On 26 February the national hydrometeorological services of the Central Asian countries and the BWOs of the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers gathered to outline the plans on enhancing MODSNOW to an Early Warning System for floods and drought. The meeting was held online in the framework of the regional project Climate risk management in Central Asia, implemented by GIZ on behalf of the German Government.

The MODSNOW operational monitoring tool for cryosphere and water resources has been actively used in Central Asia for several years by the national hydrometeorological services and BWOs of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers. Together with the GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences, the project is working on enhancing MODSNOW to an Early Warning System for subsequent use of the tool at the transboundary level.

The results of this work will allow CA countries to track expected natural hazards according to current hydrometeorological conditions and issue early warnings to protect local communities, infrastructure and other sectors from negative impacts, as well as to mitigate consequences. The online early warning system for floods will be tested on selected river basins of Amu Darya, Shakhimardan, Zeravshan and Ugam, while drought modelling will be tested in the Khorezm-Dashoguz transboundary area. The enhanced MODSNOW tool can subsequently be upscaled to the entire Central Asian region in the future.