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GURME Forecasting Workshop 

Hosted by the Malaysian Meteorological Service
Kuching, Malaysia  14-17 August 2000

As you are aware, the WMO has established the GAW Urban Research Meteorology and Environment(GURME) Project in 1999 in response to requests from National Meteorological and Hydrological Services(NMHSs). The project was launched at the first Workshop in Beijing last November; the second workshop was held in Moscow in December. In these workshops it was recognized that one important aspect of GURME involves enhancing the capabilities to provide meteorological and air quality forecasts of urban environments. 

The First GURME Forecasting Workshop, that was kindly  hosted by the Malaysian Meteorological Service, was held in Kuching, Malaysia 14-17 August 2000. The emphasis of the workshop was on presenting a spectrum of forecasting tools and on appropriate uses (including examples of model uses and limitations). The objective of the workshop was to familiarize the participants with the different possibilities for urban forecasting, and their technical and data support requirements, to help NMHSs in their deliberations on what role to undertake in urban forecasting and in identifying suitable systems for use in support of their activities. The report for this meeting can be viewed here(pdf file).

Workshop on Air Quality Modeling Challenges ,ASAAQ meeting 

Taipei, Taiwan  3 November, 2000

Air quality models provide an important scientific tool for assessing current regional to urban scale air quality and trans-boundary pollution transport, and as a basis for guiding the planning and management of future air quality goals.  The ASAAQ Coordinating Committee encourages the promotion and integration of high quality science and data in such models.  Therefore, the ASAAQ will take the opportunity to conduct a special workshop on 3 November immediately following the scientific sessions of ASAAQ-2000 to explore rationale and potential opportunities for promoting the science base and technical collaborations needed to support and build multi-national and multi-scale air quality modeling capabilities, with particular relevance and importance to Asian and Pacific Rim regions.

The Workshop format will provide opportunities to express the needs and the requirements of advanced air quality modeling systems to meet the challenges of balancing air quality goals with economic development in this new millennium. Invited
speakers will provide overviews on comparative modeling paradigms for various scales, environmental challenges in the New Millennia, technologies for advancing open, community-based modeling to support opportunities for assessing and forecasting air quality.  The workshop will in the context of addressing relevant health, ecosystem and climate impacts, identify the breadth of spatial and exposure time scales
relevant to particular applications, and discuss the complexities of the atmospheric chemistry, transport and deposition processes that underlie the modeling requirements.  Suggestions for strategies to develop collaborations will be explored.

The workshop will be open to all participants of the scientific and technical sessions of the ASAAQ-2000.  A full day of presentation and discussions will be dedicated to current and relevant activities and recent modeling developments of the
countries; suggestions and ideas to stimulate the widest range of future collaboration among interested scientists and nations in the region will be sought.