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Expert Meeting on the Development of the JCOMM Guide to Storm Surge Forecasting

At the Second Session of the JCOMM (JCOMM-II, Halifax, Canada, September 2005), the Commission urged the ETWS to complete the preparations of the Guide to Storm Surge Forecasting during the intersessional period. The Commission adopted Recommendation 1 (JCOMM-II) on this topic, which provided the formal justification and guidance for the work being undertaken. Responding to this recommendation, and in order to develop the contents and the implementation plan for the preparation of the JCOMM Guide to Storm Surge Forecasting, the WMO hosted an Expert Meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, from 8 to 10 February 2006.

The Meeting developed and agreed upon the Table of Contents of the Guide, considering its scope and objective, and adopted an implementation plan for the preparation of the JCOMM Guide to Storm Surge Forecasting. The Meeting agreed to contribute towards the development of the sections and sub-sections, and assigned responsibilities related to the preparation and creation of each of them. The Meeting adopted an implementation plan and time frame for the preparation of the JCOMM Guide to Storm Surge Forecasting. The experts responsible for the sections and sub-sections of the Guide are submitting their input to Mr Val Swail, with a copy to the Secretariats. Material has already been produced for more than half of the sections, with the rest expected by the end of February 2007, for review by the ETWS-II. By the end of June 2007 the Guide will be edited linguistically, and the final layout and format will be prepared and reviewed by Mr Val Swail, Dr Tad Murty, Professor Igor Lavrenov and the Secretariat.

The Meeting agreed that the Guide should raise attention to the need for addressing the vulnerability of coastal areas exposed to storm surges, and forecasting not only hazards but risks, which result from a combination of a hazard with a vulnerability. This will be provided in Chapter 8 of the Guide, "Surge Disaster Preparedness", and take advantage of the existing knowledge and know-how amongst the WMO and IOC Programmes. This will also be done in accordance with the increasing practice of NMHSs to use and deliver warning and risk hazard maps.