Changes in the Compound Drought and Extreme Heat Occurrence in the 1961–2018 Period at the European Scale

Compound extreme weather events can cause large economic damage and endanger human lives. Therefore, identification of changes in such compound event frequency and magnitude is important information that could be useful for decision makers and practitioners in water management and agriculture sector. This is especially the case for dry hazards that can be significantly influenced by the increasing air temperature and can have significant impact on water availability and consumption as well as on agricultural production. This study investigated changes in the compound occurrence of drought and extreme heat at the European scale using Uncertainties in Ensembles of Regional Reanalyses (UERRA) regional reanalysis data for the 1961–2018 period. The effective drought index (EDI) and the air temperature percentile threshold were used for the identification of the compound events at the catchment scale where entire Europe was divided into more than 4000 catchments. The results revealed multiple hotspots of compound drought and extreme heat events such as parts of Western Europe, Italy, Balkan Peninsula and Northern and Eastern Europe. At the continental scale, no uniform trend pattern could be detected. However, multiple areas with either positive or negative changes were identified. A positive change was characteristic for parts of Western Europe, Italy, Balkan Peninsula, etc. In these cases, the trend was mostly driven by the decreasing total precipitation trend and was not directly affected by the increasing air temperature trend. Areas with negative changes include parts of Northern and Eastern Europe and British Isles. In these cases, the detected trend was mostly driven by an increasing total precipitation trend. However, local drivers could be different.

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Comparison and evaluation of modelled and GOME measurement derived tropospheric NO<sub>2</sub> columns over Western and Eastern Europe

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ◽

10.5194/acp-5-169-2005 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 169-190 ◽

Cited By ~ 40

Author(s):

I. B. Konovalov ◽

M. Beekmann ◽

R. Vautard ◽

J. P. Burrows ◽

A. Richter ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Eastern Europe ◽

Western Europe ◽

Transport Model ◽

Simulated Data ◽

Horizontal Resolution ◽

Random Errors ◽

Multiplicative Character ◽

Continental Scale ◽

Tropospheric No2 ◽

The Mean

Abstract. We present the results of a first comparison of the tropospheric NO2 column amounts derived from the measurements of the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) with the simulated data from a European scale chemistry transport model (CTM) which is distinct from existing global scale CTMs in higher horizontal resolution and more detailed description of the boundary layer processes and emissions. We employ, on the one hand, the newly developed extended version of the CHIMERE CTM, which covers both Western and Eastern Europe, and, on the other hand, the most recent version (Version 2) of GOME measurement based data-products, developed at the University of Bremen. We evaluate our model with the data from ground based monitoring of ozone and verify that it has a sufficiently high level of performance, which is expected for a state-of-the-art continental scale CTM. The major focus of the study is on a systematic statistical analysis and a comparison of spatial variability of the tropospheric NO2 columns simulated with CHIMERE and derived from GOME measurements. The analysis is performed separately for Western and Eastern Europe using the data for summer months of 1997 and 2001. In this way, we obtain useful information on the nature and magnitudes of uncertainties of spatial distributions of the considered data. Specifically, for Western Europe, it is found that the uncertainties of NO2 columns from GOME and CHIMERE are predominantly of the multiplicative character, and that the mean relative random (multiplicative) errors of the GOME measurement derived and simulated data averaged over the summer seasons considered do not exceed 23% and 32%, respectively. The mean absolute (additive) errors of both kinds of the data are estimated to be less than 3x1014mol/cm2. In Eastern Europe, the uncertainties have more complex character, and the separation between their multiplicative and additive parts is not sufficiently unambiguous. It is found, however, that the total random errors of NO2 columns from both GOME and CHIMERE over Eastern Europe are not, on the average, larger than the errors of the NO2 columns with similar magnitudes over Western Europe.

