scholarly journals Water security, global change and land–atmosphere feedbacks

2013 ◽  
Vol 371 (2002) ◽  
pp. 20120412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Dadson ◽  
Michael Acreman ◽  
Richard Harding
Keyword(s):  
Resource Management ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Climate Impact ◽  
Detailed Knowledge ◽  
Management Decisions ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Hydrological System ◽  
The Impact

Understanding the competing pressures on water resources requires a detailed knowledge of the future water balance under uncertain environmental change. The need for a robust, scientifically rigorous evidence base for effective policy planning and practice has never been greater. Environmental change includes, but is not limited to, climate change; it also includes land-use and land-cover change, including deforestation for agriculture, and occurs alongside changes in anthropogenic interventions that are used in natural resource management such as the regulation of river flows using dams, which can have impacts that frequently exceed those arising in the natural system. In this paper, we examine the role that land surface models can play in providing a robust scientific basis for making resource management decisions against a background of environmental change. We provide some perspectives on recent developments in modelling in land surface hydrology. Among the range of current land surface and hydrology models, there is a large range of variability, which indicates that the specification and parametrization of several basic processes in the models can be improved. Key areas that require improvement in order to address hydrological applications include (i) the representation of groundwater in models, particularly at the scales relevant to land surface modelling, (ii) the representation of human interventions such as dams and irrigation in the hydrological system, (iii) the quantification and communication of uncertainty, and (iv) improved understanding of the impact on water resources availability of multiple use through treatment, recycling and return flows (and the balance of consumptive and conservative uses). Through a series of examples, we demonstrate that changes in water use could have important reciprocal impacts on climate over a wide area. The effects of water management decisions on climate feedbacks are only beginning to be investigated—they are still only rarely included in climate impact assessments—and the links between the hydrological system and climate are rarely acknowledged in studies of ecosystem services. Nevertheless, because water is essential not only for its direct uses but also for the indirect functions that it serves (including food production, fisheries and industry), it is vital that these connected systems are studied. Building on the examples above, we highlight recent research showing that assessment of these trade-offs is particularly complex in wetland areas, especially in situations where these trade-offs play to the advantage of different communities.

Quantifying Snow Mass Mission Concept Trade-Offs Using an Observing System Simulation Experiment

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camille Garnaud ◽  
Stéphane Bélair ◽  
Marco L. Carrera ◽  
Chris Derksen ◽  
Bernard Bilodeau ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Simulation Experiment ◽  
Snow Water Equivalent ◽  
System Simulation ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Wet Snow ◽  
Observing System Simulation Experiment ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Snow Mass

Abstract Because of its location, Canada is particularly affected by snow processes and their impact on the atmosphere and hydrosphere. Yet, snow mass observations that are ongoing, global, frequent (1–5 days), and at high enough spatial resolution (kilometer scale) for assimilation within operational prediction systems are presently not available. Recently, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) partnered with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to initiate a radar-focused snow mission concept study to define spaceborne technological solutions to this observational gap. In this context, an Observing System Simulation Experiment (OSSE) was performed to determine the impact of sensor configuration, snow water equivalent (SWE) retrieval performance, and snow wet/dry state on snow analyses from the Canadian Land Data Assimilation System (CaLDAS). The synthetic experiment shows that snow analyses are strongly sensitive to revisit frequency since more frequent assimilation leads to a more constrained land surface model. The greatest reduction in spatial (temporal) bias is from a 1-day revisit frequency with a 91% (93%) improvement. Temporal standard deviation of the error (STDE) is mostly reduced by a greater retrieval accuracy with a 65% improvement, while a 1-day revisit reduces the temporal STDE by 66%. The inability to detect SWE under wet snow conditions is particularly impactful during the spring meltdown, with an increase in spatial RMSE of up to 50 mm. Wet snow does not affect the domain-wide annual maximum SWE nor the timing of end-of-season snowmelt timing in this case, indicating that radar measurements, although uncertain during melting events, are very useful in adding skill to snow analyses.

scholarly journals Snow water scarcity induced by record-breaking warm winter in 2020 in Japan

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Satoshi Watanabe ◽  
Shunji Kotsuki ◽  
Shinjiro Kanae ◽  
Kenji Tanaka ◽  
Atsushi Higuchi
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
High Temperatures ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Snow Water Equivalent ◽  
River Basins ◽  
Reanalysis Data ◽  
Temperature And Precipitation ◽  
Snow Water ◽  
The Impact

Abstract This study highlights the severity of the low snow water equivalent (SWE) and remarkably high temperatures in 2020 in Japan, where reductions in SWE have significant impacts on society due to its importance for water resources. A continuous 60-year land surface simulation forced by reanalysis data revealed that the low SWE in many river basins in the southern snowy region of mainland Japan are the most severe on record. The impact of the remarkably high temperatures in 2020 on the low SWE was investigated by considering the relationships among SWE, temperature, and precipitation. The main difference between the 2020 case and prior periods of low SWE is the record-breaking high temperatures. Despite the fact that SWE was the lowest in 2020, precipitation was much higher than that in 2019, which was one of the lowest SWE on record pre-2020. The results indicate the possibility that even more serious low-SWE periods will be caused if lower precipitation and higher temperatures occur simultaneously.

