Country: Bhutan Sources: Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, World Bank The landlocked kingdom of Bhutan in South Asia is no stranger to hydrometeorological (hydromet) hazards such as flooding and glacial lake outburst floods. The specter of climate change is increasing the country’s vulnerability to such hazards, posing a threat to its development progress. More than 70 percent of settlements with major socioeconomic infrastructure lie in river valleys along riverbanks, which exposes them to risk of flooding, particularly riverine flooding caused by heavy monsoon rains and glacial melt.Determined to chart a more resilient future for people and communities across Bhutan, the government of Bhutan continues to draw on the support of GFDRR in its efforts to strengthen its hydromet and early warning systems (EWSs).Entering fiscal year 2024, the government drew on GFDRR’s longstanding expertise in hydromet to develop a national hydromet policy. Approved by the cabinet of Bhutan in October 2023, the policy sets out a series of policy commitments by Bhutan on strengthening hydromet, including a pledge to bolster the institutional mandate and governance of the National Center for Hydrology and Meteorology (NCHM), the lead agency on hydromet, with an eye toward ensuring effective delivery of hydromet services.In conjunction with its support for the development of a national hydromet policy, GFDRR has assisted the government in formulating a comprehensive roadmap for translating that policy into reality. Informed by a deep dive assessment of the challenges and opportunities in hydromet development in Bhutan, the roadmap proposes a series of reforms and investments spanning the three components of hydromet modernization based on international best practice: enhancement of service delivery; institutional strengthening and capacity building; and modernization of the observation, information and communication technology, and forecasting infrastructure. The roadmap also highlights avenues for strengthening regional collaboration on hydromet, including through the South Asia Hydromet Forum, which the NCHM cochairs.GFDRR support for the development of Bhutan’s national hydromet policy and roadmap builds on a decade-long partnership to enhance weather and climate services. For example, the facility has been instrumental in strengthening hydromet services for the agricultural sector. A major milestone in that partnership has been the facility’s support to the country’s Agrometeorological Decision Support System and its mobile application, which uses machine learning algorithms to generate specific crop advisories and alerts about heavy rains, strong wind, heat, frost, pest, and disease for farmers based on weather and climate data from the NCHM. Bhutan’s Department of Agriculture has recently enhanced and operationalized the Agrometeorological Decision Support System and now disseminates advisories to 11 gewogs, or groups of villages, covering a total population of approximately 43,270.GFDRR had previously helped NCHM operationalize the SMARTMET system, a highly advanced, state-of-the art platform for weather forecasting and dissemination that helped reduce the average preparation time for daily weather forecasts by half, down to two hours from the previous four required. Moreover, GFDRR’s prior support of the strengthening of aviation meteorology through the enhancement of aviation weather operation systems and the installation of a wind profiler and ceilometer at the Paro International Airport, which is known as one of the most challenging airports in the world because of its location and geography, has increased the safety of flight operations.