A Presentation by Dr. Emily Black, University of Reading, UK,
Thursday 14 March from 14:30-16:00
Espace Gabon Room

Title: Plans for an international meeting entitled Monsoon environments:
Agricultural and hydrological impacts of seasonal variability and climate
change

PROMISE (Predictability and variability of monsoons and the agricultural and
hydrological impacts of climate change)is a three-year EU-funded project
which comes to an end in 2003. An international conference is planned to
mark the end of the project in March 2003 in Trieste, Italy. In this
presentation, the work being done during the PROMISE project will first be
illustrated using three examples of PROMISE research. The plans for the
meeting and its relevance to the FAO will then be described.

The first example of PROMISE research given is a hydrological model which
can be run in conjunction with climate change simulations to aid long term
planning by policy-makers. The second is a seasonal crop forecasting system
which is being developed in conjunction with AGRYMET, an example of
collaboration with end-users. The third is a crop model which is being
developed to run in conjunction with large scale general circulation models,
an example of intergrated climate modelling.

PROMISE research is inter-disciplinary and applicable to end-users and
policy makers. The aim is to reflect this in the end of PROMISE meeting.
The plan is to include presentations given by development agency
representatives and end-users as well as leading researchers within
meteorology, agriculture, and hydrology. This will enable researchers to
disseminate their results to a wide audience of end-users and scientists and
also provide opportunities for end-users and policy makers to direct future
monsoon research.