Biographies

Dr Hwirin Kim has been serving as the Head of Hydrological and Water Resources Service Division of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), since 2019. The HWR division supports the enhancement of Members’ hydrological and water resources services by coordinating diverse projects and programmes such as the Associated Programme on Flood Management (APFM, WMO/GWP), the Global Flash Flood Guidance System (GFFGS), the WMO Community of Practice (CoP) on Flood Forecasting (FF) and Early Warning Systems (EWS), and other activities related to hydrologic forecasting and water resources assessment and management.

​Before joining WMO, Dr Kim was with the Ministry of Environment, Republic of Korea (2005-2019), as leader of the Forecasting and Disaster Risk Reduction team of the Han River Flood Control Office, mainly working in the areas of flood forecasting and integrated water resources management. She was the first hydrologist in the Ministry and holds a Doctorate degree (PhD) in Water Resources Engineering and a Masters’ degree (M.Sc.) in Hydrology. As an expert in hydrology and water resources management, she has made significant contributions to multiple programmes such as, Member of the Advisory Working Group (AWG) of WMO Commission for Hydrology (2016-2019), Theme leader of WMO Regional Association II Working Group Hydrological Services (2012-2019) and Focal point for both the UNESCO International Hydrological Programme (2011-2014) and the ESCAP/WMO Typhoon Committee (2010-2014). She has also led the development of an assessment tool for managing of water resources, which has been made available to the public at WMO’s website.