Abstract
Surface observations provide ground evidence of climate change to support the scientific guidance paving the way to better adaptation and mitigation actions. The West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) has designed a multi-stakeholder initiative to rescue the deteriorated near-surface weather, climate and hydrological equipment of West African countries. The main goal for this multi-stakeholder framework was to monitor the climate and collect long term and high-quality records of essential climate variables in support of research, education, capacity building, and climate services provision. Proactive and inclusive partnership initiatives were developed to jointly (re)design and (re)implement near surface observatiories with the national meteorological and hydrological services or agencies (NMHS/As) in West Africa. The co-production scheme used by this framework succeeded in evaluating the existing observations networks, to modernizing sensors and field equipment, and densifying the sites in order to improve the quality of data collection, transmission, archiving, processing and sharing policies. After more than four years of community-of-practice, the existing regional basic hydroclimatic was increased/upgraded by 45% with automatic weather observing systems while fifty automatic water level, ten water quality sensors, three mesoscale research catchments, and several pilot sites to benefit countries’ services provision, research infrastructure, education, and capacity building. Country-specific data sharing policies were harmonized and signed to support data services delivery. This practice paper exposes the concepts, outcomes, challenges, lessons learned and the ways forward in setting-up the framework and keeping it on working to leverage the co-production of data & information services for better-informed decision-making in the field of sustainable development in West Africa.
Highlights
Compared to other regions worldwide, the projection of climate change and its impacts over West Africa are highly uncertain. This high level of uncertainty subsequently affects decision-making on local, national and regional levels and renders the design of efficient adaptation measures much more difficult. These uncertainties are due to a limited scientific understanding of the West African climate drivers and their interactions (Klein et al 2017), resulting from a lack of high quality, long term observational data, and specific data mining capabilities
Previous analyses by the Climate Risk & Early Warning Systems (CREWS)1 showed that the West African countries are the most vulnerable to weather extremes because their national hydrological and meteorological services or agencies (NMHS/As, ) have limited early warning capabilities, weak or non-existent dissemination systems, and a lack of effective emergency planning in case of alerts and warning information (CREWS 2017, Salack et al 2018)
By connecting the national meteorological and hydrological services or agencies (NMHS/As) and other partners around data collection, WASCAL ONs play the leading role of a regional broker for data services, infrastructure, and expertise necessary to improve the quality of climate information services (CIS) and increase the analytical power of national institutions to better serve their customers and the public
Summary
Compared to other regions worldwide, the projection of climate change and its impacts over West Africa are highly uncertain This high level of uncertainty subsequently affects decision-making on local, national and regional levels and renders the design of efficient adaptation measures much more difficult. These uncertainties are due to a limited scientific understanding of the West African climate drivers and their interactions (Klein et al 2017), resulting from a lack of high quality, long term observational data, and specific data mining capabilities. To improve the availability of high-quality hydro-meteorological measurements, and to increase our understanding of land-atmosphere processes and their interactions, advanced and modern near-surface observational systems are needed in West Africa.
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