Expertise: Climate Change Specialist (Hydrology)
Expertise Group: Biological Sciences & Ecology
Consultant Source: International
TOR Keywords: climate change, hydrology, flood and drought assessment
Objective and Purpose of the Assignment
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has announced its commitment to align its new operations with the goals
of the Paris Agreement and has set an ambition of providing $100 billion of climate finance between 2019–
2030 of which $34 billion will be for adaptation and resilience. Achieving this ambition will require
ADB to support its developing member countries (DMCs) build climate and resilience through projects.
That effort will require developing stronger climate adaptation-focused and Paris aligned adaptation
projects, which are conceived and designed, at least to a significant extent, to reduce vulnerability to
climate change over the near, medium, and long term and build the resilience of a system.
The assignment is to conduct comprehensive flood and drought assessments to enhance the resilience of
Pacific countries to extreme weather events and other natural hazards. The Climate Change Specialist
(Hydrology) will play a crucial role by providing expert analysis and recommendations on flood
management and water resources infrastructure, which are increasingly threatened by climate change. This
assignment is essential for producing actionable insights and strategies that will inform the
development of robust, climate-resilient infrastructure, thereby safeguarding communities and economic
assets from the adverse effects of climate change.
Scope of Work
The Climate Change Specialist (Hydrology) will provide expert guidance and technical support for the
assessment and management of flood risks and climate change impacts in Pacific countries. The specialist
will conduct comprehensive flood risk assessments, and develop guidance for integrated flood management
strategies, incorporating both structural and non-structural measures.
Detailed Tasks and/or Expected Output
In support of project design/development:
• Develop catchment based hydrological models, augmenting available local data (topography, soils,
rainfall, evapotranspiration, etc) with globally gridded data and other remote sensed data sets.
• Evaluate baseline water resources
• Develop climate change scenarios from climate projections, downscaled and bias corrected GCM outputs.
• Use modelling to evaluate climate risks to energy water infrastructure.
• Develop adaptation options to identified risks.
• Contribute to project design, undertake climate risk assessments, climate change assessments, Paris
Alignment Assessments, etc.
As part of project due diligence:
• Using locally available data, gridded datasets, develop hydrological approaches for peak flow
estimates for flood risk assessment,
• Conduct hydraulic modelling and assessment (if applicable) for design of flood alleviation structures
or bridge/culvert design in transport projects.
• Develop climate change scenarios from climate projections, downscaled and bias corrected GCM outputs
• Incorporate climate change uplifts into hydrological assessments
• Develop adaptation options
• Contribute to project design, undertake Climate risk assessments, CCAs, PAAs, etc
Minimum Qualification Requirements
The consultant will have a minimum of a master’s degree in Hydrology, Water Resources Engineering,
Environmental Science, Climate Change, or a related field. A Ph.D. in a relevant discipline will be an
advantage. Experience in Pacific SIDS hydrology and hydropower assessment, or experience in multi-sector
energy/water security climate risk assessment and optimization is highly advantageous.
Minimum General Experience: 10 Years
Minimum Specific Experience (relevant to assignment): 10 Years
