1. Background

Regional Initiative for the Assessment of Climate Change Impacts on Water Resources and Socio-Economic Vulnerability in the Arab Region (RICCAR) is a joint initiative of the United Nations and the League of Arab States launched in 2010. RICCAR is implemented under the auspices of the Arab Ministerial Water Council and further derives is mandate from resolutions adopted by the Council of Arab Ministers Responsible for the Environment, the Arab Permanent Committee for Meteorology and the ESCWA Ministerial Session. Additional information on RICCAR and is contributing partners is available at www.riccar.org.

The RICCAR outputs and constituent databases are based on an integrated assessment methodology that includes:

• Regional climate modelling (RCM) outputs for the CORDEX-MENA Domain (Arab Domain), which is among the domains included in the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) of the World Climate Research Programme.
• Regional hydrological modelling (RHM) outputs for the surface water basins in Arab States, including the land and water areas of surface water basins that are shared or transboundary in nature that include areas external to the Arab region.
• Integrated vulnerability assessment (VA) outputs for various sectors across the Arab region covering the 21 Arab States included in the MENA Domain.  RICCAR assessment outputs are available in the Arab Climate Change Assessment Report: Main Report and its Technical Annex.

2. Principles of data acquisition and access

2.1. Users may request bias-corrected regional climate modeling (RCM) and regional hydrological modeling (RHM) outputs for the Arab Domain. Available RCM and RHM output variables are described in  RICCAR Technical Note Regional Climate Modelling and Regional Hydrological Modelling Applications in the Arab Region prepared by SMHI.

• Temperature, precipitation, and hydrological outputs are available with daily frequency from 1950 to 2100 for RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 at the scale of 50x50 km. Extreme climate indices are available both annually and seasonally for the same period.
• RCM and RHM ensembles for the reference period, near-century, mid-century, and end-century are available for RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 at the scale of 50x50 km.

2.2. Users may also request socio-economic geospatial data used for the integrated vulnerability assessment (VA), described in  RICCAR Technical Note Integrated Vulnerability Assessment: Arab Regional Application prepared by ESCWA, ACSAD and GIZ.

2.3. Requests for data will be considered by ESCWA primarily with a view to informing policy development, encouraging further research, and supporting education and training in this topic area.

3. Dissemination of data from RICCAR

3.1. Data is available to data users free of charge and under the conditions set forth in points 3.2 to 3.7 below.

3.2. Requests for data must reach the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) in writing and include the completed Data Request Form, which is attached for this purpose. The provision of data by ESCWA will be decided on a case by case basis.

3.3. By signing the Data Request Form, the data user(s) listed in the form and affiliated institution agree in writing that the data received are not transferred to third parties, including other individual researchers at the same institution working on a research or study project not listed in the form. The data supplied from RICCAR is released solely to the data user(s) listed on the request form and for the purposes identified there within upon identified access.

3.4. The data shall not be used for commercial purposes.

3.5. The data user(s) agrees that ESCWA may inform the members States of the League of Arab States and RICCAR collaborating partners about the use for which data from RICCAR has been requested and will transfer the names and addresses of the data user(s) to these States and collaborating partners, as may be requested.

3.6. ESCWA can make available subsets of data from RICCAR on a request basis to support specific research and study projects, as stated above. Requests for the entire database or substantial parts of it cannot be entertained.

3.7. Data or data subsets approved for dissemination will be provided in the electronic format deemed suitable for dissemination by ESCWA based on the request made. The transfer of data on external hard drives will only be considered on a very exceptional basis.

Individuals and institutions requesting data should request in writing by completing and signing this form. Submit the request to Ms. Carol Chouchani Cherfane, Director of Arab Centre for Climate Change Policies, Cluster Leader of Climate Change and Natural Resource Sustainability, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) via email to chouchanicherfane@un.org, with a copy to escwa-h2o@un.org.