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WMO

RTC ITALY

WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANISATION.
REGIONAL TRAINING CENTER ITALY

Connecting people to build knowledge and competencies in weather, water and climate services.
RTC serves WMO Members in Europe and Africa in agrometeorology, climate change and climate services.

About

CNR-Ibe runs the WMO Regional Training Centre Italy of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), since mid-nineties. 

The Italian Centre is part of the Global Network of the RTCs, established in 1958, on which the WMO Education and Training Programme framework is based. The CNR-IBE experience in planning education and training started from the analysis of users needs of the African National Meteorological Services and Technical Organizations involved in “The Early Warning and Agricultural Production Forecast Project” (AP3A Project) financed by the Italian Cooperation through WMO. In particular, the main purpose of RTC Training Programme was to develop capacity building in the target Countries, in order to mitigate the effects of extreme events such as drought, desertification and famine especially in semi-arid regions of North, West and East Africa.

Focus Training Courses

Topics

  • climate change and variability and their effects on natural resources and agriculture
  • sub-seasonal to seasonal forecast/predictions as a tool for water and agriculture management.
  • agrometeorology and innovative solutions for climate-smart agriculture and food security

Courses and workshops

Short-term training courses or workshops held in Italy and abroad, and long-term stages (2-4 months).

Custom Designed Training

Domestic and international training activities organized on the basis of emerging training needs.

Elearning

The Center develops online training packages widely accessible and designed to build Knowledge and Skills particularly in Climate Services field.

Trainers

Highly qualified and experienced trainers: CNR scientists, faculty from other Institutions appointed on the basis of the course content.

Acknowledgements

In the last years, RTC Italy participated to a work-table managed by the International Organization for Certification DEKRA for the development of a professional scheme for Meteorologist and Technical Meteorologist. The scheme, active in Italy, complies with the WMO n. 1083 recommendations and to the UNI CEI EN ISO/IEC 17024 regulation. In 2016, the RTC hosted the 27th session of the EC Panel of Experts of the World Meteorological Organization, and in November 2016 the 7th session of the Mediterranean Climate Outlook Forum (MedCOF 7) joint with the 16th session of the South East European Climate Outlook Forum (SEECOF 16) and the 10th session of the Northern African Climate Outlook Forum (PRESANORD 10).

Assessment

The activities of the RTC in Florence have been externally assessed in 2004, and the Executive Council, following Recommendation 1(PAN-XXII), reconfirmed the status of the RMTC hosted by Italy as WMO-recognized RMTC during its 58th Session 11.

The Topics

New ideas and topics

In 2011, new collaborative research activities started in Mali, Senegal, and Niger; the involvement in initiatives such as COST, PresaNord and MedCOF have inspired new ideas and plans for the RTC.

The focus of the training offered shifted towards climate change and variability and their effects on natural resources and agriculture, and on sub-seasonal to seasonal forecast/predictions as a tool for water and agriculture management.

WMO RTC Italy has also largely contributed during the years to a number of specific training activities and workshops in African Countries in the framework of international projects.

Main Projects

Capacity-building initiatives on advanced Meteorology, Climatology and Climate change.
Training operational Packages for Climate Services. A joint initiative of WMO and CNR-IBE, with the collaboration of IC-CNR.