Strengthening Hydromet and Early Warning Services in Afghanistan : A Road Map

Hydrological and meteorological (hydromet) data collection and analysis in Afghanistan started in the late 1940s and mid-1950s, respectively. The hydrometric network expanded rapidly in the 1960s and 1970s, reaching a peak of 150 in 1980, and the m...

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Main Author: World Bank Group
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/976021545165642530/Strengthening-Hydromet-and-Early-Warning-Services-in-Afghanistan-A-Road-Map
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31059
id okr-10986-31059
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-310592021-05-25T09:20:58Z Strengthening Hydromet and Early Warning Services in Afghanistan : A Road Map World Bank Group WEATHER FORECASTING METEOROLOGICAL WARNING EARLY WARNING SYSTEM HYDROLOGY NATURAL DISASTERS DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT CLIMATE RISK STAKEHOLDER INTERESTS DATA MANAGEMENT MODELING CAPACITY BUILDING Hydrological and meteorological (hydromet) data collection and analysis in Afghanistan started in the late 1940s and mid-1950s, respectively. The hydrometric network expanded rapidly in the 1960s and 1970s, reaching a peak of 150 in 1980, and the meteorological network had a similar trajectory. Two decades of war, however, brought instability and insecurity that reduced public resources, capacities, collaboration, and coordination. The institutional framework governing weather, climate and hydrological (hydromet) services as well as early warning (EW) and disaster risk management (DRM) services did not escape these setbacks. In 1996, Taliban forces sacked the meteorology office, ruining equipment and destroying over 100 years of weather records. Hydroelectric production nearly ceased as turbines were destroyed, floodgates blown open, and transmission lines brought down. The civil war and its aftermath led to the degradation of traditional observation networks, prevalence of outdated and inefficient technologies, and lack of modern instruments and information and communication technology (ICT). The absence of forecasts and weather information reversed years of development gains in farming and civil aviation operations. In 1998, an Ariana Afghan Airlines flight in route from Kandahar to Kabul in bad weather crashed into a mountaintop, killing 45 people. From 1998 to 2004, a major drought forced nearly 1 million Afghans from their farms and herds into metropolitan areas, impacting half the agriculture land, killing 3 million livestock, and seriously depleting groundwater resources in Kabul and the Kabul Water Basin. 2018-12-20T21:20:13Z 2018-12-20T21:20:13Z 2018-12-01 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/976021545165642530/Strengthening-Hydromet-and-Early-Warning-Services-in-Afghanistan-A-Road-Map http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31059 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Working Paper South Asia Afghanistan
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic WEATHER FORECASTING
METEOROLOGICAL WARNING
EARLY WARNING SYSTEM
HYDROLOGY
NATURAL DISASTERS
DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT
CLIMATE RISK
STAKEHOLDER INTERESTS
DATA MANAGEMENT
MODELING
CAPACITY BUILDING
spellingShingle WEATHER FORECASTING
METEOROLOGICAL WARNING
EARLY WARNING SYSTEM
HYDROLOGY
NATURAL DISASTERS
DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT
CLIMATE RISK
STAKEHOLDER INTERESTS
DATA MANAGEMENT
MODELING
CAPACITY BUILDING
World Bank Group
Strengthening Hydromet and Early Warning Services in Afghanistan : A Road Map
geographic_facet South Asia
Afghanistan
description Hydrological and meteorological (hydromet) data collection and analysis in Afghanistan started in the late 1940s and mid-1950s, respectively. The hydrometric network expanded rapidly in the 1960s and 1970s, reaching a peak of 150 in 1980, and the meteorological network had a similar trajectory. Two decades of war, however, brought instability and insecurity that reduced public resources, capacities, collaboration, and coordination. The institutional framework governing weather, climate and hydrological (hydromet) services as well as early warning (EW) and disaster risk management (DRM) services did not escape these setbacks. In 1996, Taliban forces sacked the meteorology office, ruining equipment and destroying over 100 years of weather records. Hydroelectric production nearly ceased as turbines were destroyed, floodgates blown open, and transmission lines brought down. The civil war and its aftermath led to the degradation of traditional observation networks, prevalence of outdated and inefficient technologies, and lack of modern instruments and information and communication technology (ICT). The absence of forecasts and weather information reversed years of development gains in farming and civil aviation operations. In 1998, an Ariana Afghan Airlines flight in route from Kandahar to Kabul in bad weather crashed into a mountaintop, killing 45 people. From 1998 to 2004, a major drought forced nearly 1 million Afghans from their farms and herds into metropolitan areas, impacting half the agriculture land, killing 3 million livestock, and seriously depleting groundwater resources in Kabul and the Kabul Water Basin.
format Working Paper
author World Bank Group
author_facet World Bank Group
author_sort World Bank Group
title Strengthening Hydromet and Early Warning Services in Afghanistan : A Road Map
title_short Strengthening Hydromet and Early Warning Services in Afghanistan : A Road Map
title_full Strengthening Hydromet and Early Warning Services in Afghanistan : A Road Map
title_fullStr Strengthening Hydromet and Early Warning Services in Afghanistan : A Road Map
title_full_unstemmed Strengthening Hydromet and Early Warning Services in Afghanistan : A Road Map
title_sort strengthening hydromet and early warning services in afghanistan : a road map
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2018
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/976021545165642530/Strengthening-Hydromet-and-Early-Warning-Services-in-Afghanistan-A-Road-Map
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31059
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