From point data to a national climate change narrative
The 29th of January marks the start day of a long online training titled “Climate Atlas using R” with participants from the Department of Climate Change, the Department of Agricultural Land Management and the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology. Dr Kim Kwang Hyung that is also the scientific leader of LaCSA held the training.
This training comes from a long story. First, DMH worked for months if not years to digitize, collate and quality assess climate data, which enabled them to implement the LaCSA database. The LaCSA database improved the capacity and the credibility of DMH in Lao PDR and globally. Next, the data had to be transformed from points to maps. It was a long process that requires climate science capacity as well as advanced GIS modelling capacity. DMH asked support to DALAM for this phase, and they worked together with the support of the Asian Institute of Technology. One map per day per the last 30 years was developed, in a process called climate observation dynamical downscaling. In a second mapping process - that just started - it was necessary to develop maps of climate scenarios based on RCP data. These are daily maps of the future 60 years. DALAM will use these maps for modelling crops in future scenarios. All these data, very complex to produce, are a first in South Asia countries of a similar economic level.
Today is the time to start the next phase. DMH today has started to learn how to practically analyse both station and map data and learn everything necessary for the preparation of an Atlas.
When the country starts to make us of all this bunch of information, it needs to create simple images and information about data. In this case, participants will study how to analyse climatological data and, at the same time, to know how to produce images and maps about climate. The first analysis will consitute a way to develop a narrative, or a storytelling, or a sort of a description of the historical climate events in Lao PDR. How did we get from the previous climate to the present climate? The tables and graphs will be designed station by station, and at a national level through maps. This will allow producing simple visual information that will help decision-makers to understand climate change.
A new journey begins, where DMH stops working only for farmers, like in LaCSA, and it start to produce information for politicians. This training is a journey that starts from a point weather station data and ultimately reach a climate change narrative of Lao PDR.