A close up of daily temperature and moisture in two Mexican high-elevation forests

The scarcity of meteorological stations and the strong need for climatic information in alpine forests require the use of large-scale climatic algorithms but the lack of in situ information produces high uncertainty on their suitability. In this study, we used linear mixed models to study the topographic effect (elevation and aspect) and time variations (from hourly to monthly) on temperature (T) and relative humidity (RH) with a 5-year instrumental database. Furthermore, we compared climatic information from a geographical algorithm and our in-situ data. Our data covered two mountains (Tláloc-TLA and Jocotitlán-JOC, State of México), four elevation belts (from 3500 m to 3900 m a.s.l.), and two aspects (Northwest and Southwest). We found differences for average temperature (TLA = 7.56 °C ± 0.03 °C and JOC = 6.98 °C ± 0.02 °C), and relative humidity between mountains (TLA = 69.3% ± 0.12% and JOC = 72.5% ± 0.13%,). The most significant variables explaining T were the elevation (Δ= -0.36 °C by 100 m) and aspect, while the aspect was relevant for RH. May was the warmest month (9.50 °C ± 0.10 °C for average temperature) while September the wettest for both mountains (85.1% ± 0.30% and 87.4% ± 0.25 % RH, respectively). Despite the higher correlations between climatic sources (up to r = 0.83), the geographical algorithm overestimates T and underestimates RH. We propose that when climatic information from geographical algorithms is used in alpine forests, calibrations are needed whenever possible with in situ information.

Climate and Sustainable Food Security

Agriculture is the world's largest solar energy harvesting enterprise. In the Indian context, the last few decades have witnessed unprecedented growth in agricultural production largely due to productivity improvement. However, the gap between potential yield and farmers fields is still high. This paper highlights the various socioeconomic issues that dominate the variability in agricultural production at the field level. Monsoon management of agriculture and human livelihoods has been a traditional experience in India. However, in the current context of wide spread concerns about global climatic change there is a need to translate climatic information into practical tools for the development and sustainment of agriculture. This paper makes a case for the development of a suitable strategy for climate management, in the context of the unique socio-economic structure of the country.

Predicting Drought and Subsidence Risks in France

The economic consequences of drought episodes are increasingly important, although they are often difficult to apprehend in part because of the complexity of the underlying mechanisms. In this article, we will study one of the consequences of drought, namely the risk of subsidence (or more specifically clay shrinkage induced subsidence), for which insurance has been mandatory in France for several decades. Using data obtained from several insurers, representing about a quarter of the household insurance market, over the past twenty years, we propose some statistical models to predict the frequency but also the intensity of these droughts, for insurers, showing that climate change will have probably major economic consequences on this risk. But even if we use more advanced models than standard regression-type models (here random forests to capture non linearity and cross effects), it is still difficult to predict the economic cost of subsidence claims, even if all geophysical and climatic information is available.

Estimación de la evapotranspiración a partir de datos satelitales para la región de Alto Beni, Norte de La Paz

Evapotranspiration (ET) results from a simultaneous process of evaporation and transpiration. In a reference area, which occurs without water restrictions, it is called evapotranspiration of the reference crop (ETo). The Penman-Monteith FAO equation, proposed by Allen, Pereira, Raes and Smith (2006); Thornthwaite et al. (1944); Hargreaves et al. (1985); Blaney and Criddle (1950) and Turc (1961), was used for this study. The climatic information needed to estimate ETo is not sufficient because the local meteorological stations are very scarce and are no longer functioning, so data from the simulators recommended by FAO LocClim (2005) and NASA (power larc) were used. The Alto Beni region extends from 14º 56' 55'' to 15º 56' 14'' South and longitude 66º 48' 04'' to 67º 36' 42'' at an altitude of 300 to 1,800 m above sea level and covers an area of 4,836.62 km2. It is an important agricultural zone because it provides the city with a large part of its food products. The ETo results obtained in the spatial modeling show different values distributed in the region, which vary in each season of the year. It is asserted that, in most of the methods, the water deficit starts in the middle of April until September, and the highest peaks from October to March. The statistical analysis of the ETo results shows that the Thornthwaite model is the most accepted with an R2 correlation coefficient of 0.966, followed by Blaney-Criddle with 0.969, and in last place the Hargreaves and Turc methods. The most accepted and applied model for the area is Thornthwaite, which has a very similar behavior to the PM-FAO, it does not overestimate the water demands and its calculations reflect the events of the region.

The reducing of construction industry influence on climate change by implementation of green building principles

The construction industry has a significant impact on climate change due to the urbanization increase, as cities consume 75% of the world's natural resources and contribute 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, the construction and the built environment directly depend on a number of climatic factors. Climatic information is used at all stages of the construction project: concept development, technical design, organization and conduct of construction works, operation of buildings and structures, repair and reconstruction, destruction, utilization and recycling. The role of the construction industry in achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and reducing the impact on climate change through the implementation of green building principles is analyzed. Green building aims to minimize the negative impact on the environment, and innovative green technologies reduce carbon emissions.

