report on public relations and visibility of national hydrological services

REPORTon

Public Relations and Visibility of National Hydrological Services

WMO - RA-VI Working Group on Hydrology – Toulouse, 25 – 27 March 2009

Group member(s ?) Marinela Simota – RomaniaPetre Stanciu – Romania

Nobody had expressed the willing to cooperate on the topic of the Public Relations and the Visibility of NHSs, in spite of my tentative (with the help of Mr. Jan Kubat) addressed of some specialists in hydrology.


Overview of the general tasks (1)According to Annex of the resolution 8/1 (XIV-RA VI) the proposed

program of work was as follows:

To collect, analyze and disseminate information on the activities undertaken by NHSs in the area of public relations, and tools and approaches used to enhance their visibility and recognition;

To develop a RA VI Working Group on Hydrology Web site, with a link to the WMO Web site, as an operational tool for the activities of the working group, in particular as concerns the exchange of information, the filling in of an address book, the publication of reports, the provision of links for the hydrological community; including in particular information on the current activities of the NHSs;

To formulate suggestions for the presentation to the public at large through communication media of daily hydrological bulletins and forecasts for a country or a large river basins.


Overview of the general tasks (2)Conforming to the new RA VI Action Plan (during the Meeting of

WGH core members, Prague, 26-27 March 2007) WGH working plan has been revaluated :

To develop a RA VI Working Group on Hydrology Web site, with a link on the WMO Web site, as an operational tool for the exchange of information, the provision of links for the hydrological community (before next RAVI meeting in 2009)

To publish an overview catalogue of hydrological outputs with recommendation of their use by different end-users (by 2011)


Review of the activities on the Public relations and visibility of the national Hydrological

services (1)- June 2006 - proposal of the working plan

(objectives, planned activities and expected results for the working group (at the request of the chairman of the WGH Mr. Jan Kubát)

It was also sent to the four specialists that I have hoped to collaborate with on the topic of visibility of NHSs.



Objectives Planed activities Expected outputs

1. Setting up the best activities, tools and approaches used by NHSs in the area of public relations and their visibility and recognition

To develop a set of questionnaires Workshops with end-users and

representatives of mass-media – (in Romania )

Guide with the best practices in the field of public relation and visibilities of NSHs (a collection of tools)

2. To develop the a Web site specific to Public Relation and visibility of NHSs

To design the main pages of the web site Make the web site available on-line

A web site as a main tool for the visibility of the NHSs activities

3. Identification of the best means to communicate to the large public the daily hydrological bulletins, forecasts and warnings

Collect examples of different existing practices for the dissemination of daily hydrological bulletins, forecasts and warnings

Select and combine different approaches in format of dissemination hydrological products that can be useful in communication with the large public through mass media

Suggestions concerning the attributes of a good “communicating hydrologist”

Examples of the suggestive presentation of hydrological bulletins and forecasts for a country or a large river basin


services (2)

- June 2007 - minimal content of the RA VI WGH web site

It was sent to the core members of WGH in view to express their opinions and suggestions

Responses from:- Mr. Tommaso Abrate, Scientific Officer, Hydrology and

Water Resources Department WMO - Mr. Markku Puupponen, leading expert on Networking

for Contributions to Regional Initiatives Related to Water - Mr. Bogdan Ozga-Zielinski, leading expert on Potential

Extreme Floods



services (3)


Proposal of the WEB site content (including the received suggestions)

main page

The Regional Association VI

Working Group on Hydrology

Aims

Core members working sub-

groups

Meetings

Contacts

News

RA VI NHSs

Forum

LoginUsername:Password:

Links

Search

List of experts


Proposal of the WEB site content (including the received suggestions) Menus

The role of RA VI (Europe) Working Group on Hydrology is:•to promote hydrology in the European region and to establish the priorities in relation to hydrology and water resources•to implement the relevant decisions of the Congress and other WMO bodies in the Europe region•to contribute to the cooperation between NHSs of WMO member countries •to facilitate the exchange of hydrological information, data, products and experience between the hydrological community in the European region and others Regional Associations WGH in view of mitigating flood and drought losses, maximize successful management of rivers and support hydrological studies but also for improving the understanding of potential changes of the global water and energy cycle•to increase the visibility of NHSs of European countries •to integrate hydrological community within the European region•to develop collaboration between hydrological and meteorological communities

(please add……)

