Hanoi (VNA) – Participants to a conference in Hanoi on February 26-27agreed on the need for countries worldwide in general and Vietnam in particularto enhance weather forecast capacity by embracing new technology.

They heard that despite advancements in technology, weather forecasters aroundthe world struggle to predict the intensity of emerging storms.

Only factors like timing, the relative path and the landing site of a typhoonhave been predicted relatively accurately.

In the case of Vietnam, a country that was hit with 16 typhoons in 2017 aloneand is predicted to be among the countries most impacted by climate change, thefailure to accurately gauge the power of storms might lead to devastatingconsequences – both in terms of human lives and economic damage.

The conference, jointly held by Vietnam’s National Centre for Hydro-MeteorologicalForecasting and the International Typhoon Committee, was an opportunity forweather forecast experts from around the world to share experience and bestpractices in analysis and predicting extreme weather events, including typhoon,flooding, drought, salt intrusion and high tides – phenomena Vietnam has beenfamiliar with throughout its history, but which many have said are developingunpredictably in recent times.

The latest technologies from countries with advanced capacity were introducedand shared in the conference, such as remote sensing or network monitoring.Technological methods to assess the impacts of climate on certain sectors aswell as measures to adapt were also discussed.

Raymond Tanabe, director for the Pacific Region of the US National WeatherService, currently serving as a head advisor for the committee, stressed theimportance of ensuring that the information could be reached by as many peopleas possible – especially via popular social media platforms like Facebook orInstagram.

At the conference, representatives from Vietnamese weather forecasting agencieshave outlined strategies for the 2018, which would see more investment in a newsystem of supercomputers as well as upgrading its information networks tohandle a large amount of data gathered from satellites.

Tran Hong Thai, Deputy Director General of the National Centre for Hydro-MeteorologicalForecasting, said that weather forecast is indeed a “cross-border issue,” andinternational cooperation with other countries in the SoutheastAsia region would also be prioritised.

“Vietnam has been an active participant, not only in the sense of learning fromothers’ experience, but also we have been sharing our data with othercountries, all in an effort to deliver better forecasting results,” he added.

The conference was held along with other activities to commemorate the50th anniversary of the committee, for which Vietnam is currently holdingthe presidential chair.

The committee was established in 1968 under the sponsorship of the UnitedNations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific(UN-ESCAP). It currently has 14 member countries.-VNA