Geomatics in Climate Services and Local Information: A Case Study for Mediterranean Area

Extreme sea waves, although rare, can be notably dangerous when associated with energetic sea states and can generate risks for the navigation. In the last few years, they have been the object of extensive research from the scientific community that helped with understanding the main physical aspects; however, the estimate of extreme waves probability in operational forecasts is still debated. In this study, we analyzed a number of sea-states that occurred in a precise area of the Mediterranean sea, near the location of a reported accident, with the objective of relating the probability of extreme events with different sea state conditions. For this purpose, we performed phase-resolving simulations of wave spectra obtained from a WaveWatch III hindcast, using a Higher Order Spectral Method. We produced statistics of the sea-surface elevation field, calculating crest distributions and the probability of extreme events from the analysis of a long time-series of the surface elevation. We found a good matching between the distributions of the numerically simulated field and theory, namely Tayfun second- and third- order ones, in contrast with a significant underestimate given by the Rayleigh distribution. We then related spectral quantities like angular spreading and wave steepness to the probability of occurrence of extreme events finding an enhanced probability for high mean steepness seas and narrow spectra, in accordance with literature results, finding also that the case study of the reported accident was not amongst the most dangerous. Finally, we related the skewness and kurtosis of the surface elevation to the wave steepness to explain the discrepancy between theoretical and numerical distributions.

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A comparative multidimensional evaluation of conservation agriculture systems: A case study from a Mediterranean area of Southern Italy

Land Use Policy ◽

10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.07.034 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 68 ◽

pp. 326-333 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Antonella Vastola ◽

Pandi Zdruli ◽

Mario D’Amico ◽

Gioacchino Pappalardo ◽

Mauro Viccaro ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Southern Italy ◽

Conservation Agriculture ◽

Mediterranean Area ◽

Multidimensional Evaluation ◽

Agriculture Systems

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Impact assessment of climate change on farming systems in the South Mediterranean area: a Tunisian case study

Regional Environmental Change ◽

10.1007/s10113-017-1130-8 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 18 (3) ◽

pp. 637-650 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Imen Souissi ◽

Jean Marie Boisson ◽

Insaf Mekki ◽

Olivier Therond ◽

Guillermo Flichman ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Impact Assessment ◽

Farming Systems ◽

Mediterranean Area ◽

The South

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The Problem of Land Fragmentation in the Mediterranean Area: A Case Study

Geographical Review ◽

10.2307/212807 ◽

1963 ◽

Vol 53 (1) ◽

pp. 40 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

D. J. Shaw

Keyword(s):

Mediterranean Area ◽

Land Fragmentation ◽

The Mediterranean

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A Participatory Approach to Developing Community Based Climate Services in Zimbabwe: A Case Study of Uzumba Maramba Pfungwe (UMP) District

Climate Change Management - Handbook of Climate Services ◽

10.1007/978-3-030-36875-3_22 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 447-462

Author(s):

Juliet Gwenzi ◽

Emmanuel Mashonjowa ◽

Paramu L. Mafongoya

Keyword(s):

Participatory Approach ◽

Community Based ◽

Climate Services

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Experiences with virtual schools on “Climate data for impact assessments”

10.5194/ems2021-353 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Janette Bessembinder ◽

Judith Klostermann ◽

Rutger Dankers ◽

Vladimir Djurdjevic ◽

Tomas Halenka

Keyword(s):

