Contact:  Matt Stout               FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
                                   4/14/97

Water-related catastrophes such as droughts and floods have historically caused tremendous environmental and economic losses as well as human suffering and death. To address this, the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will represent the United States at a ministerial meeting April 14-16 in Pretoria, South Africa, to discuss weather and climate-based technologies that could benefit water resource management worldwide.

This workshop will bring together international scientists in the fields of atmospheric sciences, hydrology, meteorology and climatology together with water resource managers to examine available options to address the issue of effective and efficient water resource management to meet increasing demands.

Statistics show globally that out of every three people affected by natural disasters, two are affected by disasters related directly to water. Good water resource management is rapidly becoming of critical importance on a global scale as populations continue to grow.

As the world's population soars, agriculture production intensifies, and industrial activities grow, the increased competition for water use necessitates more objective decision making based on hydrometeorological data and forecast systems. Proper management of water resources is essential to each nation's economy, quality of the environment and overall social well-being."

"There is a critical need for scientists to understand the needs of water resource managers and to more effectively meet the challenge of increasing demand and management of water resources, said D. James Baker, undersecretary of Commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. "Equally important is the needfor water resource managers to understand the capabilities and limitations of the science used to assist them to meet their challenges."

NOAA is a world leader in developing scientific capabilities in the areas of long and short term climate prediction, and the monitoring and forecasting of atmospheric and hydrologic conditions.

Water managers around the globe need more accurate information to make better decisions in managing the limited supply of water available in water-scarce areas and in managing flood waters during excessive runoff periods. The need for information and forecasts has created a demand for river and flood forecasting.

NOAA's National Weather Service has already successfully transferred its hydrologic (river) forecasting technology to Egypt for the Nile River, where advanced knowledge of available water is the life blood for Egyptians. In China, the National Weather Service implemented its Advanced River Prediction System on the Huai River, which experienced severe flooding this past summer.

The workshop will demonstrate to the international community NOAA's leadership in development and use of monitoring and forecasting capabilities. Additionally, it will provide an opportunity for other countries to incorporate these state-of-the-art techniques into their own operations while providing valuable feedback to NOAA on how well these techniques function under a wide variety of conditions.

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