Integrating precipitation forecasts and climate prediction with basin scale hydroclimatic modelling in the Himalayas: report of scientific workshop May 2018

The India-UK Water Centre (IUKWC) promotes cooperation and collaboration between the complementary priorities of NERC-MoES water security research. This report represents an overview of the participation, activities and conclusions at a Science Workshop held at the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India, between the 2nd and 4th of May 2018. It was convened by the India UK Water Centre and led by Dr Martin Widmann of the University of Birmingham, UK and Dr Shresth Tayal of The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI), India. This inter-disciplinary workshop aimed to foster the integration of weather forecast and climate models with glacio-hydrological models for the Himalayas, which is crucial for the improvement of short-, medium-, and long-term hydrological predictions for Himalayan basins. By bringing together scientist from India and the UK it led to a detailed understanding of the key challenges related to data scarcity, process understanding, development and validation of meteorological and hydrological models, and to downscaling and bias adjustment methods. Based on this, a number of specific steps forward were suggested, which partly can be implemented in the near future using inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional synergies, and partly require additional resources and longer implementation periods. The report is intended for the workshop participants, IUKWC Open Network members and stakeholders.