HÒA BÌNH — Impact-based forecasting and warning plays a very important role, contributing to disaster damage reduction and socio-economic development, experts said at an international workshop in the northern province of Hoà Bình on Wednesday.

Deputy head of the Vietnam Meteorological and Hydrological Administration (VNMHA) Hoàng Đức Cường said that the workshop, jointly held by the VNMHA and the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC) in response to World Meteorological Day (March 23), will provide international experiences on forecasting and warning based on practical impacts in the world and Việt Nam, contributing to forming processes and measures to effectively forecast disaster impacts at present and in the future.

At the workshop, the ADPC guided participants on how to build an impact matrix of storms and floods. Participants also discussed the role of disaster forecasting and warning, and emphasised the importance of information on impact-based forecasting in easing damage caused by natural disasters.

Senaka Basnayake, Director for the ADPC’s Climate Resilience Department, said that in order to increase urban resilience to climate extremes, it is necessary to understand current and future risks, build capacity for emergency preparedness, response, and management, and learn about sustainable risk management for the future.

Senaka said that the “Urban Resilience to Climate Extremes in Southeast Asia” (URCE) project is being implemented by the centre in Việt Nam’s Mỹ Tho City in the Mekong Delta province of Tiền Giang and Nam Định City in the northern coastal province of the same name from November 2018 to December 2023.

It aims to improve the multi-hazard early warning system, knowledge on risks caused by climate extremes (storms, floods, water level rise caused by storms); better forecasts on disasters; and strengthen the effectiveness of preparedness and response measures by people and authorities in urban areas to climate extremes and emergency situations. — VNS