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Comparison and evaluation of modelled and GOME measurement derived tropospheric NO<sub>2</sub> columns over Western and Eastern Europe

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions ◽

10.5194/acpd-4-6503-2004 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 4 (5) ◽

pp. 6503-6558 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

I. B. Konovalov ◽

M. Beekmann ◽

R. Vautard ◽

J. P. Burrows ◽

A. Richter ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Eastern Europe ◽

Western Europe ◽

Transport Model ◽

Simulated Data ◽

Horizontal Resolution ◽

Random Errors ◽

Continental Scale ◽

Upper Limits ◽

Tropospheric No2 ◽

The Mean

Abstract. We present the results of a first comparison of the tropospheric NO2 column amounts derived from the measurements of the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) with the simulated data from a European scale chemistry transport model (CTM) which is distinctive from existing global scale CTMs in higher horizontal resolution and more detailed description of the boundary layer processes and emissions. We employ, on the one hand, the newly developed extended version of the CHIMERE CTM, which covers both Western and Eastern Europe, and, on the other hand, the most recent version (Version 2) of GOME measurement based data-products, developed at the University of Bremen. We evaluate our model with the data of ground based monitoring of ozone and verify that it has a sufficiently high level of performance, which is expected for a state-of-the-art continental scale CTM. The major focus of the study is on a systematic statistical analysis and a comparison of spatial variability of the tropospheric NO2 columns simulated with CHIMERE and derived from GOME measurements. The analysis is performed separately for Western and Eastern Europe using the data for summer months of 1997 and 2001. In this way, we evaluate the upper limits to uncertainties of spatial distributions of the considered data. Specifically, for Western Europe, it is found that the mean relative (multiplicative) random errors of the GOME measurement derived and simulated data averaged over the summer seasons considered do not exceed 25% and 35%, respectively, and the mean absolute (additive) errors are less than 3·1014 mol/cm2. The upper limits for the multiplicative errors for Eastern Europe are shown to be smaller than those for Western Europe and do not exceed 15% and 24% for NO2 columns from GOME and CHIMERE, respectively. The relative contribution of the additive errors is found to be much larger for Eastern Europe, but their mean absolute values are less than 2·1014 mol/cm2.

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From Black Death to Black Hole

10.1093/oso/9780198789345.003.0003 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Marcin Piatkowski

Keyword(s):

Economic Development ◽

Black Hole ◽

Sixteenth Century ◽

Eastern Europe ◽

Rule Of Law ◽

Western Europe ◽

Black Death ◽

European Continent ◽

The Past

In this chapter I explain why Poland and most countries in Eastern Europe have always lagged behind Western Europe in economic development. I discuss why in the past the European continent split into two parts and how Western and Eastern Europe followed starkly different developmental paths. I then demonstrate how Polish oligarchic elites built extractive institutions and how they adopted ideologies, cultures, and values, which undermined development from the late sixteenth century to 1939. I also describe how the elites created a libertarian country without taxes, state capacity, and rule of law, and how this ‘golden freedom’ led to Poland’s collapse and disappearance from the map of Europe in 1795. I argue that Polish extractive society was so well established that it could not reform itself from the inside. It was like a black hole, where the force of gravity is so strong that the light could not come out.

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Conclusion

10.1093/oso/9780198801665.003.0014 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Detlef Pollack ◽

Gergely Rosta

Keyword(s):

Eastern Europe ◽

Western Europe ◽

The Other ◽

Market Model ◽

Economic Prosperity ◽

Economic Market ◽

The Everyday ◽

Economic Market Model ◽

The One ◽

Religious Landscape

The most important conclusions of this summarizing chapter are the following: The religious landscape of Eastern Europe is more diverse than that of Western Europe. The cases of Poland and the GDR confirm the hypothesis that there is a link between the diffusion of functions and the growth in the importance of religion. The strong processes of biographical individualization that occurred in the post-communist states did not necessarily intensify individual religiosity. The economic market model cannot be confirmed for Eastern Europe. There is in Eastern and Central Europe a demonstrable link between economic prosperity and the loosening of religious and church ties. What can act as a bulwark against the eroding effects of modernization is church activity on the one hand, and the everyday proximity, visibility, and concreteness of religious practices and rituals, symbols, images, and objects on the other.

