DATA ACCESS AND EXCHANGE

In May 1999, the Thirteenth WMO Congress adopted Resolution 25 (Cg-XIII) - Exchange of Hydrological Data  and Products (See also "Exchange of hydrological data and products" by P. Mosley, TD No. 74).  

This committed WMO to broaden and enhance, whenever possible, the free and unrestricted international exchange of such data, in consonance with the needs of the global hydrological community and the requirements for WMO's scientific and technical programmes.

Exchange of data at the regional level is being enhanced through the WHYCOS programme and at the global level WMO has established a series of data centres.

• The Global Runoff Data Centre (GRDC) was established in 1988 and is supported by, and located in, the Federal Institute of Hydrology in Koblenz, Germany.
• The Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) is also located in Germany, at the German Meteorological Service.
• The International Groundwater resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC), established jointly with UNESCO in 2003, is the UNESCO Groundwater Centre, based in Delft, The Netherlands.
• The International data centre on Hydrology of Lakes and Reservoirs, has been established in 2007 and is hosted by the State Hydrological Institute under Roshydromet in St Petersburg, Russian Federation.
• The Global Terrestrial Network - Hydrology (GTN-H) was established in 2001 as a „network of networks“ to support a range of climate and water resource objectives, building on existing networks and data centres, and producing value-added products through enhanced communications and shared development. Its objective is to make available data from existing global hydrological observation networks and to enhance their value through integration.