Pan-European hydrodynamic models and their ability to identify compound floods

The interaction between storm surges and inland run-off has been gaining increasing attention recently, as they have the potential to result in compound floods. In Europe, several lood events of this type have been recorded in the past century in Belgium, France, Ireland, Italy and UK. First projections of compound flood hazard under climate change have been made, but no study has so far analysed whether existing, independent climate and hydrodynamic models are able to reproduce the co-occurrence of storm surges, precipitation, river discharges or waves. Here, we investigate the dependence between the different drivers in different observational and modelled data set, utilizing gauge records and high-resolution outputs of climate reanalyses and hindcasts, hydrodynamic models of European coasts and rivers. The results show considerable regional differences in strength of the dependence in surge–precipitation and surge–discharge pairs. The models reproduce those dependencies, and the time lags between the flood drivers, rather well in north-western Europe, but less successfully in the southern part. Further, we identified several compound flood events in the reanalysis data. We were able to link most of those modelled events with historical reports of flood or storm losses. However, false positives and false negatives were also present in the reanalysis and several large compound floods were missed by the reanalysis. All in all, the study still shows that accurate representation of compound floods by independent models of each driver is possible, even if not yet achievable at every location.JRC.E.1-Disaster Risk Managemen

Guidance document on Measurement Uncertainty for GMO Testing Laboratories 3rd Edition

This document provides guidance to GMO control laboratories on how to estimate measurement uncertainty (MU) associated with any GMO measurement result. Competent authorities have a responsibility to decide if a measurement result exceeds the legal threshold. Consequently control laboratories must estimate and report the MU of their measurement results. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and digital polymerase chain reaction (dPCR) are the methods applied for the enforcement of EU law on GMO labelling. This document takes into account: current EU legislation, the availability of certified reference materials (CRMs) and validated methods, and the need for control laboratories which conduct measurements for the enforcement of EU legislation to be accredited according to ISO/IEC 17025. Based on these, two approaches for the estimation of MU for PCR measurement results are presented in this guidance document. References to alternative approaches are also provided.JRC.F.5-Food and Feed Complianc

INFORM report 2020: Shared evidence for managing crisis and disaster

INFORM partners believe that the availability of shared analysis of crises and disasters can lead to better coordination of actors and better outcomes for at-risk and affected people. Specifically, INFORM creates a space and process for shared analysis that can support joint strategy development, planning and action to prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from crises. This can bring together development, humanitarian and other actors to manage risk and respond better when crises do occur. This report sets out INFORM’s vision for a suite of products to support decision-making that are easy to use and open to everyone. This vision involves bringing scientific rigour to the process of analysing crises and pooling expertise to develop shared methodologies. By working together, we can reduce the investments required by individual organisations, assure the quality of our analysis and make it available for the common good.JRC.E.1-Disaster Risk Managemen

Characteristics, main impacts, and stewardship of natural and artificial freshwater environments: consequences for biodiversity conservation

In this overview (introductory article to a special issue including 14 papers), we consider all main types of natural and artificial inland freshwater ecosystems. For each type, we identify the main biodiversity patterns and ecological features, human impacts on the system and environmental problems, and discuss ways to use this information to improve stewardship. Examples of selected key biodiversity/ecological features (habitat type): narrow endemics, sensitive (groundwater and GDE); crenobionts, LIHRes (springs); unidirectional flow, nutrient spiraling (streams); naturally turbid, floodplains, large-bodied species (large rivers); depth-variation in benthic communities (lakes); endemism and diversity (ancient lakes); threatened, sensitive species (oxbow lakes, SWE); diverse, reduced littoral (reservoirs); cold-adapted species (Boreal and Arctic fwh); endemism, depauperate (Antarctic fwh); flood pulse, intermittent wetlands, biggest river basins (tropical fwh); variable hydrologic regime -periods of drying, flash floods- (arid-climate fwh). Selected impacts: eutrophication and other pollution, hydrologic modifications, overexploitation, habitat destruction, invasive species, salinization. Climate-change is a threat multiplier, and it is important to quantify resistance, resilience, and recovery to assess the strategic role of the different types of freshwater ecosystems and their value for biodiversity conservation. Effective conservation solutions are dependent on an understanding of connectivity between different freshwater ecosystems (including related terrestrial, coastal and marine systems).JRC.D.2-Water and Marine Resource

Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF): Stock Assessments in the Mediterranean Sea – Adriatic, Ionian and Aegean Seas (STECF-20-15)

Commission Decision of 25 February 2016 setting up a Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries, C(2016) 1084, OJ C 74, 26.2.2016, p. 4–10. The Commission may consult the group on any matter relating to marine and fisheries biology, fishing gear technology, fisheries economics, fisheries governance, ecosystem effects of fisheries, aquaculture or similar disciplines. This report is from STECF Expert Working Group 20-15: 2020 stock assessments of demersal stocks in the Adriatic Ionian and Aegean Seas, from the meeting held remotely from 12th to 21st October 2020. A total of 15 fish stocks were evaluated. The EWG reports age based assessments and short term forecasts for 7 and surplus production advice for 3 of the 15 stocks. Catch advice for two other stocks was based on ICES category 3 evaluations of biomass indices. Three stocks could not be assessed due to inconsistent catch data and sparse survey information. The content of the report gives the STECF terms of reference, the basis of the evaluations and advice, summaries of state of stock and advised based on either the MSY approach for assessed stocks or the precautionary approach for category 3 based advice. The report contains the full stock assessment reports for the 10 stocks, the exploration of assessments and category 3 evaluations for the remaining two stocks with advice. The work to evaluate the three remaining stocks was also reported. The report also contains the STECF observations and conclusions on the assessment report. These conclusions come from the STECF Plenary meeting in November 2020.JRC.D.2-Water and Marine Resource

Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) – Social dimension of the CFP (STECF-20-14)

Commission Decision of 25 February 2016 setting up a Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries, C(2016) 1084, OJ C 74, 26.2.2016, p. 4–10. The Commission may consult the group on any matter relating to marine and fisheries biology, fishing gear technology, fisheries economics, fisheries governance, ecosystem effects of fisheries, aquaculture or similar disciplines. This report further develops the methodologies for the collection and analysis of social data in fisheries, to be applied for the collection of social data for the data call 2021 and the subsequent analysis and use of these data. Additionally, the report assesses the impact of the Common Fisheries Policy Regulation and the implementation of its Articles 5.2 (access to waters) and 16 and 17 (fishing opportunities) of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 on the social situation of small-scale coastal fishers and their communities.JRC.D.2-Water and Marine Resource

Social innovations for the energy transition: An overview of concepts and projects contributing to behavioural changes, and increased well-being

This report reflects upon the concept of social innovation and the way it is used in the energy sector. It does so by bringing together theoretical investigations and empirical knowledge. We aim to clarify the concept of social innovation in the energy sector by reviewing the literature and reflecting over a number of social innovation projects in Europe. The analysis of the projects against various contextual factors and their goals reveals the significant potential of social innovation on accelerating the energy transition while tackling societal problems. Energy production, energy efficiency and energy literacy are the main domains to which socially innovative activities contribute the most. High competences of project leadership and management observed though projects are often small in scale and context-dependent. This indicates that successful socially innovative energy initiatives require advanced bottom-up governance structures even if that may imply limitations for scaling up. This setting may complicate top-down support as legal, financial or even cultural policy-making must be tailor-made and reinvent or adjust continuously. Nevertheless, social innovative activities are expected to further proliferate the following years and move towards a sound environmental, cultural, political, economic and social direction, as knowledge creation and diffusion of technological and governance innovations accompanied with policy support are on the rise.JRC.C.7-Knowledge for the Energy Unio

On the recent claim of correlation between radioactive decay rates and space weather

In recent literature, several authors have challenged the validity of the exponential-decay law, based on observed variations in radioactive decay rate measurements beyond statistical accuracy. Tentative explanations have been sought in external interferences influencing the decay process, such as interactions of the nuclei with solar and cosmic neutrinos. Given the important implications of such statements on theoretical and practical level, one would expect that they are backed up with radionuclide metrology of the highest quality. In reality, they share the common traits of using poor metrology and incomplete uncertainty analysis with respect to the stability of the measurement technique. In this paper, new claims of correlations between decay rates and space weather are questioned.JRC.G.2-Standards for Nuclear Safety, Security and Safeguard

Peak shape calibration of a Cadmium Zinc Telluride detector and its application for the determination of uranium enrichment

Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) detectors are portable, room temperature serviceable, medium-resolution gamma-ray spectrometers. Their full-energy peak shape exhibits a low energy tail which complicates the analysis of spectra with overlapping peaks. In this paper, we determined the peak shape parameters of a CZT detector from measurements with calibrated point sources from 0.06 MeV up to 1.332 MeV. The peak shape parameters were obtained by applying a peak fitting algorithm that includes a Gaussian and a tail with energy dependent parameters in the region around the gamma-ray peak. The net peak areas were used to verify the absolute detection efficiency obtained with a Monte Carlo model of the CZT detector and the agreement in absolute terms was within 10% over the considered energy range. The peak fitting algorithm was then applied to determine the net peak areas of the full energy peak in spectra recorded with certified uranium standards. The enrichment was then determined by using the so-called ‘peak ratio’ method. We observed a systematic bias in the net peak areas of the 0.258 MeV gamma-ray which therefore was not included in the analysis. Hence, the enrichment was underestimated by about 10%.JRC.G.2-Standards for Nuclear Safety, Security and Safeguard

The IEC 63047 Standard for Data Transmission in Radiological and Nuclear Robotics Applications

IEC 63047 is a recently introduced binary standard for so-called list-mode data acquisition, which is applicable to data files and streams. The standard is specified using Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1). The format supports various types of timestamped data and can be used in a wide range of applications involving radiation detection and measurement. It may also be used to represent data from other sensors than radiation detectors and supports positioning data from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). The standard has a wide potential for CBRNE detection equipment, including robotics. To facilitate the use of the standard, an open-source solution for encoding and decoding IEC 63047 messages has been implemented and tested. In addition, a simple demonstration device was developed from off-the-shelf components. For a better use with unmanned robot systems, a software interface between IEC 63047 and the Robot Operating System (ROS) was implemented. This paper describes the newly established standard and the demonstration device, and discusses its performance with respect to fulfilling the requirements of the standard and its applicability to typical field conditions for robotics in radiological and nuclear (RN) applications.JRC.G.2-Standards for Nuclear Safety, Security and Safeguard