GMet Mission to Denmark Marks Milestone in Ghana Climate Atlas Development

A 13-member delegation from the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet) has successfully completed a week-long mission to the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI) under the Strategic Sector Cooperation between Ghana and Denmark. The visit marked a significant milestone in the development of the Ghana Climate Atlas, a national platform designed to provide reliable climate data to guide planning, adaptation, and resilience.

The delegation, led by Dr. Ignatius Kweku Williams, Acting Deputy Director-General for Operations, engaged with the leadership of DMI on the progress of the Climate Atlas, the outcomes of the cooperation, and the planning of upcoming activities. Technical workshops focused on the KAPy processing engine, the core software behind Denmark’s Klimaatlas, which is being adapted for Ghana.

During the mission, GMet presented a demo of the Ghana Climate Atlas webpage developed on Wagtail/Django, showcasing dashboards, an interactive map viewer, and open data downloads. An internal release is planned for October 2025, with a phased public launch under consideration for early 2026. The communications team also presented a draft plan to make climate information more engaging and understandable for diverse audiences across the country.

The delegation also met with Denmark’s Ministry of Climate, Energy and Utilities, where policy advisors explained how the Danish Klimaatlas supports municipal flood protection and adaptation planning. This model will inform Ghana’s efforts to integrate climate services into national policies. At the University College of Copenhagen, Ms. Ahiataku, GMet’s Climate Atlas lead, presented Ghana’s progress, while Dr. Nina Baron delivered a lecture on climate communication in risk-prone areas, highlighting the role of social networks and lessons from Denmark’s flood management experiences. The visit included an interactive storm surge response exercise that allowed participants to practice decision-making in real scenarios.

A field visit to Roskilde rounded off the programme, where the delegation toured the Viking Ship Museum to see how climate change threatens cultural heritage sites, and inspected modern flood protection systems at the harbor designed with climate projections and stakeholder input.

The mission concluded with action points including the recomputation of earlier climate indicators with local data, the preparation of methodologies and user guides, the roll-out of the communications plan, and preparations for the phased public launch of the Atlas. Both sides also agreed on a roadmap to refine and recalibrate indicators using GMet-validated observations, expand server storage, and ensure the Climate Atlas is accessible to students, policymakers, and researchers.

The visit reinforced GMet’s commitment to delivering high-quality climate services and ensuring that the Ghana Climate Atlas becomes a cornerstone for national adaptation and resilience planning.

©️GMet Communications