Selecting climate projections for services: the DRIAS-2020 dataset

<p>The French National Climate Service “Drias, futures of climate” was launched in 2012, as a response of the French scientific community to society’s need for climatic information. It is mainly composed of a website that provides easy access to the best available climate data to characterize climate change over France. Latest advances developed in 2020 include the availability of a new set of regional climate scenarios corrected by a quantile-mapping based method with correction depending on the weather regime. As for the previous set, the climate projections are based on the EURO-CORDEX ensemble, whose contents have been greatly enriched over the past years. Singular effort was done to build a robust and synthetic set that well represents the uncertainties of climate change over France. The different criteria defined to select the simulations will be presented, and the range of the projected climate change will be examined, with respect to larger ensembles.</p><p> </p>

Tree-rings δ13C different responses to environmental factors in angiosperms and gymnosperms at global scale

<p>Tree-rings, was an extraordinary information base of climate. The global climatic change has been modifying ecosystem, it is important to understand mechanism of how plants respond to climate change. The carbon isotope composition of tree-rings corrected to the value before industrial revolution (δ<sup>13</sup>C<sub>ring</sub>) can provide climatic information and carbon and water balance relationship of plants. However, it was still a challenge to disentangle the influence of different environmental parameters on δ<sup>13</sup>C<sub>ring</sub> among different tree types. We collected published data of δ<sup>13</sup>C<sub>ring</sub> from published papers and study how angiosperms and gymnosperms responsed to different environmental parameters. The results showed that the δ<sup>13</sup>C<sub>ring </sub>of angiosperms and gymnosperms were significantly different and there was a decrasing trend in δ<sup>13</sup>C<sub>ring</sub> of angiosperms and gymnosperms. In this study, we found that atmospheric concentration (C<sub>a</sub>) was not the mainly factor to influence the δ<sup>13</sup>C<sub>ring</sub>, and the MAT and PRE were the most important environmental parameters to influence the decreasing trend of δ<sup>13</sup>C<sub>ring</sub> for angiosperms and gymnosperms, respectively. Additionally, the global isoscapes of δ<sup>13</sup>C<sub>ring</sub> were not established, in this study, three machine learning methods to predict the spatial distribution of δ<sup>13</sup>C<sub>ring</sub> were done, the results showed that RF was the best model to established the isoscapes of δ<sup>13</sup>C<sub>ring</sub>.</p>

Considerations regarding the adaptation of cities to thermal stress, effect of climate change

The paper aims to contribute to increasing the level of knowledge about climate change and its impact on cities in western Romania. The existing legislative framework at European and national level on resilience and adaptation to climate change is presented. The necessary climatic information is identified in order to create a scenario regarding the thermal stress and the health risk of the inhabitants of Timişoara. The results are extrapolated to other cities in the west of the country. The data obtained from the use of climate models are processed in order to use them to establish the necessary adaptation measures in order to reduce the risk to the health of the population due to future thermal stress. The paper presents uncertainties and limitations, as well as conclusions and personal contributions.

Long-Term, Gridded Standardized Precipitation Index for Hawai‘i

Spatially explicit, wall-to-wall rainfall data provide foundational climatic information but alone are inadequate for characterizing meteorological, hydrological, agricultural, or ecological drought. The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) is one of the most widely used indicators of drought and defines localized conditions of both drought and excess rainfall based on period-specific (e.g., 1-month, 6-month, 12-month) accumulated precipitation relative to multi-year averages. A 93-year (1920–2012), high-resolution (250 m) gridded dataset of monthly rainfall available for the State of Hawai‘i was used to derive gridded, monthly SPI values for 1-, 3-, 6-, 9-, 12-, 24-, 36-, 48-, and 60-month intervals. Gridded SPI data were validated against independent, station-based calculations of SPI provided by the National Weather Service. The gridded SPI product was also compared with the U.S. Drought Monitor during the overlapping period. This SPI product provides several advantages over currently available drought indices for Hawai‘i in that it has statewide coverage over a long historical period at high spatial resolution to capture fine-scale climatic gradients and monitor changes in local drought severity.

PERCEIVED EFFECTIVENESS OF INFORMATION SOURCES IN MEETING INFORMATION NEEDS OF RICE GROWERS IN NEPAL

A study was done to assess the effectiveness of different information sources in meeting information needs and utilization behavior of rice growers in western midhills of Nepal, taking 101 sample households. Survey design with a structured questionnaire was used for data collection under the pragmatic paradigm of social research. The study showed that 30 percent of farmers were high information seekers while about 59 percent were utilizing information highly implying that most farmers were using the information highly though they don't seek information by themselves. Input management and climatic information were highly sought and utilized. Though fellow and contact farmers were the more used source of information, however, respondents felt that extension personnel and agro-vets were more credible. An assessment of the effective index showed that fellow farmers were highly effective followed by extension personnel and agro-vets while social media and ICTs were least effective. There was a significant positive correlation between information variables and education, ethnicity, number of crops grown and accessibility to information sources. However, poor accessibility of farmers to these sources was a major problem. Thus, a suitable information delivery system accessible to most farmers according to their time and needs should be designed regarding rice cultivation.