Workshop on Regional Sea Level and Climate Services & 4th Session of WCRP Grand Challenge on Regional Sea Level Change and Coastal Impacts organised in Orléans, France

The Workshop on Regional Sea Level and Climate Services was organised on 12-13 November 2019 at BRGM (French Geological Survey) in Orléans, France, followed by the 4th Session of the WCRP Grand Challenge on Regional Sea Level Change and Coastal Impacts on 14-15 November, 2019. Around 40 scientists attended the workshop, and over 20 people attend the Sea Level GC meeting, either onsite or remotely.

During the two-day workshop the following six topics were covered: 1) assessments of the current status of coastal climate services (CCS); 2) identification and mapping of users; 3) identification and analysis of needs for different types of users (e.g., insurance, critical infrastructures or settlements, observation needs); 4) review of existing practices and how they can be improved; 5) translating sea-level science to operations and communicating uncertainties and 6) potential framework for coastal climate services.

The WCRP Grand Challenge (GC) on Regional Sea Level Change and Coastal Impacts held its fourth meeting right after the workshop. The meeting reviewed the progress and discuss about the future plans of the GC’s individual Work Programmes (WG), by considering the possible interaction with other WPs, as well as with other grand challenges and WRCP activities. Participants also summarized the achievement so far, identified knowledge gaps, and made plans for future meetings, GC papers and activities. The second Sea Level Conference is proposed to be organised in July 2022 in Singapore, during which the Sea Level GC, at least in its current form, will wrap up. Moreover, it was suggested to review the membership of GC and look for new members, including early career researchers, as well as to review leadership of the GC and WP as appropriate. The next GC meeting is scheduled in autumn 2020 in Victoria, Canada. The meeting will be combined with a focussed workshop with a theme possibly around the Arctic and/or end user needs for sea-level science.

We sincerely appreciated the BRGM for the local organization, as well as WCRP/CLIVAR, US CLIVAR and IOC/GLOSS for the financial support to the two events.