A rule based quality control method for hourly rainfall data and a 1 km resolution gridded hourly rainfall dataset for Great Britain: CEH-GEAR1hr

High-resolution gridded precipitation products are rare globally, particularly below a daily time-step, yet many hydrological applications require, or can be improved by, a higher temporal resolution of rainfall data. Here, we present a new 1 km resolution gridded hourly rainfall dataset for Great Britain (Gridded estimates of hourly areal rainfall for Great Britain (1990–2014) [CEH-GEAR1hr]) using data from over 1900 quality controlled rainfall gauges, which improves upon the current UK national gridded precipitation datasets at daily time-step. We extend and automate a quality control (QC) procedure to permit the use of hourly data for 1990–2014 and independently validate the QC using daily rainfall data and recorded historic events. Our two-tiered validation approach, at daily and hourly timescales, indicates that spurious extreme values are excluded from the resultant dataset, while legitimate values are preserved. We use a nearest neighbour interpolation scheme to derive gridded hourly rainfall values at 1 km resolution, to temporally disaggregate the CEH-GEAR daily gridded dataset and produce an hourly dataset with consistent daily totals. This provides a unique resource for hydrological applications in Great Britain. The CEH-GEAR1hr dataset, associated metadata and QC information, will be freely available from the Environmental Information Data Centre (EIDC) and hosted alongside the daily and monthly CEH-GEAR product

Cosmic-ray soil water monitoring: the development, status & potential of the COSMOS-India network

Soil moisture (SM) plays a central role in the hydrological cycle and surface energy balance and represents an important control on a range of land surface processes. Knowledge of the spatial and temporal dynamics of SM is important for applications ranging from numerical weather and climate predictions, the calibration and validation of remotely sensed data products, as well as water resources, flood and drought forecasting, agronomy and predictions of greenhouse gas fluxes. Since 2015, the Centre for Ecology and Ecology has been working in partnership with several Indian Research Institutes to develop COSMOS-India, a new network of SM monitoring stations that employ cosmic-ray soil moisture sensors (CRS) to deliver high temporal frequency, near-real time observations of SM at field scale. CRS provide continuous observations of near-surface (top 0.1 to 0.2 m) soil volumetric water content (VWC; m3 m-3) that are representative of a large footprint area (approximately 200 m in radius). To date, seven COSMOS-India sites have been installed and are operational at a range of locations that are characterised by differences in climate, soil type and land management. In this presentation, the development, current status and future potential of the COSMOS-India network will be discussed. Key results from the COSMOS-India network will be presented and analysed

COSMOS-UK user guide: users’ guide to sites, instruments and available data (version 2.10)

The COSMOS-UK User Guide is a comprehensive guide to the data collected by COSMOS-UK, including the near-real time soil moisture data derived from counts of netrons derived from cosmic rays. The User Guide contains: i) information about the sites, their locations and other meta data. ii) Details of the instruments deployed at each site. iii) Background information about the cosmic ray neutron counter which is used to derive soil moisture within a 12 hectare footprint. iv) Descriptions of data and information products that are available from COSMOS-UK

Sensitivity of river eutrophication to multiple stressors illustrated using graphical summaries of physics-based river water quality model simulations

The severity of river eutrophication is influenced by multiple stressors which reflect a wide-ranging variety of drivers encompassing land management, population growth and climatic effects. Experimental studies have successfully identified response to single or paired stressors under controlled conditions in small streams but have limited capability to characterise larger systems influenced by a wider variety of stressors. Here, a physics-based water quality model of the River Thames (UK) is used to explore the impacts of water temperature, phosphate concentration, river flow, urbanisation and riparian shading on indicators of chlorophyll and dissolved oxygen concentration by way of a sensitivity analysis. To understand the impact of model structural uncertainty, results are presented from two alternative formulations of the biological response. All outputs from each unique combination of stressors are presented in one graphic comprising multiple sub-plots that display the results of thousands of model runs simultaneously. Consequently, graphical analysis allows us to pinpoint under what circumstances reductions in key variables representing management-related stressors (i.e. lowering phosphorus concentrations and establishing riparian shading) may act synergistically, antagonistically or simply in an additive manner. Furthermore, we identify how these relationships may vary under different river flow and water temperature regimes and changes in abstraction and effluent discharge rates, to indicate the likely influence of future climate and population growth. Response can vary markedly depending on the choice of biological model and also changes considerably downstream along the river system. Chlorophyll indicators consistently show antagonistic responses to reduction in stressors whereas dissolved oxygen indicators show varied and complex responses. As expected, increases in phosphorus loading are detrimental, but so too are large decreases. Whilst the analysis suggests that urbanisation impacts are in general not expected to be large, changes in water demand brought about by population growth have disproportionate effects at low flows. These may result in increased incidence of very low dissolved oxygen concentrations which damage the health of the ecosystem

