each of the requests related to equipment or training the NHS should submit detailed explanations proving the real necessity from the point of view of the MED-HYCOS programme implementation.

Med-Hycos - the Project

Report n°5 Second Meeting INITIAL COORDINATING GROUP Metkovic, Croatia May 12 - 14, 1997

1. OPENING