Investigating blue water response to green management in a Mediterranean headwater catchment

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jérôme Latron ◽  
Mariano Moreno de las Heras ◽  
Antonio Molina ◽  
Francesc Gallart ◽  
Teresa Cervera ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Table ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Detailed Knowledge ◽  
Blue Water ◽  
Green Management ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Water Response

<p>Although forest provides multiple ecosystem services (e.g., soil conservation, carbon sequestration, regulation of water cycle), it often cannot provide all of them simultaneously because of the trade-offs between some of them. In particular, while afforestation and reforestation have been recommended as a means of sequestering carbon in forest biomass and soils to limit climate change impacts, these practices may significantly alter streamflow and groundwater recharge, particularly in Mediterranean headwater catchments. In this context, a better understanding of forest hydrology is necessary to anticipate the undesirable trade-offs of forest management that can affect water resources.</p><p>Within the MASCC and LIFE + CLIMARK projects, which respectively aim to establish possible land cover scenarios for the next decades and to implement forest management practices to strengthen the capacity of the forest to mitigate the effects of change climate, the Vallcebre research catchments (North Eastern Spain) were selected as a reference site to assess the effect of forest (green) management on water resources (blue water) in a Mediterranean environment. These research catchments offer available medium-term (15 years) hydrological series (precipitation, discharge and water table) prior to forest management and a detailed knowledge of their hydrological response, essential for this evaluation.</p><p>In October 2018, the forest cover of a small sub-catchment (0.0248 km<sup>2</sup>) which initially represented 54% of the basin was thinned (removing between 35% and 60% of the basal area depending on the locations) to assess the effect of multifunctional forest management on streamflow. In the same way, the forest covering the contribution areas (0.0138 and 0.0139km<sup>2</sup>) of two shallow piezometers was thinned according to the same procedure to evaluate possible changes on the dynamics of the piezometric levels.</p><p>This work aims to present the general framework of the study, the type of forest management carried out as well as a first analysis (at different temporal scales) of the water table and discharge dynamics observed during the first year after the forest management.</p>

scholarly journals Impact of the use of a CO<sub>2</sub> responsive land surface model in simulating the effect of climate change on the hydrology of French Mediterranean basins

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 2803-2816 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Queguiner ◽  
E. Martin ◽  
S. Lafont ◽  
J.-C. Calvet ◽  
S. Faroux ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Land Surface Model ◽  
Climate Scenario ◽  
Climate Impact ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Present Climate ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. In order to evaluate the uncertainty associated with the impact model in climate change studies, a CO2 responsive version of the land surface model ISBA (ISBA-A-gs) is compared with its standard version in a climate impact assessment study. The study is performed over the French Mediterranean basin using the Safran-Isba-Modcou chain. A downscaled A2 regional climate scenario is used to force both versions of ISBA, and the results of the two land surface models are compared for the present climate and for that at the end of the century. Reasonable agreement is found between models and with discharge observations. However, ISBA-A-gs has a lower mean evapotranspiration and a higher discharge than ISBA-Standard. Results for the impact of climate change are coherent on a yearly basis for evapotranspiration, total runoff, and discharge. However, the two versions of ISBA present contrasting seasonal variations. ISBA-A-gs develops a different vegetation cycle. The growth of the vegetation begins earlier and reaches a slightly lower maximum than in the present climate. This maximum is followed by a rapid decrease in summertime. In consequence, the springtime evapotranspiration is significantly increased when compared to ISBA-Standard, while the autumn evapotranspiration is lower. On average, discharge changes are more significant at the regional scale with ISBA-A-gs.

