The Asian water towers are ranked among the world’s most important and most vulnerable water towers. Prof. Yao introduced
Asian Water Tower changes and
the monitoring efforts TPE made over the years. He also introduced the collaboration as well as capacity building work enabled by the TPE international network. The following research priorities were proposed:
- How much water does the Asian Water Tower (focusing on cryosphere) provide to the Asian countries and what is the impact of the future change of the Asian Water Tower?
- How do the conversions between vapor-solid-liquid water phases impact environment in Asia or even globe (focusing on water cycle)?
- How to improve the function of the water and ecology to foster the sustainability of Asia or beyond (focusing on human activities)?
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- How to reduce the uncertainty to predict the future under climate change (focusing on predicting uncertainty and hazardous risk)?
The forum, focused on the Eastern Asia region, began with an overview of WCRP from the Vice Chair of the WCRP Joint Scientific Committee (the scientific steering body of WCRP) Helen Cleugh, followed by talks highlighting climate science priorities and opportunities for collaboration in the Eastern Asian Region from an agency perspective. Prof.Yao was invited as one of the two speakers speaking on climate science activities in the Eastern Asian region. He also announced that the 10th TPE Workshop would be held in mid-November, 2021.