Summer School ◽

Climate Modeling ◽

Virtual Schools ◽

Virtual School ◽

Climate Data ◽

Climate Services ◽

Impact Modelling ◽

Set Up ◽

Impact Models

The provision of climate services to users is a fast developing field. In support of this development, the IS-ENES3 project, funded within the EC Horizon2020 program, organized three schools on &#8220;Climate data for impact assessments&#8221; in 2020 and 2021. In an Autumn school, a Spring school and a Summer school, climate scientists and impact scientists were brought together. An important aim of the schools was&#160;to enhance interaction between Vulnerability-Impact-Adaptation (VIA) researchers, climate services providers and climate researchers. Another aim was to provide an overview of information on climate modeling, climate data, impact modelling and climate services based on the work of the IS-ENE3 project.In the first three weeks a series of lectures was given, covering topics such as climate data and modelling, impact models, portals for accessing and processing climate data, setting-up impact assessments, and communication of results to stakeholders. In the last three weeks the participants worked in small groups of one climate scientist with one impact scientist on a case study under the guidance of the course lecturers. Impact and climate researchers were combined on purpose to let them experience how they could help each other.Originally the schools were planned to take place on-site (e.g. in Prague) during one week; however, due to COVID-19 the schools had to be transformed to virtual schools with two weekly sessions during six weeks. Although the virtual set-up had some disadvantages (e.g. less possibilities for networking), there were also some advantages (e.g. the possibility to record the lectures and make them available to a broader audience; more time to explore and work with climate data in between the sessions, no CO2 emissions for travelling). During this presentation we will present the set-up of the schools and the conversion to a virtual school. We will focus on the lessons learnt and the evaluation of the virtual schools by the participants and give some recommendations for similar schools and how to link the climate and VIA research communities .

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On the comparability of knowledge transfer activities – a case study at the German Baltic Sea Coast focusing regional climate services

Advances in Science and Research ◽

10.5194/asr-14-145-2017 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 14 ◽

pp. 145-151 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Insa Meinke

Keyword(s):

Knowledge Transfer ◽

Baltic Sea ◽

Initial Conditions ◽

Regional Climate ◽

Potential Usefulness ◽

Climate Services ◽

Transfer Activity ◽

Spatial Coverage ◽

Sea Coast

Abstract. In this article the comparability of knowledge transfer activities is discussed by accounting for external impacts. It is shown that factors which are neither part of the knowledge transfer activity nor part of the participating institution may have significant impact on the potential usefulness of knowledge transfer activities. Differences in the potential usefulness are leading to different initial conditions of the knowledge transfer activities. This needs to be taken into account when comparing different knowledge transfer activities, e.g., in program evaluations. This study is focusing on regional climate services at the German Baltic Sea coast. It is based on two surveys and experiences with two identical web tools applied on two regions with different spatial coverage. The results show that comparability among science based knowledge transfer activities is strongly limited through several external impacts. The potential usefulness and thus the initial condition of a particular knowledge transfer activity strongly depends on (1) the perceived priority of the focused topic, (2) the used information channels, (3) the conformity between the research agenda of service providing institutions and information demands in the public, as well as (4) on the spatial coverage of a service. It is suggested to account for the described external impacts for evaluations of knowledge transfer activities. The results show that the comparability of knowledge transfer activities is limited and challenge the adequacy of quantitative measures in this context. Moreover, as shown in this case study, in particular regional climate services should be individually evaluated on a long term perspective, by potential user groups and/or by its real users. It is further suggested that evaluation criteria should be co-developed with these stakeholder groups.

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Stronger Voices?

ICTs for Global Development and Sustainability ◽

10.4018/978-1-61520-997-2.ch011 ◽

2010 ◽

pp. 248-266

Author(s):

Claire Buré

Keyword(s):

Civil Society ◽

New Technologies ◽

Internet Access ◽

Local Information ◽

Civil Society Organization ◽

Virtual Communication ◽

Community Needs ◽

The Creation ◽

Gain Access

This case study focuses on a civil society organization called Radio Viva in Asunción, Paraguay. It was found that the interactive use of ‘traditional’ and ‘new’ technologies in locally innovative ways was able to meet community needs through the creation of two local products. Specifically, when radio and telephony were integrated with telecentre services (including internet access), new physical and virtual communication spaces were opened up for civic participation. Second, ICT interactivity was found to lead to the creation of locally relevant content production, helping Paraguayan communities to gain access to useful and contextualized information while also turning local ‘information recipients’ into ‘knowledge users’.

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