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.