Taikan Oki (1), International Working Group for GAME-Tropics Follow On (2)
(1) IIS, U of Tokyo
(2) International Research Group
It has passed more than 10 years since recent initiatives of
hydrometeorological studies in South-East Asian region related to GAME-T
were started. Through the initiatives, observational network on
hydrometeorlogy in tropical South-East Asia was well organized, various
scientific achievements were fulfilled, and new findings were prevailed
under GAME-Tropics. However, there seem some research aspects that will
not be accomplished within the time period of GAME-T phase 1. Major
concern is the lacking or less application of scientific achievements for
water resources management. It should be the time for utilizing the
obtained precious dataset for scientific and social issues. Another
relevant fruit from GAME/GAME-T could be the international research
community organized under the project and firmly formed through the
collaborative field experiments, joint data processing, and the exchange
of various ideas at frequent meetings, workshops, and symposia. Therefore
it was enthusiastically urged that the scientific program of
GAME/GAME-Tropics should continue even though the current project funding
will be terminated.
Scientific objectives of GAME-T follow-on project (hereafter called as
GAME-T2) are similar to the original project; establish hydrometeorological
science in Tropical South-East Asia, and seek social application of the
latest achievements of academic research.
Some issues proposed to be studied under GAME-T2 are; the integrated water
resources management considering both the flood forecasting on short time
scale and reservoir management on interannual time scale, and
``Terminating River Discharge of the ChaoPhraya'' problem.
There are many other projects prepared and planned related to the science
and the implementation of GAME-T2. Therefore the ``Program-Project
Structure'' should be considered for GAME/GAME-T phase2.
In this case, ``Program'' is an umbrella of many research ``Projects.''
It is expected that some of GAME-T2 activities will be closely
related with the projects under the "Research Institute for Humanity and
Nature (RIHN)," the new national research institute under the Ministry of
Education, culture, sports, science, and technology founded in April 2001
as for a cooperative institute among universities.
The proposed time frame of the GAME/GAME-T phase 2 has two period with
first 2 years and latter 3 years. The first 2 years from April 2002
through March 2004 of the GAME/GAME-T phase 2 will be the ``Intensive
Thinking Period'' (ITP). Of course the period corresponds to the
Coordinated Enhanced Observing Period (CEOP) from 1 October 2001 through
30 September 2003. Therefore efforts to sustain the implemented
observational network and data collection of operationally observed data
in the target region should be made. The intensively collected data during
the GAME/GAME-T phase 1 should be shared through GAIN-T and utilized for
internationally collaborated and individual researches. Processing point
data for producing spatial dataset will also be encouraged during this
period in order to promote the integrated modeling and analysis of the
energy and water cycles in the region.
