2007 Monographs

Climate risk management in Africa: learning from practice

Hellmuth, M.E.; Moorhead, A.; Williams, J.

Assessment, prediction and mitigation of the impact of climate variability and change on many societal sectors such as agriculture, water resources, electricity production
and health are broadly being organized under the banner of ‘climate services’. As societal development and sustainability challenges facing many countries continue to mount, there is a growing need for relevant, timely and accurate information on climate processes and improved climate services. The CLIVAR Variability of the American Monsoon Systems (VAMOS) panel seeks to contribute to the development of comprehensive international and domestic climate services by coordinating
and conducting foundational climate research on climate processes and their societal impacts. With this goal in mind we are pleased to present this issue of the VAMOS! Newsletter, which contains a series of contributions that relate to current activities in climate research and regional capacity building activities. Five articles are contained herein and discuss a range of activities emerging from the VAMOS community.
Douglas et al. provide a comprehensive update on the VAMOS Intra-Americas Study of Climate Processes (IASCLiP) program which has been coordinating a host of modeling, observation network assessment and forecasting activities for the Intra-
America Seas region. Next, Taylor et al. describe the evolution of the Caribbean Climate Modeling Initiative which focuses on generating new regional scenarios of climate impacts on Caribbean island nations and on building future modeling capacity in the region. Kirtman et al. then provide a high-level summary of how modeling activities within VAMOS are being coordinated internally and are being connected to extra-VAMOS research efforts. Mechanisms for assessing and prioritizing societal vulnerabilities to climate variability across many time scales is discussed by Baethgen and, lastly, Gochis et al. provide an update on observational infrastructure enhancement in the Caribbean and meso-American regions through the development of an integrated Global Positioning System precipitable water vapor (GPS-PWV) observing network. Combined, we hope these articles stimulate further
awareness and progress on meeting the demands of climate services for the American Monsoon region.