Job Description
Background This consultancy is being proposed to support the implementation of the Early Warning Systems for Floods (EWS-F) project, funded by the US Department of State, by providing technical advisory and development support focused on data publication forecasting services and Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) infrastructure and coordinating national and relevant regional centers as necessary to enhance end-to-end early warning services for floods and related hazards. Duties and Responsibilities The EWS-F project aims to advance end-to-end multi-hazard early warning systems and capacities to enable targeted countries in the Southwest Indian Ocean region (Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius and Seychelles), Central America (Guatemala) and the Caribbean region (Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados and Haiti) to take early action and reduce the impact of hydrological hazards, in particular floods. To ensure effective implementation and alignment with national priorities, the EWS-F project seeks to engage a consultant to provide technical advisory and development support focused on data publication forecasting services and Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) infrastructure and coordinate national and relevant regional centers. The consultant is expected to perform the following activities: 1. Support the development of IT mechanisms to improve accessibility of Impact based forecasting information and warnings (MapViewer, CAP composer) 1.1 MapViewer to CAP Composer Integration Develop prototype functionalities to pre-generate CAP alerts from products added to MapViewer, including flood-related products (FFGS outputs, urban flood model layers); Enable the import of polygon shapefiles, flood hazard and risk layers (FFGS guidance, satellite-derived flood products, urban flood risk maps) directly from the MapViewer to the CAP Composer, allowing automatic pre-filling of the area at risk and associated metadata; Improve semi-automated workflows for the generation of impact-based forecasting information and the creation of CAP alert messages, including automated notifications to forecasters for pre-identified hazards and risk zones, as well as automated and configurable standard CAP alert messages for selected hazards and risk levels. 1.2 Geospatial Back-End Development support Support the development of GeoRiva, providing advisory input on data service standards, interoperability requirements and integration with regional data sources. 1.3 CAP National Aggregator Development to consolidate CAP feeds from multiple alerting institutions, deployable at the coordinating agency level Initiate implementation within a pilot country. 2. Support the development of bulletin Generation Module (Bulletin Studio) that enables generating bulletins with key messages from different data streams, aligned with regional publication workflows and dissemination standards Enable the integration of flood forecasting and warning products from various systems (FFGS, urban flood forecasts and impact-based risk information) into standardized bulletins that are configured based on countries’ needs. 3. Forecasts and warnings access and display on websites, including automated product ingestion for relevant products Implement automated ingestion of hydrometeorological forecasting products (FFGS, urban flood forecasting systems, rainfall forecasts, impact layers) into NMHS websites. 4. Technical Advisory Support to serve early warning products in OGC standards, with a focus on WMS Provide technical guidance and recommendations to regional and global centres to serve early warning products in OGC standards-based, interoperable formats. 5. Support the installation of CAP composer and websites in relevant countries by ensuring alignment with national flood forecasting workflows (FFGS and urban flood forecasting systems) Required Skills and Experience Education: Advanced degree in ICT, applied meteorology, hydrology, or related discipline. Experience: Experience with web-GIS frameworks (Leaflet, Mapbox GL, OpenLayers); Experience integrating meteorological, hydrological, climate, satellite, and model datasets ; Experience in version control (Git) and Linux-based deployments. Other Requirements: Strong expertise in geospatial data engineering, backend development and ETL automation for vector and raster datasets ; Advanced skills in PostgreSQL/PostGIS, tile servers, pg_tileserv, MapServer/GeoServer; Familiarity with ClimWeb, GeoManager, Wagtail; Understanding of climate services, impact-based forecasting, early warning workflows and CAP is an asset. Languages: Excellent knowledge of English (both oral and written) is required. Knowledge of French would be an advantage. (Note: the official languages of the Organization are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.) Salary and Allowances : Pay band C - USD 390-560 per day a s per WMO rules and regulations and based on experience demonstrated by the candidate. Duration: 70 days over a period of 5 months Focal Point : Bernard Minoungou [email protected] Applications: Applications should be made online through the WMO e-recruitment system. Do not send your application via multiple routes. WMO no longer accepts applications via post or email. Only applicants for whom WMO has a further interest will be contacted. Shortlisted candidates may be required to sit a written test and/or an interview. Statements: WMO is committed to achieving diversity and a balanced workforce. Applications are welcome from qualified women and men, including those with disabilities. The statutory retirement age is 65. Pursuant to WMO Standing Instructions, the minimum age to be eligible for consideration for vacant positions is 18, and the maximum age must enable the candidate to serve for at least the term of the contract before reaching mandatory age of separation. Sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse of authority WMO does not tolerate harassment, sexual harassment, exploitation, discrimination and abuse of authority. All selected candidates, therefore, undergo relevant checks and are expected to adhere to the respective standards and principles. Scam alert WMO does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). WMO will not ask for applicants’ bank account information.