Update on CIEHLYC

Rick Lawford and Angelica Gutierrez-Magness

January 12, 2012

AfWCCI Workshop

Nairobi, Kenya

Centre of Hydrologic and Spatial Information for Latin America and the Caribbean (CIEHLYC)

Who we are:

• A group of water and remote sensing experts from governments and academia; a non-profit, international network, formed to support the objectives of GEOSS and its Water Societal Benefit Area.

• A program framework for coordinating GEO-related capacity building activities in Latin America and the Caribbean.

GEO Water Cycle Capacity-

Building Workshop

Fresh Water Component

Ocean Component

Capacity Building Courses

Good News from this workshop for CIEHLYC in terms of its plans:

Discussions have begun on how to use Water ML 2.0 in a number of L&CA countries.

Chile launched a satellite in December 2011 and will be providing opportunities for

applications across Latin America and beyond.

US agencies were made aware of the extensive data collection capabilities that countries

in South America have for data collection activities and other support for their

Ocean Acidification program.

The training programs at this workshop were very successful. It is recommended that

CIEHLYC coordinate training related to water products throughout Latin and Caribbean

Americas. “Training the trainers” should be considered as a way of multiplying the

influence of these programs.

Good News for IGWCO:

The GEO/GEWEX Soil

Moisture group has

had difficulty in finding

soil moisture data and flux

tower data for South

America. With the help of

IDEAM and the University

of Santa Maria we are now

able to solve that problem.

CAZALAC will assist in the development of the Americas component of GDEWS.

To facilitate the implementation of these actions CIEHYLC has

added a new co-chair from Chile.

Opportunities for helping GEO Water:

Given the strong influence of ENSO events on the river flows and

Hydrology of Colombia and the surrounding countries, it is proposed

that IDEAM and CIEHLYC develop a proposal to look at seasonal

high and low flow forecasting through the development of a

multination hydrological data system.

Based on discussions at this

meeting there is good

potential to expand

SULFLUX to develop a

fluxnet tower network over

the agricultural (and

forested) areas of South

America.