Rivers as borders, uniting or dividing? The effect of topography and implications for catchment management

2012 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 510-516
Author(s):  
D. A. Smedley ◽  
K. M. Rowntree
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Resource Management ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Resource ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Catchment Management ◽  
Political Boundaries ◽  
The Impact

South Africa's water resources are unequally distributed over space and time and an already stressed water resource situation will only be exacerbated by climate change if current predictions are correct. The potential for conflict over increasingly strained water resources in South Africa is thus very real. In order to deal with these complex problems, national legislation is demanding that water resource management be decentralized to the local level where active participation can take place in an integrated manner in accordance with the principles of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM). However, administrative and political boundaries rarely match those of catchments as, throughout South Africa, rivers have been employed extensively to delineate administrative and political boundaries at a number of spatial scales. The aim of this research is to determine if rivers act as dividing or uniting features in a socio-political landscape and whether topography will influence their role in this context. The Orange-Senqu River is used as a case study. This paper goes on to consider the implications of this for catchment management in South Africa. No study known to the authors has explored the effect of the river itself, and its topographic setting, on the drivers that foster either conflict or cooperation, and allow for participatory management. This study presents evidence that the topography of a catchment has the ability to aggravate or reduce the impact of the variables considered by water managers and thereby influence the role of a river as a dividing or uniting feature. South Africa's proposed form of decentralized water management will have to contend with the effects of different topographies on the way in which rivers are perceived and utilized.

scholarly journals The latest improvements with SURFEX v8.0 of the Safran–Isba–Modcou hydrometeorological model for France

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 3925-3946 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Le Moigne ◽  
François Besson ◽  
Eric Martin ◽  
Julien Boé ◽  
Aaron Boone ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Surface Fluxes ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Mountainous Areas ◽  
Hydrogeological Model ◽  
River Flows ◽  
Groundwater Levels ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. This paper describes the impact of the various changes made to the Safran–Isba–Modcou (SIM) hydrometeorological system and demonstrates that the new version of the model performs better than the previous one by making comparisons with observations of daily river flows and snow depths. SIM was developed and put into operational service at Météo-France in the early 2000s. The SIM application is dedicated to the monitoring of water resources and can therefore help in drought monitoring or flood risk forecasting on French territory. This complex system combines three models: SAFRAN, which analyses meteorological variables close to the surface, the ISBA land surface model, which aims to calculate surface fluxes at the interface with the atmosphere and ground variables, and finally MODCOU, a hydrogeological model which calculates river flows and changes in groundwater levels. The SIM model has been improved first by reducing the infrared radiation bias of SAFRAN and then by using the more advanced ISBA multi-layer surface diffusion scheme to have a more physical representation of surface and ground processes. In addition, more accurate and recent databases of vegetation, soil texture, and orography were used. Finally, in mountainous areas, a sub-grid orography representation using elevation bands was adopted, as was the possibility of adding a reservoir to represent the effect of aquifers in mountainous areas. The numerical simulations carried out with the SIM model covered the period from 1958 to 2018, thereby providing an extensive historical analysis of the water resources over France.

Global temperature response to regional and sectoral air pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions under the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianne T. Lund ◽  
Borgar Aamaas ◽  
Camilla W. Stjern ◽  
Zbigniew Klimont ◽  
Terje K. Berntsen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Air Pollutant ◽  
Global Temperature ◽  
Strong Increase ◽  
Detailed Knowledge ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Near Term ◽  
The Impact

&lt;p&gt;Achieving the ambition of the Paris Agreement and meeting the Sustainable Development Goals require both near-zero levels of long-lived greenhouse gases and deep cuts in emissions of so-called short-lived climate forcers (SLCFs), including methane and black carbon. Here we present a comprehensive dataset of contributions to future global temperature change from emissions of CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; and individual SLCFs from 7 economic sectors and 13 source regions, both as they are today and as they are projected to change under the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs). Such detailed knowledge about the mix of emissions from individual sources and benefits and trade-offs of reductions is essential for designing efficient mitigation strategies at the national and international levels, as well as for informing policy processes on how to best address linkages between climate, sustainable development and air quality.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Our results demonstrate that the mitigation potential inherent in the present SLCF emissions is highly inhomogeneous across region and sector, and that co-emissions of all species &amp;#8211; including CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; &amp;#8211; should be considered in any targeted climate policy. We also reinforce the importance of reducing methane emissions, from agriculture, waste management and energy production, for reducing warming in the near-term. In contrast, in many regions, reducing industry emissions brings air quality benefits but may cause a net additional near-term warming. The spatiotemporal heterogeneity is expected to continue under the SSPs. Most scenarios project a particularly strong increase in aerosol and other SLCF emissions in South Asia and Africa South of the Sahara, suggesting that technology development and air pollution legislation in these regions is a key step in the transition to a low emission future. Moreover, both rapidly increasing and decreasing emissions of SLCFs will play an important role in shaping the regional climate and air quality.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;By using an analytical climate model, we build a methodological framework that can be used to estimate the impact of any emission scenarios. Our data set hence provide a toolkit for further studies of implications of mitigation pathways and policy responses, and support assessments of environmental impacts.&lt;/p&gt;

scholarly journals Impact of precipitation and land biophysical variables on the simulated discharge of European and Mediterranean rivers

