Objective
The objective is to develop a methodology to annualise the relationship between the large scale circulation pattern and local climatic conditions including a mediterranean, atlantic and an alpine environment. The emphasis is on the prediction of hydrological changes at a medium time scale referring to several decades.
For this purpose transient global circulation patterns, for the historic case and different CO2 concentrations will be utilised. The downscaling approach will be based on a combination of physical and stochastic spatiotemporal models. The approach is based on the classification of observed (several decades) large scale historical pressure distribution patterns over Europe; the statistical analysis of temperature and rainfall fields at the catchment scale under different topographic and climatic conditions; the statistical linkage between historic pressure fields and local processes; generation of a digital terrain model of basins located in alpine, and in the mediterranean region; improvement of the scale relationship by incorporating air flow models under given boundary conditions (pressure distribution and terrain characteristics); quantitative assessment of the water balance in the basins including surface runoff, runoff coefficient, evaporation, groundwater recharge and soil water budget; selection of a GCM for the transient and 2*CO2 case; repetition of the previous steps for the transient and 2*CO2 case assuming that the relationship between large scale and local data will hold
The consequences on water resources under different climatic conditions and the implications for water resources management will be analyzed. This information should provide a rational basis for water environment related decision making.
The main research tasks are seen in:
the development and validation of an improved model linking large grid circulation models with regional hydrometeorological processes. This model is based on the analysis of classified historic circulation patterns (several decades) and local observations of temperature and rainfall.
The prediction of local to regional changes in temperature and rainfall under consideration of different climatic and topographic conditions.
The prediction of changes in seasonal characteristics and in the extreme values.
The transformation of rainfall and temperature into runoff of catchments reflecting the heterogeneity of European climate and landscape. Cathcments in the mediterranean, the central alpine region and the prealpine region dominated by the atlantic climate will be investigated.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental scienceshydrologydrainage basins
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesclimatologyclimatic changes
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringnatural resources managementwater management
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Topic(s)
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
1190 WIEN
Austria