Aims



By the Resolution 8/1 XIV-RAVI of the 14th session of WMO Regional Association VI in Heidelberg (September 2005) the chairpersons of the Working Group on Hydrology (WGH) and other core members of the group were designated:

Chairman of the WGH Mr. Jan Kubat (Czech Republic)Vice-chairman of the WGH Mr. Jean-Michel Tanguy (France)

Chairman of the Sub-Group on Flood Forecasting and Warning Mr. Ilmar Karro (Sweden)Leading expert on Networking for Contributions to Regional Initiatives Related to Water Dr. Markku Puupponen (Finland)Leading expert on Climate and Water Dr. Teemu Kokkonen (Finland)Leading expert on Water Monitoring and Assessment Dr. Valerij Vuglinskij (Russia)Leading expert on Potential Extreme Floods Dr. Bogdan Ozga-Zielinski (Poland)Leading expert on Drought Assessment and Forecasting Mrs. Giuseppina Monacelli (Italy)Leading expert on Public Relations and the Visibility of National Hydrological Services Mrs. Marinela Simota (Romania)

Each group can develop a specific page (proposed by the leader) that can contain: •the members list, •the objectives (based on the terms of reference mentioned in the ANNEX TO RESOLUTION 17 (XIV-RA VI) and on the RA VI Action Plan 2008-2011, working plan, expected results•meetings, documentsetc., (please, add…)

Core members working sub-

groups



to be filled with the RAVI WGH meetings beginning with 2006, having links to the main meeting documents

the list of NHSs from the Region and link to the NHSs web sites

Each NHS can provide a list of 3-4 experts in hydrology and water management, their short CV (especially concerning area expertise), and their contact information – mail and e-mail address, phone. The list can be organized after the name or domain of expertise

Meetings

RA VI NHSs

List of experts



The latest information about RA VI WGH activities, meetings and the next ones

With others web sites of hydrology and water management international bodies (IHP, IAHS), links to other Regional WG on Hydrology, etc. – others suggestions

For uploading and downloading the WGH draft documents. These draft documents should be uploaded and should be downloaded and modified only by the registered users (the core members of WGH and any other involved person appointed and agreed by the core members). After, the final documents should become public and can be downloaded by everybody who is interested from the different pages of the web where the document is mentioned (by link)

News

Links

LoginUsername:Password:


How to make the web site available on-line

•more opinions about it’s content are need – it is difficult to carry out the web site by only a single person

•the final content to be agreed by all core members

•to design the web site - a specialist in IT is needed

•it is necessary to decide together who will administrate and maintain the site, especially the Forum

January 2009 - questionnaire addressed to the NHSs concerning their Public Relations and Visibility

Following your comments it will be adjusted and distributed to the National Hydrological Services from RA VI (for the contact point list I would kindly thank Mr. Ilmar Karro).



services (4)

The content of the questionnaire addressed to the NHSs concerning their Public

Relations and Visibility1. What is the category of public most interested in your products?


Category of public

General public

(through mass-media)

Scientific community

National authority in the water field Rescues

service

Others

(please specify the name)

(please specify the name)

mention, please by a scale from 1(the lowest level) to 5 (the highest level)


Relations and Visibility2. What are the most visible activities/services (in relation to your

institution’s objectives, for example: hydrological forecasting and warning, hydrological data/parameters providing, research, etc.) of your institution? (please mention in a gradual manner the first five activities)

3. What are the main hydrological products requested by the majority of the end-users and what is the field they activate in? (please mention in a gradual manner the first five products the most requested and the socio-economic domain where is applied)

4. Is your organisation involved in the implementation of European Directives in the water field or related to water (Water Framework Directive, Floods Directive, etc.)? If yes, in which and what are your tasks? If not, how would you like to achieve that?



Relations and Visibility5. Is your organisation involved in the formulation of the national

policy concerning water? If yes, what is your role? If not, how would you like to achieve that?

6. Has your institution developed a strategy to increase the number of end-users? If yes, please explain in a few sentences what are the main objectives and tools?If not, what do you think is the best way to raise visibility of the hydrological products and services?

7. Does your institution provide daily hydrological bulletins with diagnoses and forecasts and hydrological warnings to the public at large through mass-media? If yes, please write what is your opinion (from your experience) the best format of presentation of this kind of hydrological information in mass-media?



