Date: October 19-29, 2004 Venue: MO headquarters, Geneva
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The 12th Session of the Commission for Hydrology (CHy) was held at the WMO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, from October 19 to October 29, 2004. Mr. Terakawa and Mr. Yoshitani participated in the commission as members of the Japanese delegation. About 150 representatives from 52 National Hydrological Services out of 187 member countries/regions attended the commission and discussed the progress of various international activities led by WMO in the fields of hydrological observation, management of hydrological data, and hydrological prediction. During the discussion, achievements of the past 4 years were reviewed and an activity plan for the next 4 years was elaborated.

In the scientific lecture session organized as part of the agenda, Mr. Terakawa made a presentation entitled "Outline of GFAS", in which he introduced the International Flood Network (IFNet) promoted by the Infrastructure Development Institute, Japan, and the Global Flood Alart System (GFAS), one of the core programs of IFNet. He also reported the progress of preparatory activities of the UNESCO-PWRI Center. (Click here for the presentation materials)
The leader of the working group on water resources, Dr. Shiklomanov (Director of the Russian Federal Institute of Hydrology), made a brief summary of the report on the present situation and trend of the hydrological data management which was prepared by a former working group member, Mr. Kanaki (Director of the Chubu Technical and Engineering Office). And Mr. Yoshitani gave additional explanations of the report. The Commission highly appreciated the report and decided to publish and distribute it as an official WMO technical report after peer review process.

Concerning CHy's collaborative activities with other international organizations, a future strategy of the joint UNESCO WMO Flood Initiative (JUWFI), currently in preparatory stage, was discussed. It was recorded in the minutes that the UNESCO-PWRI Center to be established in 2005 should provide support to the program, based on a (future) concensus between UNESCO and WMO.
Lastly, concerning the management of CHy for the next 4 years, Mr. Bruce Stewart of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology was elected President and Mr. Julius Wellens-Mensah of the Ghana Hydrological Service Department was elected Vice President. Nine members of the Advisory Working Group including President and vice President of CHy were also selected. Mr. Yoshitani was registered as one of the experts for the working group on flood/drought disaster mitigation.
The UNESCO-PWRI Center is going to actively participate in future WMO-CHy activities, along with the activity of Mr. Fukami of the Hydrologic Engineering Research Team of PWRI who is registered as an expert for the Commission of Regional Area U (Asian region).