The Black Sea-Middle East Flash Flood Guidance System (BSMEFFGS) and the South-East Europe Flash Flood Guidance System (SEEFFGS), under the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Flash Flood Guidance System (FFGS) framework, reached an important milestone in Tbilisi, Georgia, on 13-14 July 2026: the final High-Level Steering Committee meeting of the project cycle funded by the U.S. Department of State concluded. Hosted by Georgia’s National Environmental Agency and co-organized by Global Water Partnership Georgia and WMO, the meeting brought together the WMO Deputy Secretary-General, Permanent Representatives from participating countries, and hydrometeorological experts for in-depth discussions on the progress and future of regional cooperation in flash flood early warning.
As regional components of the global FFGS, the two projects have significantly improved participating countries’ short-term flood forecasting capabilities through technical cooperation, capacity development, and the sharing of flash flood guidance products. The Tbilisi meeting was not only a phase review of project achievements; it also focused on sustainable operations in the post-project period. How to keep the established monitoring systems, data platforms, and expert collaboration networks supporting national disaster prevention decisions after external funding ends became the central issue of common concern.
From a meteorological monitoring perspective, the essence of flash flood early warning is the rapid sensing of and response to extreme precipitation at small catchment scales. This requires real-time integration of automatic weather station data, weather radar, satellite precipitation estimates, and soil moisture monitoring within high-resolution hydrological models. Regional cooperation matters because the evolution of cross-border weather systems often extends beyond the observation capacity of any single country; only by sharing radar base data, rain gauge observations, and numerical weather prediction products can heavy-precipitation cloud clusters with flash flood potential be identified in advance. The ongoing technical support and capacity building highlighted at the meeting are designed precisely to help countries close monitoring gaps and improve frontline forecasters’ interpretation and application of flash flood guidance products.
The sustainability issue also carries deeper technical implications. The end of the project does not mean systems can stop operating. Hardware and software maintenance, communication link assurance, and localized calibration of model parameters must be independently undertaken by participating countries. The Regional Steering Committee mechanism provides a long-term collaboration platform through which countries can continue to align on equipment selection, data standardization, and validation of warning thresholds. With automatic weather stations, ultrasonic anemometers, atmospheric electric field meters, and other new observation equipment becoming increasingly prevalent, future flash flood warning systems can further integrate lightning and severe convection monitoring information to provide more forward-looking warning capability for small and medium-sized watersheds.
The high-level exchange in Tbilisi once again demonstrated that flash flood early warning is an operational undertaking requiring sustained operation. The value of regional cooperation lies not only in the warning guidance systems and expert networks built during the project period, but also in the long-term commitment of all parties to jointly address disaster risk. Mainstreaming project outcomes into meteorological disaster prevention capabilities that each participating country can operate independently is a critical step in advancing flash flood early warning from a project-driven to an institution-driven model.
Source: World Meteorological Organization (WMO) (link)