“The weather enterprise is a well-established and successful global public-private partnership in which both sectors share common goals. There are new opportunities emerging to develop this partnership further that will enable the whole enterprise to grow and produce more accurate and reliable weather forecasts. The urgency to do this comes from the need to be even more effective in saving lives and protecting infrastructure because of vulnerability to weather hazards in a changing climate.”
WMO Bulletin Vol.65 (2) – 2016

Since the last EMS Conference, there have been further developments towards creating a more enterprising and global approach to delivering weather services to the world community. PRIMET and ECOMET are key actors in this effort.

The World Meteorological Organisation has recognised engagement with the private sector as one of the potential benefits of its major reform programme which will be introduced at the Eighteenth WMO Congress to be held in Geneva in June 2019.

This session will review recent developments and provide concrete examples of existing public-private collaborations in Europe, how the private sector is bringing benefits to society and how these can be enhanced by developing the public-private partnership further.

Keynote Speakers
WMO: Future plans for the engagement of private sector in WMO activities.
World Bank: How the public-private partnership in meteorology assists the development of Human Capital.

Next to these keynotes we encourage contributions showing examples of collaboration between National Meteorological and Hydrological Services and the private sector, in particular in the field of observations.

More and more European countries are developing policies to release their data as so-called Open Data. Open Data refers to information that can be freely used, modified, and shared by anyone for any purpose. In this context, also a number of National Meteorological Services are adopting an Open Data policy. Examples range from the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) launching its Open Data online service already in May 2013, to a more recent member of the “Open Data Club”, the German National Weather Service (DWD). The range of spatial data offered on such Open Data services is wide and can include model forecasts, radar data, current measurements and observations, a large amount of different types of climate data and many more. In some cases the data sets are additionally available via GeoWebServices, e.g. in OGC compatible WMS and WFS formats.

Besides those "classical" Open Data, more and more efforts are also devoted towards the use and integration of datasets obtained via crowdsourcing methods. Such crowdsourced observations can be used in a variety of applications, e.g. as input for numerical models / data assimilation systems or as viable source of information for impact modelling activities.

The session invites contributions on both technical and user focused developments related to providing and using these freely available datasets. This includes amongst others:
• The development of client applications based on Open Data
• New ideas where and how Open Data can serve society
• The development of user friendly geoportals including
o Catalogue services
o Download services
o Visualization services
o Transformation services
• Tools and interfaces (APIs) for utilizing Open Data
• Opportunities and challenges regarding Crowdsourced Data
o data sources, data fomats, legal issues...

The aim of the session is to bring together the provider and current/future user of Open Data portals and crowdsourced data across Europe, to share their experiences and requirements.

Climate change impact assessment and related adaptation research are emerging scientific and policy areas in Europe. Expert scientific advice has been increasingly called upon to enable informed decision-making. In April 2013 the European Commission (EC) adopted an EU strategy on adaptation to climate change which has been welcomed by the EU Member States. In 2018 the EC published an evaluation of the strategy which shows that the strategy has delivered on its objectives, however, it also shows how Europe is still vulnerable to climate impacts within and outside its borders. Moreover as of 2018 26 out of 28 EU Member States have adopted their national adaptation strategy (NAS) or national adaptation plans (NAP).

The adaptation strategies session is aiming to share experience and present the recent knowledge on how climate change impacts, vulnerability, and adaptation topics are addressed in European countries, regions and as well as the local levels (including urban scales).

We welcome contributions presenting :
* examples on cooperation and knowledge exchange between scientists and policymakers;
* examples of urban adaptation and mainstreaming adaptation into the sectoral policies (e.g. agriculture, transport, energy, etc.);
* experiences on the transfer of research outcomes to decision makers including the design of effective yet economically efficient adaptation initiatives and strategies;
*different ways sharing the knowledge on adaptation and foster the production of research along identified needs contributing to the development of a European knowledge base on climate change and support European countries in their efforts to adopt appropriate climate adaptation strategies, action plans, and measures;
*examples of existing knowledge gaps and research needs;
*examples how knowledge on climate change impacts and vulnerability have been included in the NAP or NAS;
* maximize the degree to which research outcomes address national, regional and European climate policy needs;
* experiences and lessons learnt on climate change impacts, vulnerability and adaptation (CCIVA) research funding and management and on the development of national and regional adaptation practices;
* information flow among Europe's national and regional CCIVA research programmes and international frameworks.

