Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Programme

Programmes > DRR >

Third Early Warning Conference (EWC-III)

27-29 March 2006, Bonn, Germany

Background

The third Early Warning Conference (EWC-III), hosted by the Government of Germany under the auspices of the United Nations, was held in Bonn from 27 to 29 March 2006. The aim of the Conference is to stimulate and help with the implementation of concrete early warning activities on all continents to bridge existing gaps in early warning systems.

The Conference comprised of two parallel but connected streams:

• An implementation-oriented "Priorities and Projects Forum" addressed key issues in early warning under three categories : earth-, water- and air-related early warning systems. The discussions were based on selected exemplary projects submitted by countries, international and regional organizations.
• A "Scientific and Technical Symposium", in which issues associated with early warning systems worldwide were debated under three areas : Mega Events ; Multi-Hazard Approaches ; People, Politics and Economics. This session involved invited keynote speakers and selected presentations from a wide range of abstracts that has been submitted to the conference organizers

The Conference also included other events, including a poster exhibition (opening Monday 27 at 13:00) and a series of workshops (starting Tuesday 28 at 13:00).

For more information about the Conference, please see http://www.ewc3.org.

WMO Contribution to EWC-III

Press Release: WMO Secretary General, Michel Jarraud, presented a Framework for Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems at the Third International Early Warning Conference

WMO is the United Nations specialized scientific and technical agency responsible for coordination of global operational infrastructure for observing, monitoring, forecasting of weather-, water- and climate-related hazards in support of national early warning systems. Through its activities and as a member of the Consultative Committee of the EWC-III, WMO has contributed to the Conference in the following areas:

1. WMO Discussion Paper

WMO has prepared a discussion paper on "Early Warning Systems: Role and Contribution of the World Meteorological Organization and National Meteorological and Hydrological Services," in the context of the Third International Early Warning Conference: [English] - [French]
- [Spanish] - [Russian] - [Arabic]

2. Priorities and Projects Forum (Plenary Session)

WMO submitted 12 projects to EWC III Planning Committee. Five projects have been selected through the review process adopted by EWC-III Organizing Committee to be presented during the Plenary Session, and two others have been invited to be presented at the poster Session
(WMO projects for EWC-III).

3. Scientific and Technical Symposium

The Secretary-General of WMO delivered the keynote speech for the opening of the Scientific and Technical Symposium (Monday 27 March 2006) on a Framework for Multi-Hazard, Multi-Purpose Early Warning Systems.

Dr. Maryam Golnaraghi, Chief of the WMO Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Programme, chaired the Multi-Hazard Approaches session of the Symposium (Monday 27 March 2006).

Several presentations from the meteorological and hydrological community have been invited for this Symposium. In the agenda, these presentations have been highlighted in pink
(Tentative Scientific and Technical Symposium Agenda). For final agenda please refer to the EWC-III website.

4. Poster Session

WMO presented one poster on the "Internationally Coordinated Network of National Meteorological and Hydrological Services in Support of National Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems".

5. Exhibition Booth

WMO holded a booth to present its activities related to early warnings and made available background materials, brochures and posters.

WMO booth was located next to Deutscher Wetterdienst's (German Meteorological Service), in slot F2 in the exhibition hall.

6. Other WMO contributions to EWC-III

Other WMO contributions to EWC-III include a movie developed for World Meteorological Day 2006 (23 March 2006), shot at location in Bangladesh and South Africa, on early warning systems, which was displayed in the booth at EWC-III.

For more information about WMO's contribution to EWC-III, please contact:

Dr Maryam Golnaraghi
Chief, Natural Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Programme
World Meteorological Organization
7bis,avenue de la Paix
Case postale 2300
CH-1211 Geneva 2
Switzerland
Tel: + 41-(0) 22-730-8006
Fax: + 41-(0) 22-730-8023
Email: mgolnaraghi@wmo.int