RIFF is the new climate service experimented in France to manage water resources at a seasonal scale over Seine Catchment and Garonne Valley
By feeding a river-routing model by seasonal forecasts, RIFF provides river-flow forecasts at key period to anticipate the evolution of water-stocks.
Downscaled near surface temperature and precipitation coming from the Météo France operational system for seasonal forecasting will feed the SIM suit (a refined SVAT model at an 8-km resolution coupled with a river flow routing module) to produce probability forecast of river flows with different lead-times and for specific stations along the rivers. River flow forecasts are tailored to fit critical thresholds, for crucial seasons for which decision making processes are established.
Thanks to specific stakeholder meetings, the stations and critical thresholds are defined in liaison with stakeholder warning system and decision making processes (warning or crisis thresholds or near wet or dry quintile or decile…). The crucial decisional periods are typically May/beginning of June for the low flow period and the end of Winter/beginning of Spring for the reservoir refilling periods. It should be noted that the same periods are also relevant to the energy suppliers.