The occurrence of high-impact climate, weather and hydrological events can have significant and sometimes catastrophic consequences to society. This particular applies to compound events, resulting from the interaction of multiple hazards (that are not necessary disastrous when standing alone) across various spatial and temporal scales and/or the joint failures of multiple human or natural systems. As a result, it is crucial to develop new methodologies that account for the possible interaction of multiple physical and socio-economic drivers when analysing high-impact events. Similarly, it is critical that stakeholders are involved in this research as both providers and users of knowledge to ensure that the scientific state-of-the-art may be converted into practice.
Invited are contributions related to better understanding the interplay of mechanisms causing high impact compound events and stakeholders response. Also contributions on the ability of climate/weather, statistical, and impact models to represent compound events in a current and future climate are welcome.
Likewise, we invite contributions that highlight aspects of the science-user interface also from the social science aspects in the case of high impact climate and weather events, e.g., which events are most relevant for users, and how can continued deep stakeholder engagement be ensured.
This session is jointly convened by the European COST Action DAMOCLES and the ECRA (European Climate Research Alliance) Collaborative Programme on “High Impact Events and Climate Change”.
DAMOCLES aims to coordinate European efforts specifically related to studying compound events by building a research network consisting of climate scientists, impact modellers, statisticians, and stakeholders. The COST Action is focusing around five themes: synthesis and analysis; stakeholders and science-user interface; impacts; statistical approaches, model development and evaluation; and realistic model simulations of events.
Similarly, ECRA aims to promote collaborative research on the mechanisms behind high impact events and climate extremes, simulation of high- impact events under present and future climatic conditions, and on how relevant information for climate risk analysis, vulnerability and adaptation may be co-created with users, e.g., in terms of tailored climate services.

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 states that the implementation of effective disaster risk reduction measures should be based on an understanding of disaster risks, including all aspects of vulnerability, capacity, exposure of persons and hazard characteristics. Understanding these disaster risks establishes the basis for the development of impact models and impact-based warnings.
In recent years there has been increasing interest in multi-hazard impact-based warning systems to reduce the impact of natural disasters. For example, in 2015 the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) published ‘WMO Guidelines on Multi-hazard Impact-based Forecast and Warning Services’ for National Meteorological and Hydrological Services and their partner agencies responsible for issuing warnings. Impact-based warnings use a combination of likelihood and potential impact to assess the risk of a hazard event and therefore which warning to issue. The whole decision chain from assessing the likelihood of a hazard and potential impacts to deciding which warning severity to issue to warning communication and verification is complex. For many hydrometeorological events the likelihood can be assessed by using ensemble prediction systems, but an assessment of impacts is often highly subjective. To aid the decision making process hazard impact models and methods for multi-hazard assessment have been developed. These are at the cutting-edge area of research and require a multi-disciplinary partnership approach. This research not only spans hydrometeorology but all natural hazards ensuring that people receive the best advice and information to build their resilience and prepare for natural hazard events.

This session invites presentations from all natural hazard areas on:
• Impact based warning systems that are being developed or have been implemented across the world
• The decision making process of meteorologists and other hazard specialists in issuing warnings
• Research and development of explicit hazard impact models and multi-hazard systems
• How impact models are used to aid the decision making process
• Verification of impacts and collection of impact data
• Communication of this information to governments, civil contingencies, the responder community and the public.

In this session on climate services, the intention is to consider a broad range of activities specifically related to the development of national and regional climate services in Europe, focusing on creating climate services through partnerships and dialogue, between scientists, developers, providers and end-users.
Consistent with this, a number of general topics and questions to be addressed are:
• Mechanisms and structures for establishing and maintaining sustainable climate services and partnerships between researchers, providers and translators, and managing expectations of users
• Communicating capabilities and limitations of climate information (including credibility, reliability, and uncertainty)
• What particular challenges and issues arise in the provision of information about high-impact climate extremes?
• Interaction with major research initiatives such as, for European downscaling, Euro-CORDEX, Med-CORDEX and VALUE and, with respect to earth observations, the COPERNICUS programme
• Examples of information being used to support decision or policy making
• How do climate services interact with weather services?
• How do these activities fit within the context of the Global Framework for Climate Services?
Specific examples are sought which, taken together, span the range of actors and requirements for climate services and reflecting:
• The need for information on different timeframes and spatial scales
• The different types of users, providers and intermediaries
• Different sectors and decision-making contexts
• Different countries (including comparisons of different approaches to climate services being taken in different countries)
• Different funding and access models (e.g., publically-funded, commercial services)

Many European institutions, including several national hydrometeorological services, universities, private companies, and donor organizations, are involved in projects aiming to assist with the development of weather and climate services in developing and emerging countries. This session will foster the exchange of information on recent, ongoing, or planned co-development initiatives in developing and emerging countries, providing a platform to exchange knowledge, lessons learned and good practice on effective co-development and scientific and practical achievements in the field of meteorology and climatology.
The session invites contributions from those working on co-development activities and initiatives aiming to enable countries from the developing world to improve their weather and climate service capability, such as
● the development of new weather and climate services products
● the enhancement and coordination of technical and organizational infrastructure,
● the implementation and optimization of procedures and methods, capacity building for technical and general management,
● the enhancement of education and training, the strengthening of service mindedness,
● the development of scientific capability in meteorological and climatological topics, and the related knowledge gain,
● the facilitation and fostering of international collaboration, and
● the coordination of relevant donors and funding opportunities.
Particularly welcome are presentations on lessons learnt from past or ongoing co-development initiatives, including examples of good practice and success stories, alongside reports on difficulties and challenges encountered, as well as meta-initiatives aiming at facilitating communication and collaboration. Discussion on the co-development approaches applied, focusing on their impact and sustainability, are welcome. Pure methodological discussions, however, are left to other topical sessions in the OSA program stream.