scholarly journals The 63-year changes in annual streamflow volumes across Europe with a focus on the Mediterranean basin

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (10) ◽  
pp. 5589-5601
Author(s):  
Daniele Masseroni ◽  
Stefania Camici ◽  
Alessio Cislaghi ◽  
Giorgio Vacchiano ◽  
Christian Massari ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Resource Management ◽  
River Flow ◽  
Mediterranean Area ◽  
Spatiotemporal Variability ◽  
Positive Trend ◽  
Annual Streamflow ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Continental Scale ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Climate Change Drivers

Abstract. Determining the spatiotemporal variability in the annual streamflow volume plays a relevant role in hydrology with regard to improving and implementing sustainable and resilient policies and practices of water resource management. This study investigates annual streamflow volume trends in a newly assembled, consolidated, and validated data set of daily mean river flow records from more than 3000 stations which cover near-natural basins in more than 40 countries across Europe. Although the data set contains streamflow time series from 1900 to 2013 in some stations, the statistical analyses were carried out by including observations from 1950 to 2013 in order to have a consistent and reliable data set over the continent. Trends were detected by calculating the slope of the Theil–Sen line over the annual anomalies of streamflow volume. The results show that annual streamflow volume trends have emerged at European scale, with a marked negative tendency in Mediterranean regions, with about -1×103 m3/(km2 yr−2), and a generally positive trend in northern ones, with about 0.5×103 m3/(km−2 yr−2). The annual streamflow volume trend patterns appear to be in agreement with the continental-scale meteorological observations in response to climate change drivers. In the Mediterranean area, the decline of annual streamflow volumes started in 1965, and since the early 1980s, volumes have consistently been lower than the 1950–2013 average. The spatiotemporal annual streamflow volume patterns observed in this work can help to contextualize short-term trends and regional studies already available in the scientific literature, as well as to provide a valid benchmark for further accurate quantitative analysis of annual streamflow volumes.

scholarly journals 65-year changes of annual streamflow volumes across Europe with a focus on the Mediterranean basin

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniele Masseroni ◽  
Stefania Camici ◽  
Alessio Cislaghi ◽  
Giorgio Vacchiano ◽  
Christian Massari ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
River Flow ◽  
Mediterranean Area ◽  
Positive Trend ◽  
Annual Streamflow ◽  
Continental Scale ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Climate Change Drivers

Abstract. Determining the spatio-temporal variability of annual streamflow volume plays a relevant role in hydrology for improving and implementing sustainable and resilient policies and practices of water resource management. This study investigates annual streamflow volume trends in a newly-assembled, consolidated and validated dataset of daily mean river flow records from more than 3,000 stations, which cover near-natural basins in more than 40 countries across Europe. Although the dataset contains streamflow time-series from 1850 to 2015 in some stations, the statistical analyses were carried out by including observations from 1950 to 2015 in order to have a consistent and reliable dataset over the continent. Trends were detected calculating the slope of Theil-Sen's line over the annual anomalies of streamflow volume. The results show annual streamflow volume trends emerged at European scale, with a marked negative tendency in Mediterranean regions (about −1 × 103 m3/(km2 year)) and a generally positive trend in northern ones (about 0.5 × 103 m3/(km2 year)). The annual streamflow volume trend patterns appear in agreement with the continental-scale climate change observations in response to climate change drivers. In the Mediterranean area, the declining of annual streamflow volumes started in 1965 and since early 80' volumes are consistently lower than the average. The spatio-temporal annual streamflow volume patterns observed in this work can help to contextualize short-term trends and regional studies already available in the scientific literature as well as to provide a valid benchmark for further accurate quantitative analysis on annual streamflow volumes.

scholarly journals A new dataset of river flood hazard maps for Europe and the Mediterranean Basin region

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Dottori ◽  
Lorenzo Alfieri ◽  
Alessandra Bianchi ◽  
Jon Skoien ◽  
Peter Salamon
Keyword(s):  
River Flow ◽  
Flood Hazard ◽  
Correct Identification ◽  
Return Periods ◽  
Hazard Maps ◽  
River Channels ◽  
Large Variability ◽  
Continental Scale ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Flood Hazard Maps

