Comprehensive digitalisation needed for hydro-meteorological work: officials hinh anh 1Agencies and units operating in meteorological and hydrological forecast at all levels annually provide nearly 60,000 forecasts and warnings. -Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) - Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Le Cong Thanh has urged the hydro-meteorological sector to accelerate comprehensive digital transformation and research and application of new technologies to better natural disaster prevention and control, search and rescue activities, and minimise damage caused by hydro-meteorological disasters.

According to Thanh, it is necessary to step up the modernisation of specialised information systems and the collection of information from satellites to meet the requirements for weather forecasts.

Deeper, more scientific and more comprehensive research on natural risk zones should be performed, he said, adding that communication activities must be enhanced to raise public awareness of natural disaster prevention and control, especially in vulnerable areas.

Comprehensive digitalisation needed for hydro-meteorological work: officials hinh anh 2Flood in Cam Lo district, Quang Tri province (Photo: VNA)

Deputy Director General of the Vietnam Meteorological and Hydrological Administration Dr. Hoang Duc Cuong said hydrometeorological information and data are extremely important to sustainable socio-economic development as they impact on 11 out of the 17 sustainable development goals, and play a decisive role in preventing, responding and overcoming consequences of natural disasters.

Agencies and units operating in meteorological and hydrological forecast at all levels annually provide nearly 60,000 forecasts and warnings, effectively serving the natural disaster prevention and control, search and rescue activities, Cuong said.

Vietnam’s hydrometeorological sector is working hard on developing solutions to better its ability in forecasting extreme weather and climate phenomena, risks and impacts of natural disasters.

It has been developing new models and methods for monitoring, forecasting, and warning, while actively cooperating with universities and research institutes to apply scientific and technological achievements and speed up digital transformation in the field.

Attention has been also paid to improving the quality of human resources to meet development requirements of the sector in the future./.

VNA