Modelling the water budget and the riverflows of the Maritsa basin in Bulgaria

International audienceA soil-vegetation-atmosphere transfer model coupled with a macroscale distributed hydrological model was used in order to simulate the water cycle for a large region in Bulgaria. To do so, an atmospheric forcing was built for two hydrological years (1 October 1995 to 30 September 1997), at an eight km resolution. It was based on the data available at the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (NIMH) of Bulgaria. Atmospheric parameters were carefully checked and interpolated with a high level of detail in space and time (3-h step). Comparing computed Penman evapotranspiration versus observed pan evaporation validated the quality of the implemented forcing. The impact of the human activities on the rivers (especially hydropower or irrigation) was taken into account. Some improvements of the hydrometeorological model were made: for better simulation of summer riverflow, two additional reservoirs were added to simulate the slow component of the runoff. Those reservoirs were calibrated using the observed data of the 1st year, while the 2nd year was used for validation. 56 hydrologic stations and 12 dams were used for the model calibration while 41 rivergages were used for the validation of the model. The results compare well with the daily-observed discharges, with good results obtained over more than 25% of the rivergages. The simulated snow depth was compared to daily measurements at 174 stations and the evolution of the snow water equivalent was validated at 5 sites. The process of melting and refreezing of snow was found to be important on this region. The comparison of the normalized values of simulated versus measured soil moisture showed good correlation. The surface water budget shows large spatial variations due to the elevation influence on the precipitations, soil properties and vegetation variability. An inter annual difference was observed in the water cycle as the first year was more influenced by Mediterranean climate, while the second year was characterised by continental influence. Energy budget shows a dominating sensible heat component in summer, due to the fact that the water stress limits the evaporation. This study is a first step for the implementation of an operational hydrometeorological model that could be used for real time monitoring and forecast the water budget and the riverflow of Bulgaria

Combining Geostatistics and Remote Sensing Data to Improve Spatiotemporal Analysis of Precipitation

The wide availability of satellite data from many distributors in different domains of science has provided the opportunity for the development of new and improved methodologies to aid the analysis of environmental problems and to support more reliable estimations and forecasts. Moreover, the rapid development of specialized technologies in satellite instruments provides the opportunity to obtain a wide spectrum of various measurements. The purpose of this research is to use publicly available remote sensing product data computed from geostationary, polar and near-polar satellites and radar to improve space–time modeling and prediction of precipitation on Crete island in Greece. The proposed space–time kriging method carries out the fusion of remote sensing data with data from ground stations that monitor precipitation during the hydrological period 2009/10–2017/18. Precipitation observations are useful for water resources, flood and drought management studies. However, monitoring stations are usually sparse in regions with complex terrain, are clustered in valleys, and often have missing data. Satellite precipitation data are an attractive alternative to observations. The fusion of the datasets in terms of the space–time residual kriging method exploits the auxiliary satellite information and aids in the accurate and reliable estimation of precipitation rates at ungauged locations. In addition, it represents an alternative option for the improved modeling of precipitation variations in space and time. The obtained results were compared with the outcomes of similar works in the study area

The Colour of Ocean Data: International Symposium on oceanographic data and information management, with special attention to biological data. Brussels, Belgium, 25-27 November 2002: book of abstracts

