PROJECT INFORMATION DOCUMENT (PID)
CONCEPT STAGE
Project Name
Region
Sector
Project ID
Borrower(s)
Implementing Agency
Environment Category
Date PID Prepared
Estimated Date of
Appraisal Authorization
Estimated Date of Board
Approval
Report No.: AB6733
Modernizing the National Meteorological Service to Address
Variability and Climate Change in the Water Sector in Mexico
(MOMET)
LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN
General water, sanitation and flood protection sector
(70%);Irrigation and drainage (20%);Flood protection (10%)
P126487
Federal Government of the United Mexican States
Servicio Meteorológico Nacional
Comision Nacional del Agua (CONAGUA)
Av. Observatorio No. 192
Col. Observatorio
Delegacion Miguel Hidalgo. Zip code 11860
Telephone No.: +52 55 26364601/ 26 36 46 00 Ext. 3404/3199
Contact Person: Adrian Vazquez Galvez, General Coordinator,
Email:felipe.vazquez@conagua.gob.mx
[ ] A [X] B [ ] C [ ] FI [ ] TBD (to be determined)
July 12, 2011
February 28, 2012
May 17, 2012
1. Key development issues and rationale for Bank involvement
The water sector is central to Mexico’s sustainable development. Given Mexico’s geography – the
country is lying between two oceans, and two thirds of the territory is arid or semi-arid, whereas the
southeast is humid– the expected impacts of climate variability and global climate change include an
increase in average and extreme temperatures, a greater variability in rainfall extremes and thus
changes in runoff patterns. Given the population growth, flash floods and mudslides are occurring in
areas not prone to them before, increasing the threats to lives as well as assets, particularly as
settlements in floodplains and low lying coastal areas expand A large share of Mexico’s aquifers is
already over-exploited. Rising prosperity and a growing population will stress them further, along
with surface water resources, thus spotlighting the need for more accurate data to support water
resource management. Also, the severity of thunderstorms has increased as they form more quickly,
affect a greater expanse of territory, and are more intense, further increasing risks to life and property.
According to data from the National Center for Disaster Prevention (CENAPRED), since 1999,
severe hydro-meteorological events have been responsible for over 97 percent of damage caused by
natural disasters. These weather-related disasters cost Mexico more than US$ 10 billion between
1980 and 2005. Over 80 percent of those economic losses occurred in the agricultural sector,
increasing the vulnerability for rural households, affecting income generation and resulting in social
impacts. Inaction in addressing these challenges will yield economic and social costs that will be
further exacerbated by the impacts of climate change. Better capacity to monitor and forecast hydrometeorological events and climate variability is therefore essential to confronting the challenges of
climate change.
The SMN has experienced a gradual degradation of its technical and institutional capacity and
infrastructure over the past ten years. The growing demand for meteorological information and
services makes the upgrading of SMN a priority action. There is strong need to recruit and train
professionals (meteorologists, climatologist, radar experts, physicist, and engineers) and the
professional workforce needs to be increased significantly. There is also a need to automate the
observation infrastructure, to establish system for the sustainable and efficient operation and
maintenance of data and information and for its analysis and customization and the physical network.
The existing modeling tools need to be upgraded in order to address longer term climate forecasting
needs.
Improving the meteorological and climatic forecasting capabilities to better plan and respond to the
needs of major economic and social sectors to a changing climate requires substantial scientific
knowledge, data and advanced numerical models for atmospheric phenomena. Following an
assessment of the SMN conducted in 2009 by an international panel constituted by the World
Meteorological Organization, the World Bank was asked by GoM to prepare an action plan for the
modernization of SMN in the context of the Strategic Engagement Program Supporting Adaptation to
Climate Change in Mexico.
2. Proposed objective(s)
The Project Development Objective (PDO) is to strengthen the capacity of the National
Meteorological Service to meet the increasing demand for weather and climate information in order
to improve water resources management and support sustainable development in the face of climate
change.
The Project will enable SMN to enhance its effectiveness as a modern organization that provides
reliable, useful and timely information on meteorology, climatology and hydrometeorology and align
SMN’s service and products with its national and international commitments. This will support
decision making in a range of sectors, including the water sector, agriculture and other productive
sectors, to increase productivity, support sustainable development, and protect life and property from
the effects of natural disasters of hydro meteorological origin.
3. Preliminary description
The project is likely to consist of the following components:

