Donderdag 15 oktober 2009
12.30 uur, Buys Ballotzaal, KNMI
Door: Arie Kattenberg (KS/KA)

Een bescheiden lunch is voorhanden, aanmelden vooraf is niet noodzakelijk.

In the 19th and early 20th century, when Indonesia was a colony of the Netherlands, weather and climate observations were duly made by the Dutch. Their original observations from the region, as well as e.g. monthly summaries that were made of the precipitation observations are still in existence in the ‘basement of the KNMI library’. These historical climate data from Indonesia were never put in digital form for publication because of the prohibitive high costs: it is estimated that typing in of the millions of handwritten or printed numbers would take 15 – 20 man-year to complete.

In January 2009 Secretary of State mrs. Tineke Huizinga visited Indonesia to discuss Dutch cooperation in the field of water management. Already in the ‘National Water Plan’, mrs. Huizinga’s proposals for coordination of water management in the Netherlands, there was a chapter devoted to water management abroad, especially in low lying deltas in developing countries. In view of the changing climate and the consequent growing need for adaptation there will be water related questions and problems where the Dutch expertise can be used to advantage.

When mrs. Huizinga enquired, prior to her visit, about a possible present that she could bring with her visit in January, the Indonesians made clear (via the Dutch embassy) that they would be interested in the above mentioned historical climate data – in digital form! It was subsequently realized that 15 – 20 man-year of typing work might not be so expensive in Indonesia.

Thus the project DiDaH (Digitisasi Data Historis) was born: KNMI and BMKG together will setup and coordinate a digitization effort in Indonesia, in which the historical climate data from the colonial time (plus more recent data from BMKG!) will be typed in, archived and published. The Ministry of Traffic and Water Management will bear the extra cost for the digitization and for extra travel that BMKG and KNMI personnel will make in the framework of this project.

The digitization project, that will be described and discussed during this “Kicklunch”, is embedded in ‘capacity building’ activities to help the Indonesians to profit optimally from the new climate data. An international workshop in WMO format in December 2009 will mark the start of the project. During the digitization work, in 2010 and 2011, several experts from BMKG will visit and work at KNMI, to learn about KNMI’s methods and means to handle climate data.