Ocean data management plays a crucial role in global as well as local matters. The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission -with its network of National Oceanographic Data Centres- and the International Council of Scientific Unions- with its World Data Centres- have played a major catalysing role in establishing the existing ocean data management practices. No one can think of data management without thinking of information technology. New developments in computer hard- and software force us to continually rethink the way we manage ocean data. One of the major challenges in this is to try and close the gap between the haves and the have-nots, and to assist scientists in less fortunate countries to manage oceanographic data flows in a suitable and timely fashion. So far major emphasis has been on the standardisation and exchange of physical oceanographic data in open ocean conditions. But the colour of the ocean data is changing. The ‘blue’ ocean sciences get increasingly interested in including geological, chemical and biological data. Moreover the shallow sea areas get more and more attention as highly productive biological areas that need to be seen in close association with the deep seas. How to fill in the gap of widely accepted standards for data structures that can serve the deep ‘blue’ and the shallow ‘green’ biological data management is a major issue that has to be addressed. And there is more: data has to be turned into information. In the context of ocean data management, scientists, data managers and decision makers are all very much dependent on each other. Decision makers will stimulate research topics with policy priority and hence guide researchers. Scientists need to provide data managers with reliable and first quality controlled data in such a way that the latter can translate and make them available for the decision makers. But do they speak the same ‘language’? Are they happy with the access they have to the data? And if not, can they learn from each other’s expectations and experience? The objective of this symposium is to harmonize ocean colours and languages and create a forum for data managers, scientists and decision makers with a major interest in oceanography, and open to everyone interested in ocean data management

General platform for hydro-information systems – a review of concept

This paper provides insight into the Institute's long-standing engagement in the design and implementation of hydroinformatics systems in Serbia and the region. The introduction provides a definition of the hydroinformatics system and different areas of application, as well as an overview of the best practices in the world. An overview of the general platform that was created based on experience in the development of different systems has been presented here. We have described the functionalities integrated into a single software platform based on mathematical models and computational services. Various practical examples of application by the Institute are presented with the specifics of implementation in line with the purpose and characteristics of the studied systems. The conclusion highlights the role of applied hydroinformatics systems and the effects of application by users. Possible further development and implementation directions in water management and hydropower systems in Serbia and the region have been also presented.Conference in the honour of 75 years of the Jaroslav Černi Water Institute, held in the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, October 19-20th, 2022

The effect of short-term changes in air pollution on respiratory and cardiovascular morbidity in Nicosia, Cyprus.

Presented at the 6th International Conference on Urban Air Quality, Limassol, March, 2007. Short-paper was submitted for peer-review and appears in proceedings of the conference.This study investigates the effect of daily changes in levels of PM10 on the daily volume of respiratory and cardiovascular admissions in Nicosia, Cyprus during 1995-2004. After controlling for long- (year and month) and short-term (day of the week) patterns as well as the effect of weather in Generalized Additive Poisson models, some positive associations were observed with all-cause and cause-specific admissions. Risk of hospitalization increased stepwise across quartiles of days with increasing levels of PM10 by 1.3% (-0.3, 2.8), 4.9% (3.3, 6.6), 5.6% (3.9, 7.3) as compared to days with the lowest concentrations. For every 10μg/m3 increase in daily average PM10 concentration, there was a 1.2% (-0.1%, 2.4%) increase in cardiovascular admissions. With respects to respiratory admissions, an effect was observed only in the warm season with a 1.8% (-0.22, 3.85) increase in admissions per 10μg/m3 increase in PM10. The effect on respiratory admissions seemed to be much stronger in women and, surprisingly, restricted to people of adult age

Site Selection for a Network ofWeather Stations Using AHP and Near Analysis in a GIS Environment in Amazonas, NW Peru

Meteorological observations play a major role in land management; thus, it is vital to properly plan the monitoring network of weather stations (WS). This study, therefore, selected ‘highly suitable’ sites with the objective of replanning the WS network in Amazonas, NW Peru. A set of 11 selection criteria for WS sites were identified and mapped in a Geographic Information System, as well as their importance weights were determined using Analytic Hierarchy Process and experts. A map of the suitability of the territory for WS sites was constructed by weighted superimposition of the criteria maps. On this map, the suitability status of the 20 existing WS sites was then assessed and, if necessary, relocated. New ‘highly suitable’ sites were determined by the Near Analysis method using existing WS (some relocated). The territory suitability map for WS showed that 0.3% (108.55 km2) of Amazonas has ‘highly suitable’ characteristics to establish WS. This ‘highly suitable’ territory corresponds to 26,683 polygons (of ≥30 × 30 m each), from which 100 polygons were selected in 11 possible distributions of new WS networks in Amazonas, with different number and distance of new WS in each distribution. The implementation of this methodology will be a useful support tool for WS network planning