Component I: Strengthening Institutional Capacity and Client Communications [US$ 18 million].
This component will include activities to: (a) strengthen SMN’s human resources by training recently
hired additional professionals (either as staff or through out-sourcing); (b) improve the organization’s
business strategy and processes (including institutional restructuring and design and implementation
of a quality management plan); and (c) strengthen communications with clients to ensure that SMN’s
services satisfy their requirements and are user-friendly. This communication strategy will include the
intensive use of media and modern communication technology (weather channels, mobile and web
based information systems). This will include hiring a Panel of four senior international experts to
assist the Project Implementation Unit (PIU) and SMN’s Management on strategic decisions in key
areas of expertise such as meteorological radar/remote sensing, weather and climate observation and
prediction, now-casting, and information technology in addition to procurement, monitoring and
evaluation, financial management, and safeguards specialists. The experts will help in the training of
national experts so that after their five years period of technical assistance there is capacity to
maintain the operations and activities in these areas. The component will finance the implementation
of cooperation program with the World Meteorological Organization that will provide training and
advisory services and will assist implementation of the Monitoring and Evaluation activities.

Component II: Modernizing and Consolidating Observation Infrastructure of the SMN [US$ 47
million]. The main objective of this component is to improve reliability and availability of hydrometeorological data by acquiring new instruments, equipment and infrastructure to expand coverage,
improving operations and maintenance, and integrating the existing radar, upper atmosphere, satellite
receiving stations and surface weather and hydro-climatic observation networks. It will also finance
an assessment of SMN’s information and data processing systems and needs for further
improvements, including for business continuity and sustainability.

Component III: Improving Meteorological and Climate Forecasts [US$ 9 million]. This component is
focused on improving the quality and reliability of weather forecasts and hydrological predictions and
the timeliness of information and alerts. It will finance developing and upgrading a range of data
assimilating tools and systems, a training program for staff to strengthen professional skills for
meteorological forecasting, including now-casting of extreme weather, and climate information
(seasonal and long term forecast) . Resources will be also devoted to understanding users and users’
needs and demands, including social and economic sectors, and on customizing the analysis of
information to better planning and decision-making processes. The component will also finance an
understanding of the type of information that generates greater economic value. These will be carried
out under technical cooperation agreements with specialized institutions. Training will be provided to
users in order to increase their capacity to use and provide feedback to SMN on its products. This
component will also support establishment of a National Climate and Environment Forecasting
Center (CENPAC) with participation of national and international scientific institutions (IMTA and
CONAGUA) to support the development of new tools, climatic information and modeling and
forecasting technologies in association with relevant stakeholders representing different sectors.
Component IV: Developing Regional Capacity [US$ 31 million]. This component will support the
establishment of five Regional Centers in Veracruz, Merida, Ciudad Obregon, Tuxtla Gutierrez, and in
the Valley of Mexico. The Regional Centers, under the direction of SMN, will maintain the observation
networks in their area (excluding the radar network, which will be maintained and operated under a single
PPP arrangement) and provide meteorological forecasting. As detailed in Annex III, each will also have a
specialized monitoring and forecasting function. A major aspect of this component will be to pilot a
system to integrate information from a range of observation networks to provide early warnings of flash
floods and to support strengthened water basin management in three basins: Yaqui River, Papaloapan
River and Valley of Mexico.
4. Safeguard policies that might apply
The Project’s social and environmental impacts are expected to be largely positive. Improving weather
and hydro-climatic information and forecasting will support better hydraulic infrastructure design,
increase productivity and strengthen disaster risk management and vulnerability reduction. Better forecast
of future climatic conditions will gradually reduce costs of reconstruction and insurance of infrastructure
damaged by poorly predicted severe weather induced disasters. The Project is not expected to have
negative social or environmental impacts that cannot be mitigated. Therefore, the Project is expected to
be Category B. Safeguards triggered are OP/BP 4.01, Environmental Assessment, OP/BP 4.11 Physical
Cultural Resources and OP/BP 4.12, Involuntary Resettlement. The latter is triggered as a precautionary
measure with the event that construction of the Regional Centers and location of additional radars or other
observation instrumentation requires resettlement (although this is not currently the case). A resettlement
framework, defining guidelines to prevent and address possible environmental impacts, would be
incorporated into the project during preparation.
CONAGUA/SMN has agreed in the ToR and timeline to finalize the Environmental Assessment (EA) of
the project by September 2011. The report will include the EA, a review and update of the Environmental
and Social Management Framework, the Environmental Management Plan and the a detailed evaluation
of the initial 12 sub-projects.
5. Tentative financing
Source:
BORROWER/RECIPIENT
IBRD
Total
6. Contact point
Contact: Javier Zuleta
Title: Sr. Water Resources Mgmt. Specialist
Tel: (202) 458-2131
Fax: (202) 522-3132
Email: jzuleta1@worldbank.org
($m.)
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