Egi eu and egi-inspire memorandum of Understanding Annual Report – 2011-12

3.1.HMRC

MoU Partners	EGI.eu	HMRC - Hydro-Meteorology Research Community
MoU Type	VRC
Start date	22/08/2011
End date
Partner contact	HMRC: Antonio Parodi, [e-mail]
Report date	May 2012
Milestones	http://go.egi.eu/mou-milestones-hmrc

Motivation for the MoU

HMRC deals with problems involving the hydrologic cycle, the water budget, and the rainfall statistics of storms. The boundaries of hydrometeorology are not clear-cut, and the problems of the hydrometeorologist overlap with those of the climatologist, the hydrologist, the cloud physicist, and the weather forecaster. Considerable emphasis has been placed on determining, theoretically or empirically, the relationships between meteorological variables and the maximum precipitation reaching the ground. Other concerns of hydrometeorologists include the determination of rainfall probabilities, the space and time distribution of rainfall and evaporation, the recurrence interval of major storms, snow melt and runoff, and probable wind tides and waves in reservoirs. The whole field of water quality and supply is of growing importance in hydrometeorology.

CIMA Foundation, the MoU signatory, has been playing a central role in the hydrometeorology research community and as coordinator of dedicated projects in the domain, is well positioned to represent the overall hydrometeorology community and coordinate the HMRC VRC.

The specific joint workplan signed with EGI.eu covers:

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  User support
  
• 
  Services and operations
  
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  Requirements gathering
  
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  Dissemination
  

Assessment

Managerial

This MoU stalled from the beginning. Upon announcement of the MoU from both parties, HMRC representatives have been invited to attend several UCB meetings, but have not done so to date. Several follow ups were made, but HMRC’s response was to postpone till after the heavy proposal period, then to discuss at internal project meetings, with no updates ever provided. HMRC has been specifically invited to the latest UCB meeting, but with no attendance. Another update was sent via email for this report with a response several weeks later to be provided by the 3^rd week of June. The project coordinator has communicated their plans to pick back up the activities over the next year starting from the EGI Technical Forum 2012.

Technical

Two activities have been carried out. The first was the initial announcement of the MoU, while the second was a presentation given by DRIHMS project coordinator and MoU contact Antonio Parodi at the EGI Community Forum in Munich². Face to face meetings were also held at the Community Forum in Munich where the two projects had adjacent booths and an agreement was reached for the technical activities that would be needed to take things forward. In terms of dissemination of the relationship both projects shared the stage at the EGU General Assembly session ‘Earth science on Cloud, HPC and Grid’ and where able to link the activities.

Strategic

Progress has been slow with this community although communication has continued. The representative has reported that the project took most of its first year to get off the ground. DRIHM will work with the EGI’s Technical Outreach to New Communities Team to develop solutions for this community.