About Asian Climate Training (ACT)

As a follow on to the August 2001 meeting of the ASEAN Sub-Committee on Meteorology and Geophysics, the Thai Meteorological Department (TMD) and the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) co-organized the Asian Climate Training (ACT) workshop on climate information applications, in association with the East-West Center and the International Research Institute for Climate Prediction (IRI). This was held in Bangkok from 7-18 May 2002, with approximately 30 participants from Asia.

ACT was the first training workshop of its kind to be held in the region. Recognizing that there is a wealth of climate information that currently exists at the regional and international level, ADPC and TMD designed a curriculum for ACT that focuses on the application of this information for societal benefit. We brought together forecasters and climate information users from agriculture, water resources, disaster management, and other climate-sensitive sectors. We produced this manual to share the insights from the many experts from international and regional organizations. We hope it will help to enhance your knowledge and networks for the effective use of climate information in your home countries.

The manual covers a variety of topics to familiarize you with findings from the latest research studies on climate phenomena such as El Niño and La Niña. It includes the policy-making processes of governmental agencies, and how climate information may be used as an important factor to your country’s vital decisions on resource management, public health, and disaster management. ACT contains four modules as follows:

1) Understanding Climate Variability and Its Consequences – the patterns and predictability of climate on various time scales, at the global and regional levels. It reviews ENSO Dynamics and its influences on regional climate.

2) Current Climate Forecasting Capabilities – the current status of seasonal climate prediction capabilities and explores possibilities to improve seasonal forecasts, keeping in view recent advances in climate prediction. Forecasters present their national forecasts and the process for developing it.

3) Applying Climate Information for Decision Making – applying climate information in resource management sectors. Participants from user groups present their experiences with using climate information. A “Forecast Game” simulation provides a hands-on opportunity to develop a forecast and apply it in a resource management scenario.

4) Climate Information Application Systems – the intersection between available climate information and the information required to improve management of climate variability in particular applications areas. It covers the generic elements of an end-to-end climate information system and provides tools for designing a system to meet needs in applications areas that participants identify.

In this site, you will find selected background readings for each module that provide a basic understanding of the issues. We've also included contact information for the resource people who contributed to the first ACT course in May 2002. Please see the manual guide for a list of subjects.

We would like to send our thanks to each of the resource people and our collaborating partners in the East-West Center, the International Research Institute for Climate Prediction, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Thai Meteorological Department.

We welcome your feedback on this first release of the manual. We hope there will be an ongoing dialogue and process of improving each of the modules! Please send your comments and questions to ece@adpc.net.