Relations and Visibility8. Has your institution developed a communication strategy with mass-

media? If yes, please explain in a few sentences: what are the main objectives? What are the methods and techniques of communication? If there is a “communication hydrologist”? What are the visibility measurement tools? What is the way to pass from formal communication to efficient one?; how to pass from “face to face” with mass-media to real partnership?, other ideas…

If not, what do you think is the best way to raise visibility of your institution in the public at large?

9. There is a tentative to be available on the web site of the RA VI Working group of hydrology a common list of international experts in hydrology and water management. Do you agree to contribute to it, with the name of at least 3-4 experts from your institution, and the following data: their short CV (especially concerning expertise area), and their contact information – mail and e-mail address, phone?

YES _____ NO____


An alternative to the building of the catalogue of hydrological outputs with recommendation of their use by different end-users is to visit the NHSS’ web sites. I tried that, but I have met some impediments:

Only part of them are available in English language; Part of them has in the menus the products in explicit

manner. Many of them have only presented the main activities only;

Such kind of activity (searching the NHSs’web sites) is very time consuming.



services (3)

Enhancement of the visibility of hydrology in mass media - after the acting NIHWM as independent institution.

The media and the public at large are more interested in dangerous hydrological phenomena (like floods and drought) and less in science, despite of the efforts we engage in their dissemination (the same dissemination techniques and channels).

From the scientific activities only the subject concerning the impact of climate change on water resources seems more visible.

An example can be the year 2008: the NIHWM organized two main important international events:

the International Conference on the subject of “Water resources managements in extreme conditions”, held in Bucharest and the EURO-INBO Conference held in Sibiu

the Romania was confronted with floods events, especially the floods during July-August 2008 in the north-east of the country, where historical discharges were registered and caused important casualties.


Some conclusions about the visibility and recognition of Romanian NHS (National

Institute of Hydrology and Water Management) in the area of public relations



Institute of Hydrology and Water Management) in the area of public relationsFeed-back in communication media (newspapers, radio and TV) - 2008



Institute of Hydrology and Water Management) in the area of public relations

In order to increase the visibility of the efforts in the water protection field, the National Administration Romanian Waters (Apele Romane) initiated the Social Responsibility Campaign we called “Let’s keep Waters Clean!”, that won the international prize “Best Green International Campaign” at the Green Awards 2008 in London ,UK.


Conclusions, recommendations•It seems that the members of RA VI are not really interested on the

topic of public relations and visibility of National Hydrological Services: any applications to participate to a common activity, met low reaction at the different requests to contribute to the topic.

•It is difficult, even impossible, to touch the tasks requested by the RA VI Working group on Hydrology on this topic only by a contribution of one single person (which is more specialist in hydrology and not in public relations): the work results cannot be representative at the RA VI level taking into consideration only the opinion of a single country – Romania. More participants should to be involved.

•Can the Romanian experience that the media and the general public are more interested in the dangerous hydrological events than in the scientific subjects be extrapolated to the RA VI members?


Conclusions, recommendations

•The general question that remains open for all of us is: how to make scientific information more visible and understandable to the public at large and even to the decision-makers?

•In my opinion it is more important to enhance the visibility of the NHSs and the recognition of their role by national authorities, as well as their involvement in the formulation of new international policy tools concerning water. This aspect is mostly achieved during the last period by their involvement in the implementation of the Water Framework Directive and Flood Directive (but, again it is a conclusion resulted from Romanian experience).



•The draft content proposed for the RA VI Working Group on Hydrology Web site, tries to respond to the request to be an operational tool for the exchange of information, for the hydrological community. In order to be operational it is necessary to be agreed by the all core members of the Group on Hydrology, to have the technical support to achieve it from WMO Secretariat and each core members should provide the specific information.

•A list of experts in hydrology and water management available on this Web site can be useful for project managers from hydrological community and not only.



•The general conclusion is the necessity to develop a common communication strategy, based on the best practices already developed in different countries or based on the different ideas of common sense. It is a real challenge for the future activity. I hope that based on the responses at the questionnaire addressed to NHSs it will be possible to partially achieve this task. It depends on the NHS representatives’ willing to fill the questionnaire concerning their experience in the field of Public Relations and Visibility.

•The achievement of the catalogue of hydrological outputs with recommendation of their use by different end-users depends on the NHS representatives’ willing to respond at the questionnaire.


THANK for

YOUR ATTENTION !

report on public relations and visibility of national hydrological services

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