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. 3351-3370 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Szczypta ◽  
B. Decharme ◽  
D. Carrer ◽  
J.-C. Calvet ◽  
S. Lafont ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
River Discharge ◽  
Land Surface Model ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Area Index ◽  
Total Runoff ◽  
Global Precipitation Climatology Centre ◽  
Hydrological System ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. This study investigates the impact on river discharge simulations of errors in the precipitation forcing, together with changes in the representation of vegetation variables and of plant transpiration. The most recent European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts reanalysis (ERA-Interim) is used to drive the Interactions between Soil, Biosphere, and Atmosphere–Total Runoff Integrating Pathways (ISBA-TRIP) continental hydrological system over Europe and the Mediterranean basin over the 1991–2008 period. As ERA-Interim tends to underestimate precipitation, a number of precipitation corrections are proposed. In particular, the monthly Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) precipitation product is used to bias-correct the 3-hourly ERA-Interim estimates. This correction markedly improves the match between the ISBA-TRIP simulations and the river discharge observations from the Global Runoff Data Centre (GRDC), at 150 gauging stations. The impact on TRIP river discharge simulations of various representations of the evapotranspiration in the ISBA land surface model is investigated as well: ISBA is used together with its upgraded carbon flux version (ISBA-A-gs). The latter is either driven by the satellite-derived climatology of the Leaf Area Index (LAI) used by ISBA, or performs prognostic LAI simulations. The ISBA-A-gs model, with or without dynamically simulated LAI, allows a better representation of river discharge at low water levels. On the other hand, ISBA-A-gs does not perform as well as the original ISBA model at springtime.

scholarly journals Impact of precipitation and land biophysical variables on the simulated discharge of European and Mediterranean rivers

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 5437-5486
Author(s):  
C. Szczypta ◽  
B. Decharme ◽  
D. Carrer ◽  
J.-C. Calvet ◽  
S. Lafont ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Carbon Flux ◽  
River Discharge ◽  
Land Surface Model ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Mediterranean Rivers ◽  
Area Index ◽  
Hydrological System ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. This study investigates the use of the ERA-Interim 3-hourly atmospheric reanalysis over Europe and the Mediterranean basin, to drive the ISBA-TRIP continental hydrological system, at a spatial resolution of 0.5°, over the 1991–2008 period. Several versions of the representation of evapotranspiration in the ISBA land surface model are used to simulate the runoff which is converted into river discharge by the TRIP river routing model. In particular, the impact of using contrasting representations of the vegetation variables is investigated: ISBA is used together with its upgraded carbon flux version (ISBA-A-gs). The latter is either driven by a satellite-derived climatology of the Leaf Area Index (LAI) or performs prognostic LAI simulations. As ERA-Interim tends to underestimate precipitation, a number of precipitation corrections are proposed. In particular, the monthly GPCC precipitation product is used to un-bias the 3-hourly ERA-Interim estimates. This correction markedly improves the match between the ISBA-TRIP simulations and the river discharge observations of the Global Runoff Data Centre (GRDC), at 150 gauging stations. The interactive LAI version of ISBA-A-gs does not perform as well as the original ISBA model at springtime. On the other hand, the use of the ISBA-A-gs model allows a better representation of river discharge at low water levels. Constraining the ISBA-A-gs LAI with satellite-derived LAI data improves the simulations at springtime.

On the emerging global relevance of atmospheric rivers and impacts on landscapes and water resources

2021 ◽  
pp. 030913332110588
Author(s):  
Craig A Ramseyer ◽  
Natalie Teale
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Applied Research ◽  
Physical Geography ◽  
Progress Report ◽  
Atmospheric Rivers ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Research Frontiers ◽  
The U.S

This progress report discusses the lineage of atmospheric rivers (ARs) research, focusing on the transformation of the topic from an important regional atmospheric feature along the U.S. West Coast to a globally relevant driver of extreme hydrometeorological events. As the AR literature has advanced, so has the regional expanse covered, initially expanding into the Central U.S. and Europe. Recently, new, emerging regions are being explored in the AR literature such as the high latitudes, New Zealand, China, North Africa, and the Middle East. The literature on the impact of AR-driven hydrometeorological events on land surface processes (e.g., landslides and avalanches) and water resources is also rapidly developing. This progress report seeks to expose the broader physical geography discipline to the global relevance of ARs and promote new applied research frontiers at the intersection of ARs and those processes studied by physical geographers.

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