Data for wetlandscapes and their changes around the world

Geography and associated hydrological, hydroclimate and land-use conditions and their changes determine the states and dynamics of wetlands and their ecosystem services. The influences of these controls are not limited to just the local scale of each individual wetland but extend over larger landscape areas that integrate multiple wetlands and their total hydrological catchment – the wetlandscape. However, the data and knowledge of conditions and changes over entire wetlandscapes are still scarce, limiting the capacity to accurately understand and manage critical wetland ecosystems and their services under global change. We present a new Wetlandscape Change Information Database (WetCID), consisting of geographic, hydrological, hydroclimate and land-use information and data for 27 wetlandscapes around the world. This combines survey-based local information with geographic shapefiles and gridded datasets of large-scale hydroclimate and land-use conditions and their changes over whole wetlandscapes. Temporally, WetCID contains 30-year time series of data for mean monthly precipitation and temperature and annual land-use conditions. The survey-based site information includes local knowledge on the wetlands, hydrology, hydroclimate and land uses within each wetlandscape and on the availability and accessibility of associated local data. This novel database (available through PANGAEA https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.907398; Ghajarnia et al., 2019) can support site assessments; cross-regional comparisons; and scenario analyses of the roles and impacts of land use, hydroclimatic and wetland conditions, and changes in whole-wetlandscape functions and ecosystem services

Current Wildland Fire Patterns and Challenges in Europe : A Synthesis of National Perspectives

Changes in climate, land use, and land management impact the occurrence and severity of wildland fires in many parts of the world. This is particularly evident in Europe, where ongoing changes in land use have strongly modified fire patterns over the last decades. Although satellite data by the European Forest Fire Information System provide large-scale wildland fire statistics across European countries, there is still a crucial need to collect and summarize in-depth local analysis and understanding of the wildland fire condition and associated challenges across Europe. This article aims to provide a general overview of the current wildland fire patterns and challenges as perceived by national representatives, supplemented by national fire statistics (2009-2018) across Europe. For each of the 31 countries included, we present a perspective authored by scientists or practitioners from each respective country, representing a wide range of disciplines and cultural backgrounds. The authors were selected from members of the COST Action "Fire and the Earth System: Science & Society" funded by the European Commission with the aim to share knowledge and improve communication about wildland fire. Where relevant, a brief overview of key studies, particular wildland fire challenges a country is facing, and an overview of notable recent fire events are also presented. Key perceived challenges included (1) the lack of consistent and detailed records for wildland fire events, within and across countries, (2) an increase in wildland fires that pose a risk to properties and human life due to high population densities and sprawl into forested regions, and (3) the view that, irrespective of changes in management, climate change is likely to increase the frequency and impact of wildland fires in the coming decades. Addressing challenge (1) will not only be valuable in advancing national and pan-European wildland fire management strategies, but also in evaluating perceptions (2) and (3) against more robust quantitative evidence.Peer reviewe

Correction: Priorities and interactions of sustainable development goals (SDGs) with focus on wetlands. Water 2019, 11, 619 doi: 10.3390/w11030619

10.3390/w12010088Water (Switzerland)1218

Multi Objective Design of Water Distribution System Using Fuzzy Reliability Index

This paper investigates the application of a multiobjective algorithm in the problem of multiobjective design of water distribution networks. The problem is formulated using two different objective functions: minimizing cost and maximizing reliability. To measure the reliability, a new definition based on the original concept of fuzzy logic, named “Fuzzy Reliability Index” is introduced. Then, developing the Multi Objective Honey-Bee Mating Optimization algorithm based on it’s single objective version, the multi criteria design of two benchmark networks is performed using predefined objective functions. The results obtained show that the proposed reliability index is able to provide desired reliability in the network. Furthermore, satisfactory results obtained by the algorithm in defining the pay off characteristic between total cost and reliability are shown. Finally, it is possible to use the developed model to introduce different and numerous non-dominant solutions to decision makers

Contribution of physical and anthropogenic factors to gully erosion initiation

Losses of large volumes of soil through gully formation lead to serious environmental, societal, and economic problems for human societies. This study establishes a framework based on an artificial intelligence approach to investigate the impact of geo-environmental and topo-hydrological factors on gully occurrences in the Biram region, Iran. The maximum entropy, random forest, and boosted regression trees machine-learning models were applied. The relative importance of variables (RIV) was then determined and gully erosion susceptibility maps were generated. Model results were evaluated using cutoff–dependent and –independent metrics. All models identified road construction as the main cause of gully formation in the study region (RVI ranged between 27% and 34%), and a medium contribution of distance from stream (RVI = 15–18%), lithology (RVI = 12–15%) and land use (RVI = 8–12%). Other factors such as drainage density, topographic wetness index, aspect, slope, profile curvature, elevation and plan curvature showed lower relative importance (RIV &lt; 10%). Planners should pay attention to minimizing gully erosion along roads, so that river systems and downstream communities are adequately protected.QC 20220207</p

Evaluating the evolution of ECMWF precipitation products using observational data for Iran:from ERA40 to ERA5

Abstract European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Reanalysis (ERA), one of the most widely used precipitation products, has evolved from ERA-40 to ERA-20CM, ERA-20C, ERA-Interim, and ERA5. Studies evaluating the performance of individual ERA products cannot adequately assess the evolution of the products. We compared the performance of all ERA precipitation products at daily, monthly, and annual data (1980–2018) using more than 2100 Iran precipitation gauges. Results indicated that ERA-40 performed worst, followed by ERA-20CM, which showed only minor improvements over ERA-40. ERA-20C considerably outperformed its predecessors, benefiting from the assimilation of observational data. Although several previous studies have reported full superiority of ERA5 over ERA-Interim, our results revealed several shortcomings in ERA5 compared with the ERA-Interim estimates. Both ERA-Interim and ERA5 performed best overall, with ERA-Interim showing better statistical and categorical skill scores, and ERA5 performing better in estimating extreme precipitations. These results suggest that the accuracy of ERA precipitation products has improved from ERA-40 to ERA-Interim, but not consistently from ERA-Interim to ERA5. This study employed a grid-grid comparison approach by first creating a gridded reference data set through the spatial aggregation of point source observations, however, the results from a point-grid approach showed no change in the overall ranking of products (despite the slight changes in the error index values). These findings are useful for model development at a global scale and for hydrological applications in Iran

Wetlandscape Change Information Database (WetCID)

Geography and associated hydrological, hydroclimate and land use conditions and their changes determine the states and dynamics of wetlands and their ecosystem services. The influences of these controls are not limited to just the local scale of each individual wetland, but extend over larger landscape areas that integrate multiple wetlands and their total hydrological catchment – the wetlandscape. However, the data and knowledge of conditions and changes over entire wetlandscapes are still scarce, limiting the capacity to accurately understand and manage critical wetland ecosystems and their services under global change. We present a new Wetlandscape Change Information Database (WetCID), consisting of geographic, hydrological, hydroclimate and land use information and data for 27 wetlandscapes around the world. This combines survey-based local information with geographic shapefiles and gridded datasets of large-scale hydroclimate and land-use conditions and their changes over whole wetlandscapes. Temporally, WetCID contains 30-year time series of data for mean monthly precipitation and temperature, and annual land use conditions. The survey-based site information includes local knowledge on the wetlands, hydrology, hydroclimate and land uses within each wetlandscape, and on the availability and accessibility of associated local data. This novel database can support site assessments, cross-regional comparisons, and scenario analyses of the roles and impacts of land use, hydroclimatic and wetland conditions and changes on whole-wetlandscape functions and ecosystem services