Water is the source of everything. It also breeds disasters and poses threats.

Over the years, Chinese meteorological services have focused on fields like water disaster prevention and control, water resources conservation, water ecological protection, water environment management, to persistently promoted the work of hydrology and meteorology.

Adhering to the concept of systematic water management, the key is to take the river basin as a unit and strengthen river basin management. Enhancingmeteorological support capacity for basin is a fundamental task to build the first line of defense against the threat of basin meteorological disasters.

Last June, rare large-scale rainstorm slammed South China and southern portions of South of the Yangtze River Region. National Meteorological Centre (NMC) of China Meteorological Administration (CMA)intensified consultation and coordination with the Pearl River Basin Meteorological Centre, and accurately predicted the meteorological risk of major flooding in the basin. It has provided strong support for flood control. Behind the precise forecasting and tailored service is a joint prevention and coordination mechanism of upstream and downstream, trunk and tributaries, left and right banks.

CMA has made a unified deployment, and established national-level basin hydrological and meteorological forecasting centre in NMC. It has formulated a basin hydrological and meteorological operational system at the national level,basin centre level, and provincial level. Meteorological departments have constantly promoted the joint prevention and coordination mechanism with departments of water resources, natural resources and emergency response management, and cooperated with institutions of higher education.

In addition, Chinese meteorological and hydrological experts have also served as members of expert panels in international organizations like World Meteorological Organization (WMO) . They have also offered services after typhoons, rainstorms and floods for other countries.

In the context of global warming, how to deal with climate change and mitigate climate risks has become a major issue facing the international community in green development transition.

Cases like the construction of the Three Gorges Project or the South-to-North Water Diversion Project can't succeed without scientific and accurate strategic judgment and a comprehensive assessment and risk estimation of the climate context.

Over the years, meteorological departments have developed technologies for assessing and forecasting the impact of climate and climate change on water resources from sub-seasonal to multi-year scales, accumulated a large amount of data and technical methods, and formed relevant climate and hydrological service products.

Nowadays, water scarcity and its uneven distribution are seriously affecting human security and constraining economic and social development. The Chinese government has constantly explored ways to conserve and efficiently manage water resources. At the same time, Chinese meteorological departments have carried out weather modification operations to turn clouds into rain.

Since mid-June last year, the strongest heat wave event since 1961 occurred in central-eastern China, and the drought in the Yangtze River basin developed rapidly. Meteorological departments timely carried out artificial rain enhancement operation. During this period, artificial rain enhancement operationseffectively alleviated the stress on local water for production and living.

Forecasting teams of Guangdong Meteorological Centre held an internal consultation meeting to predict the continuous rainstorm on June 16, 2022. Photoed by Wang Feng

Nowadays, CMA has provided technical support to Oman, Arabia, Saudi Arabia,and Egypt and helped them carry out domestic artificial rain enhancement experiments, and engaged in multiple bilateral experimental research, technical exchanges, and personnel training with relevent countries.

Editor: Luo Lan