Austria
The EGU General Assembly 2018 was again a great success with 4,776 oral, 11,128 poster, and 1,419 PICO presentations. 666 unique scientific sessions together with 68 short courses and 294 side events created an interesting programme. At the conference 15,075 scientists from 106 countries participated, of which 53% were under the age of 35 years, 15,000 copies of EGU Today distributed, keen media presence and reporting, and thousands of visits to the webstreams as well as to the EGU blog GeoLog.
SPACE-O participated with an interactive PICO session, which aimed to bridge the gap between science and practice in operational forecasting for different water-related natural hazards. Operational (early) warning systems are the result of progress and innovations in the science of forecasting. New opportunities have risen in physically based modelling, coupling meteorological and hydrological forecasts, and ensemble forecasting. However, once a system is operational, the development often continues more in the field of applied research or consultancy. Furthermore, development of these types of systems is usually performed within one field of expertise. Forecasting warning research can be more effective when these efforts and experiences are combined.
The focus of this session was on bringing the expertise from different fields together as well as exploring differences, similarities, problems and solutions between forecasting systems for varying natural hazards. Real-world case studies of system implementations – configured at local, regional and national scales – were be presented, including trans-boundary issues.
Our input to the EGU2018 included:
a) An oral presentation in the PICO session HS4.5/NH1.14 Operational forecasting and warning systems for natural hazards: challenges and innovation with the title:
Operational short-term water quantity and quality forecasting in reservoirs intended for potable water production.
by Evangelos Romas, Apostolos Tzimas, Kyriakos Kandris, Ilias Pechlivanidis, George Boultadakis, Alkiviadis Giannakoulias, Karin Schenk, Claudia Giardino, and Mariano Bresciani
b) A poster in the session HS6.2 Assimilation of hydrological and phenological remote sensing and in situ data with the title:
The added value of combining Earth Observation in a data assimilation scheme to develop water information systems
by Rafael Pimentel, David Gustafsson, Claudia Giardino, Mariano Bresciani, Evangelos Romas, Apostolis Tzimas, Karin Schenk, and Ilias Pechlivanidis