Abstract. Continental scale hazard maps for riverine floods have grown in importance in the last years. Nowadays, they are used for a variety of research and commercial activities, such as evaluating present and future risk scenarios and adaptation strategies, as well as a support of national and local flood risk management plans. Here, we present a new set of hazard maps for river flooding that covers most of the geographical Europe and all the river basins entering the Mediterranean and Black Seas in the Caucasus, Middle East and Northern Africa countries. Maps represent inundation along 329’000 km of river network at 100 m resolution, for six different flood return periods. The input river flow data is produced by the hydrological model LISFLOOD, while inundation simulations are performed with the 2D hydrodynamic modelling LISFLOOD-FP. To provide an overview of the skill of the new maps, we undertake a detailed validation exercise of the new maps using official hazard maps for Hungary, Italy, Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom. We find that modelled maps can identify on average two-thirds of reference flood extent, however they also overestimate flood-prone areas for flood probabilities below 1-in-100-year, while for return periods equal or above 500 years the maps can correctly identify more than half of flooded areas. We attribute the observed skill to a number of shortcomings of the modelling framework, such as the absence of flood protections and rivers with upstream area below 500 km2, and the limitations in representing river channels and topography of low land areas. In addition, the large variability of reference maps affects the correct identification of the areas for the validation, thus penalizing scores. However, modelled maps achieve comparable results to existing large-scale flood models when using similar parameters for the validation. We conclude that recently released high-resolution elevation datasets combined with reliable data of river channel geometry may greatly contribute to improve future versions of continental-scale flood hazard maps. The database is available for download at https://data.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dataset/1d128b6c-a4ee-4858-9e34-6210707f3c81 (Dottori et al., 2020a).

scholarly journals Assessment of climate services prototypes on seasonal water management for the Mediterranean regions 

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gildas Dayon ◽  
Francois Besson ◽  
Christian Viel ◽  
Jean-Michel Soubeyroux ◽  
Pierre Etchevers
Keyword(s):  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Mediterranean Area ◽  
Hydrologic Model ◽  
Po River ◽  
Climate Services ◽  
Temperature And Precipitation ◽  
Operational Application ◽  
Mediterranean Regions ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Input Variables

<p>In the framework of the MEDSCOPE project, Météo-France has initiated the development of new prototypes for seasonal water resource management in the Mediterranean region, addressing different scientific and technical challenges essential for a future operationalization of the services . In order to have a replicable result on the Mediterranean area, we decided first to consider the three large watersheds onof the Rhone river in France, the Ebro river in Spain and the Po river in Italy.</p><p>Our first challenge was to use a new hydrologic model SURFEX-CTRIP, covering the whole Mediterranean area. Another point was to perfect and evaluate a new downscaling tool named ADAMONT permitting to debiase all seasonal forecast input variables needed for hydrology applications and not only (temperature and, precipitation and 5 other surface meteorological parameters). We decided also to assess the new UERRA hydrological analyse available on these three countries. Lthe last challenge was to identify local end users facing with decision making process at seasonal scale for water resources management and develop decision help products adapted to their needs.</p><p>The evaluation of these prototypes, carried out over the period 2019-2020 using the MF Syst 6 and then Syst 7 seasonal forecasting model, has highlighted a significant potential in a future operational application but also difficulties to be overcome.</p><p>The communication will present the main results of this work and discuss the lessons to be learnet from this experience</p><p> </p>

Spatial Distribution of Pre-Warm Front Rainfall in the Mediterranean Area

1988 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Corradini ◽  
F. Melone
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Area ◽  
Compact Structure ◽  
Large Variability ◽  
Air Mass ◽  
Orographic Effects ◽  
Warm Front ◽  
Average Rainfall ◽  
Convective Motions ◽  
Rainfall Type ◽  
The Mediterranean

Evidence is given of the distribution of pre-warm front rainfall at the meso-γ scale, together with a discussion of the main mechanisms producing this variability. An inland region in the Mediterranean area is considered. The selected rainfall type is commonly considered the most regular inasmuch as it is usually unaffected by extended convective motions. Despite this, within a storm a large variability in space was observed. For 90% of measurements, the typical deviations from the area-average total depth ranged from - 40 to 60 % and the storm ensemble-average rainfall rate over an hilly zone was 60 % greater than that in a contiguous low-land zone generally placed upwind. This variability is largely explained in terms of forced uplift of air mass over an envelope type orography. For a few storms smaller orographic effects were found in locations influenced by an orography with higher slopes and elevations. This feature is ascribed to the compact structure of these mountains which probably determines a deflection of air mass in the boundary layer. The importance of this type of analysis in the hydrological practice is also emphasized.

Warfare and Environment in the Ancient World

2013 ◽  
pp. 127-140
Author(s):  
J. Donald Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Natural Environment ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Near East ◽  
Mediterranean Area ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Direct Effects ◽  
Environmental Properties ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Ancient Warfare ◽  
The Military

This chapter deals with ancient warfare and the environment. Hunting was often been considered as a form of warfare, and art frequently portrayed humans in battle with animals. Armed conflict had its direct influences on the environment. Along with damage to settled agriculture, warfare had affected other lands such as pastures, brush lands, and forests. It is noted that birds, pigs, bears, rodents, snakes, bees, wasps, scorpions, beetles, assassin bugs, and jellyfish have been employed as weaponized animals in ancient warfare, which, in the Mediterranean area and Near East, had vital environmental properties. The direct effects of battle have been shown by ancient historians, but just as important were the influences of the military-oriented organization of societies on the natural environment and resources.

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