River Thames Scheme: a review of the ecological surveys baseline monitoring

Baseline monitoring is required to predict, and assess post hoc, the impact of the proposed Thames flood alleviation scheme on a number of lake water bodies adjacent to the Thames between Datchet and Teddington, as well as the relevant reaches of the Thames itself. The aim of this report is to provide independent guidance on the baseline monitoring and data gathering necessary to carry out impact assessments (risks, ecological responses, WFD/HD compliance), support scenario modelling, inform post implementation monitoring and guide potential packages of mitigation measures. A monitoring scheme is already in place, and forms the basis for this review

Embrace subjectivity: Existentially-informed clinical psychological science, practice, and teaching.

In this argumentative literature review, we advocate an existentially-informed clinical psychology. Many of today’s challenging societal issues would benefit from the lens of existentialism, and our field has seen an emergence of interest lately in topics such as death anxiety as a transdiagnostic construct. We see this context as opportune for an existential-psychological confluence of ideas and praxes. To that end, we identify and review here four relevant ongoing streams of literature (core existentialism philosophy, existentially-oriented psychotherapy, death anxiety psychometrics, and terror management theory) and argue in favor of their increasingly intertwined integration with one another and with the broader field of clinical psychology. We propose methods for both academics and practitioners alike to more fully embrace an existentially-informed mindset, culminating in a set of ten recommendations for clinical psychology across applied clinical work, research/scholarship, and pedagogy/supervision. Examples include increased use of qualitative data via case study and mixed-method approaches in our science, enhanced incorporation of existential themes (including but not limited to death anxiety) into psychotherapy, and adoption of a student-focused freedom-enhancing existential mindset in teaching. Our field has made great strides in deepening the understanding of how life’s ultimate concerns inform mental health and functioning in recent years, and we support an even more robust endorsement of existential frameworks in clinical psychology to continue such progress

Daily and sub-daily hydrometeorological and soil data (2013-2017) [COSMOS-UK]

This dataset contains daily and sub-daily hydrometeorological and soil observations from COSMOS-UK (cosmic-ray soil moisture) monitoring network from October 2013 to the end of 2017. These data are from 46 sites across the UK recording a range of hydrometeorological and soil variables. Each site in the network hosts a cosmic-ray sensing probe; a novel sensor technology which can be used, in combination with hydrometeorological data, to calculate the volumetric water content of soil over a field scale. The hydrometeorological and soil data are recorded at a 30 minute resolution and they include neutron counts from the Cosmic-ray sensing probe, humidity and atmospheric pressure data that are used to derive volumetric water content at two temporal resolutions (hourly and daily). Also included are soil heat flux, air temperature, wind speed and radiation data which are used to derive potential evapotranspiration at a daily resolution

Daily and sub-daily hydrometeorological and soil data (2013-2019) [COSMOS-UK]

This dataset contains daily and sub-daily hydrometeorological and soil observations from COSMOS-UK (cosmic-ray soil moisture) monitoring network from October 2013 to the end of 2019. These data are from 51 sites across the UK recording a range of hydrometeorological and soil variables

Daily and sub-daily hydrometeorological and soil data (2013-2018) [COSMOS-UK]

This dataset contains daily and sub-daily hydrometeorological and soil observations from COSMOS-UK (cosmic-ray soil moisture) monitoring network from October 2013 to the end of 2018. These data are from 50 sites across the UK recording a range of hydrometeorological and soil variables. Each site in the network records the following hydrometeorological and soil data at 30 minute resolution: Radiation (short wave, long wave and net), precipitation, atmospheric pressure, air temperature, wind speed and direction, humidity, soil heat flux, and soil temperature and volumetric water content (VWC), measured by point senors at various depths. Each site hosts a cosmic-ray sensing probe; a novel sensor technology which counts fast neutrons in the surrounding atmosphere. In combination with the recorded hydrometeorological data, neutron counts are used to derive VWC over a field scale (COSMOS VWC), at two temporal resolutions (hourly and daily). The presence of snow leads to erroneously high measurements of COSMOS VWC due to all the extra water in the surrounding area. Included in the daily data are indications of snow days, on which, the COSMOS VWC are adjusted and the snow water equivalent (SWE) is given. The potential evapotranspiration (PE), derived from recorded hydrometeorological and soil are also included at daily resolution. Two levels of quality control are carried out, firstly data is run through a series of automated checks, such as range tests and spike tests, and then all data is manually inspected each week where any other faults are picked up, including sensor faults or connection issues. Quality control flags are provided for all recorded (30 minute) data, indicating the reason for any missing data