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The Puzzle of Populism

10.1093/oso/9780198807872.003.0001 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Paul D. Kenny

Keyword(s):

Latin America ◽

Eastern Europe ◽

Western Europe ◽

Party Systems

This chapter sets out the puzzle at the center of the book: what explains the success of populist campaigners in India, Asia, and beyond? It summarizes the existing literature on populist success both in Latin America and Western Europe and argues that these explanations do a poor job of explaining Indian and Asian cases in particular. Populists win elections when the institutionalized ties between non-populist parties and voters decay. However, because different kinds of party systems experience distinct stresses and strains, we need different models of populist success based on the prevailing party–voter linkage system in place in any given country. The chapter then sets out the rationale for concentrating on explaining populist success in patronage-based party systems, which are common not only to Asia, but also to Latin America and Eastern Europe.

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Environmental Influences of Extreme Heat on the Health of Older Adults: A Retrospective Study

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.897 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. 280-280

Author(s):

Mei Liu ◽

Carol Buller ◽

Barbara Polivka ◽

Terri Woodburn ◽

Mark Jakubauskas ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Chronic Conditions ◽

Environmental Influence ◽

Emergency Department Visits ◽

Extreme Heat ◽

Extreme Weather Events ◽

Study Cohort ◽

Outpatient Visits ◽

Extreme Heat Event ◽

Heat Event

Abstract Studies have suggested that extreme weather events have differential effects by age. By leveraging electronic medical records, we aim to analyze the environmental influence of extreme heat on the health of older adults. From our healthcare system’s de-identified data warehouse, we extracted a retrospective cohort of 108,192 patients who were ≥65 years of age as of 1/1/2018 with pre-existing chronic conditions including diabetes, COPD, cardiovascular disease, or kidney disease. Extreme heat event period was defined as 5/1/2018 to 9/1/2018 (79 days with temperature ≥90o; 15 days of moderately poor/poor air quality index (AQI) [≥75] values) and the comparison period was defined as 5/1/2019 to 9/1/2019 (51 days with temperature ≥90o; 0 days with moderately poor/poor AQI values) in the Kansas City area. We randomly partitioned the study cohort into two sets and demonstrated the two patient sets were statistically similar (p>0.05) with respect to their demographic and underlying health conditions. Finally, we compared the respiratory, cardiovascular, and renal health outcomes between the 2018 and the 2019 cohorts. Most patients were Caucasians, female and had comorbid conditions. Results showed significantly higher number of all-cause emergency department visits (p=0.04) and outpatient visits (p=<.001) during the extreme heat event period in 2018. Analyses also showed significantly higher number of outpatient visits due to upper respiratory diseases (p=0.008) and acute renal failure (p=0.01) in 2018. In conclusion, extreme heat increased use of healthcare services in older adults with chronic conditions.

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Worldwide Genetic Structure Elucidates the Eurasian Origin and Invasion Pathways of Dothistroma septosporum, Causal Agent of Dothistroma Needle Blight

Journal of Fungi ◽

10.3390/jof7020111 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

pp. 111

Author(s):

Martin S. Mullett ◽

Rein Drenkhan ◽

Kalev Adamson ◽

Piotr Boroń ◽

Anna Lenart-Boroń ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Eastern Europe ◽

Causal Agent ◽

Ancestral Population ◽

Economic Damage ◽

Invasion Pathways ◽

Western Asia ◽

Dothistroma Needle Blight ◽

Migration Pathways ◽

Dothistroma Septosporum ◽

Needle Blight

Dothistroma septosporum, the primary causal agent of Dothistroma needle blight, is one of the most significant foliar pathogens of pine worldwide. Its wide host and environmental ranges have led to its global success as a pathogen and severe economic damage to pine forests in many regions. This comprehensive global population study elucidated the historical migration pathways of the pathogen to reveal the Eurasian origin of the fungus. When over 3800 isolates were examined, three major population clusters were revealed: North America, Western Europe, and Eastern Europe, with distinct subclusters in the highly diverse Eastern European cluster. Modeling of historical scenarios using approximate Bayesian computation revealed the North American cluster was derived from an ancestral population in Eurasia. The Northeastern European subcluster was shown to be ancestral to all other European clusters and subclusters. The Turkish subcluster diverged first, followed by the Central European subcluster, then the Western European cluster, which has subsequently spread to much of the Southern Hemisphere. All clusters and subclusters contained both mating-types of the fungus, indicating the potential for sexual reproduction, although asexual reproduction remained the primary mode of reproduction. The study strongly suggests the native range of D. septosporum to be in Eastern Europe (i.e., the Baltic and Western Russia) and Western Asia.

