Dr. Elena Mateescu, PhD in Agronomy and General Manager of The National Meteorological Administration of Romania, discusses her priorities and projects.
The Romanian National Meteorological Administration (NMA) is the national authority in the meteorology field which serves Romanian citizens through governmental authorities and performs specialized meteorological services for any type of end-user. Its activities include research, systematic and comprehensive weather monitoring, international data exchange and integration in global meteorological monitoring.
Weather station on Toaca Peak, Ceahlau Mountains
In the last two years NMA developed and implemented, under the Infrastructure and Environment Operational Programme the first phase of modernization of the meteorological infrastructure. In order to be successful in its mission NMA keeps on developing, upgrading and maintaining the national meteorological system at high standards. Dr. Mateescu explains: „We have 160 completely automatic meteorological stations, we bought 21 weather stations which are implemented and installed and we modernized the applications and the portable system for agricultural measurement. I am aware that investing in infrastructure is a must so we have another important project under the European Programme 2014-2020 amounting to 3 million euros. Currently we are finishing the feasibility study which will allow us to upgrade the radars, networks and visualization system for forecasters.”
International Environment Projects Using EU Funds
In the context on European funds Dr. Mateescu highlights the importance of two projects within Danube Transnational Programme which are currently in NMA’s focus. The first project is coordinated by the Austrian Ministry of Environment and is related to land use management under climate change issues in the Danube region: „We created a case study for Romanian section of the Danube in Romania and are evaluating the impact of climate change for different sectors – energy, agriculture, water resource management etc. We work with 2 Romanian partners – Environmental Protection Agency from Covasna and ROMSILVA as we intend to also cover the forest issue under climate change conditions. We intend to provide guidelines for authorities on national and local levels and offer advice to all decision makers on how to better use and protect the water resources in the context of climate changes.
Prof. Petteri Taalas, WMO Secretary General receiving an award from Dr. Elena Mateescu
The other project is coordinated by the Slovenian Environmental Agency and is handling the drought problematic in the Danube region and we are responsible for guidelines at national level for drought management. We are covering some other projects under EUMETSAT and Copernicus platform as we are trying to make decision makers and regional stakeholders sensitive to consequences of climate change. For example, we are working on Water Works Program, funded by the EU and coordinated by Spanish partners, to develop a product based on thermal remote sensing to manage drought issues in agriculture.” Dr. Mateescu says.
Importance of NMA’s Consulting Role for Decision Makers and Companies
NMA offers scientific information based on more than 100 years of research. This offers significant insight about future conditions and the possibility to explore models and obtain results in order to offer a view into the future, for example in 2021, 2050, 2100 using different simulations at national or regional levels. NMA provides data which can be used in any sector, mostly in agriculture, water resources, construction, energy and transport. In the National Strategy for Adaptation the Ministry of Environment created a working group to which NMA contributes with climatic data based on which best adaptation measures for the future are established.
Since regional variability of the weather conditions is big in Romania Dr. Mateescu raises the need for proactive approach: „It is not important only to monitor the parameters but also to estimate how will the future climate change conditions influence economic sectors in different regions of Romania“.
In this regard, private beneficiaries should also keep an eye on NMA’s valuable input. Dr. Mateescu invites future cooperation especially with companies from energy and agriculture sector: „We are working closely with agricultural associations because it is important to exchange information. We can offer information to companies in this field on how they can adapt technology and the crop calendar to the water resources in the soil. We are using new technology based on remote sensing and GSI information and currently developing even a mobile app.”
Synergy on National and Regional Levels
NMA has the National School of Meteorology which can host international students and experts. Dr. Elena Mateescu expresses a clear need for knowledge exchange. Ideal situation would be to find common issues with different countries and work on them together. In order for this to happen communication is crucial, preferably in the form of regional and bilateral meetings which could be used for proposing and elaborating projects.
„We are open to any cooperation which could offer us expertise and best practices. We need to develop our personnel because great infrastructure calls for internationally trained staff. On national level we developed an educational center for adaptation to climate change with Targu Mures University. It is important for us to transmit a clear message at the end of each project so that everybody can understand the importance of the environment. We have to create a synergy between decision makers, universities and individuals in order to attract more awareness. I appeal to everybody to act now in order to have a friendly environment in the future.” she concludes.
Headquarters of NMA in Bucharest
NATIONAL METEOROLOGICAL ADMINISTRATION
Sos. Bucuresti-Ploiesti 97, 013686 Bucharest, Romania
Phone: +40-21-316.21.39; Fax: +40-21-316.21.39
contracte@meteoromania.ro
http://www.meteoromania.ro