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Prescribing practices in psychiatric hospitals in Eastern Europe

European Psychiatry ◽

10.1016/j.eurpsy.2010.05.005 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 26 (7) ◽

pp. 414-418 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

V. Jordanova ◽

N.P. Maric ◽

V. Alikaj ◽

M. Bajs ◽

T. Cavic ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Eastern Europe ◽

Western Europe ◽

Atypical Antipsychotics ◽

Psychiatric Care ◽

Anticholinergic Drug ◽

Psychiatric Hospitals ◽

Evidence Based ◽

Prescribing Practices ◽

The Mean ◽

Clinical Records

AbstractBackgroundThere has been no evidence about the prescribing practices in psychiatric care in Eastern Europe.AimsTo examine the patterns of psychotropic prescribing in five countries of Eastern Europe.MethodWe conducted a one-day census of psychiatric treatments used in eight psychiatric hospitals in Albania, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Romania. We examined clinical records and medication charts of 1304 patients.ResultsThe use of polypharmacy was frequent across all diagnostic groups. Only 6.8% of patients were on monotherapy. The mean number of prescribed drugs was 2.8 (SD 0.97) with 26.5% receiving two drugs, 42.1% receiving three drugs and 22.1% being prescribed four or more psychotropic drugs. Typical antipsychotics were prescribed to 63% and atypical antipsychotics to 40% of patients with psychosis. Older generations of antidepressants were prescribed to 29% of patients with depression. Anxiolitic drugs were prescribed to 20.4% and benzodiazepines to 68.5% of patients. One third of patients received an anticholinergic drug on a regular basis.ConclusionsOlder generation antipsychotics and antidepressants were used more frequently than in the countries of Western Europe. Psychotropic polypharmacy is a common practice. There is a need for adopting more evidence-based practice in psychiatric care in these countries.

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RETROSPECTIVE ASSESSMENT OF UNREGULATED LATERAL INFLOWS OF THE KUIBYSHEVSKY (NOW ZHIGULYOVSKAYA HYDROPOWER PLANT) HYDRAULIC UNIT OF THE VOLGA RIVER BASIN

Prirodoobustrojstvo ◽

10.26897/1997-6011-2021-1-87-99 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 87-99

Author(s):

G. KH. ISMAIYLOV ◽

◽

N. V. MURASCHENKOVA ◽

I. G. ISMAIYLOVA

Keyword(s):

River Basin ◽

Air Temperature ◽

Atmospheric Precipitation ◽

Total Precipitation ◽

Volga River ◽

Hydraulic Unit ◽

Seasonal Characteristics ◽

Lateral Inflow ◽

Increasing Trend

The results of the analysis and assessment of changes in annual and seasonal characteristics of hydrometeorological processes in a private catchment area of the Kuibyshev hydroelectric complex of the Volga river are presented. To analyze the temporal dynamics of the variability of the annual and seasonal characteristics of the hydrometeorological processes in the considered territory of the river basin we used more than 100 years of observations of annual and seasonal fluctuations of lateral inflow, total atmospheric precipitation and air temperature regimes on the Volgariver. Relationship equations for annual and seasonal changes in hydrometeorological characteristics in time are obtained. It was found that long-term fluctuations of hydrometeorological processes (lateral inflow, total atmospheric precipitation and air temperature) are characterized by tendencies (trends). The analysis of these trends showed that the non-standard climatic situation, starting from the 70s of the last century, had a very significant impact on the distribution of annual and especially on the seasonal (low-water and winter) characteristics of hydrometeorological processes. It has been established that non-standard unidirectional changes are found in the fluctuations in the total atmospheric precipitation. If the winter total precipitation is characterized over the 100-year period in question by a continuously decreasing trend,the summer-autumn period is an increasing trend. This leads to the fact that long-term fluctuations in total precipitation during the period of low water are formed as a stationary process. At the same time, the total precipitation of the spring flood and inflowing to the Kuibyshev hydroelectric unit is characterized by a constantly increasing trend.

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