Assessment of data uncertainty and plausibility over the Nam Co Region, Tibet

One of the major challenges for water balance studies in the remote and mostly ungauged region of the Tibetan Plateau is the lack of suitable and reliable climate data to drive hydrological models. Ground observations are rare in the high-mountainous region of the Nam Co basin and only global and regional gridded climate products are available as model input data, but these data sets need to be carefully analysed if used as driving force for hydrological modelling. In this study, various global and regional gridded data products for temperature and precipitation were compared to assess spatio-temporal deviations between several data sets. For the comparison absolute and relative differences of annual and seasonal long-term means were calculated. Climatic trends were analysed by using the non-parametric Mann-Kendall trend test. In addition, gridded climate data sets were compared to meteorological observations in order to evaluate their plausibility. The comparative statistical analysis showed significant differences in the magnitude, the seasonality, the spatial pattern and the trend behaviour of the analysed climate variables, in particular for precipitation data. The identified inconsistencies underpin the necessity to quantify the uncertainty of such climate data. Moreover, the presented study highlights the importance of further research efforts to develop regional climate data sets with finer resolutions to reduce the model's uncertainty resulting from climate input data. Such higher resolution is needed for a sufficient representation of regional topographic and orographic effects in order to simulate important hydrological processes in mountainous areas like snow accumulation and melting

The SASSCAL contribution to climate observation, climate data management and data rescue in Southern Africa

A major task of the newly established "Southern African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management" (SASSCAL; www.sasscal.org) and its partners is to provide science-based environmental information and knowledge which includes the provision of consistent and reliable climate data for Southern Africa. Hence, SASSCAL, in close cooperation with the national weather authorities of Angola, Botswana, Germany and Zambia as well as partner institutions in Namibia and South Africa, supports the extension of the regional meteorological observation network and the improvement of the climate archives at national level. With the ongoing rehabilitation of existing weather stations and the new installation of fully automated weather stations (AWS), altogether 105 AWS currently provide a set of climate variables at 15, 30 and 60 min intervals respectively. These records are made available through the SASSCAL WeatherNet, an online platform providing near-real time data as well as various statistics and graphics, all in open access. This effort is complemented by the harmonization and improvement of climate data management concepts at the national weather authorities, capacity building activities and an extension of the data bases with historical climate data which are still available from different sources. These activities are performed through cooperation between regional and German institutions and will provide important information for climate service related activities

Opportunities for an African greenhouse gas observation system

Global population projections foresee the biggest increase to occur in Africa with most of the available uncultivated land to ensure food security remaining on the continent. Simultaneously, greenhouse gas emissions are expected to rise due to ongoing land use change, industrialisation, and transport amongst other reasons with Africa becoming a major emitter of greenhouse gases globally. However, distinct knowledge on greenhouse gas emissions sources and sinks as well as their variability remains largely unknown caused by its vast size and diversity and an according lack of observations across the continent. Thus, an environmental research infrastructure—as being setup in other regions—is more needed than ever. Here, we present the results of a design study that developed a blueprint for establishing such an environmental research infrastructure in Africa. The blueprint comprises an inventory of already existing observations, the spatial disaggregation of locations that will enable to reduce the uncertainty in climate forcing’s in Africa and globally as well as an overall estimated cost for such an endeavour of about 550 M€ over the next 30 years. We further highlight the importance of the development of an e-infrastructure, the necessity for capacity development and the inclusion of all stakeholders to ensure African ownership

Adaptation of water resources systems to changing society and environment: a statement by the International Association of Hydrological Sciences

Hydrol. Sci. J.-J. Sci. Hydrol.ISI Document Delivery No.: EB2CDTimes Cited: 0Cited Reference Count: 153Ceola, Serena Montanari, Alberto Krueger, Tobias Dyer, Fiona Kreibich, Heidi Westerberg, Ida Carr, Gemma Cudennec, Christophe Elshorbagy, Amin Savenije, Hubert Van der Zaag, Pieter Rosbjerg, Dan Aksoy, Hafzullah Viola, Francesco Petrucci, Guido MacLeod, Kit Croke, Barry Ganora, Daniele Hermans, Leon Polo, Maria J. Xu, Zongxue Borga, Marco Helmschrot, Jorg Toth, Elena Ranzi, Roberto Castellarin, Attilio Hurford, Anthony Brilly, Mitija Viglione, Alberto Bloeschl, Guenter Sivapalan, Murugesu Domeneghetti, Alessio Marinelli, Alberto Di Baldassarre, GiulianoPeople Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union [329762]; IRI THESys; German Excellence Initiative; EU [603587]IW acknowledges the support of the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union's 7th Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013/(grant agreement no. 329762). TK is funded, through IRI THESys, by the German Excellence Initiative. SC, AM, AC, and ET acknowledge financial support from the EU funded project SWITCHON (603587).Taylor & francis ltdAbingdonWe explore how to address the challenges of adaptation of water resources systems under changing conditions by supporting flexible, resilient and low-regret solutions, coupled with on-going monitoring and evaluation. This will require improved understanding of the linkages between biophysical and social aspects in order to better anticipate the possible future co-evolution of water systems and society. We also present a call to enhance the dialogue and foster the actions of governments, the international scientific community, research funding agencies and additional stakeholders in order to develop effective solutions to support water resources systems adaptation. Finally, we call the scientific community to a renewed and unified effort to deliver an innovative message to stakeholders. Water science is essential to resolve the water crisis, but the effectiveness of solutions depends, inter alia, on the capability of scientists to deliver a new, coherent and technical vision for the future development of water systems

Bayesian trend analysis in annual rainfall total, duration and maximum in the Kara River basin (West Africa)

International audienceStudy region: The Kara River basin, northern Togo and Benin, West Africa. Study focus: This study investigated long-term trends in annual rainfall (annRAIN), annual rainfall duration (DURATION) and annual maximum rainfall (MAXAN) for seven stations between 1950 and 2010. A Bayesian trend analysis was performed by fitting the Lognormal, Normal and Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) distributions to annRAIN, DURATION and MAXAN, respectively, with a time covariate for both the location and scale parameters. Spatio-temporal variation of the mean decadal rainfall and the seasonality of the mean monthly rainfall were also analyzed. New hydrological insights for the region: The results indicate that the interannual variability of annRAIN is decreasing over time at all stations, and the average annRAIN is also markedly decreasing at several stations. However, DURATION is increasing at most stations suggesting that in those parts of the basin where annRAIN is decreasing, rainfall occurs more frequently but with less intensity. For MAXAN, evidence for decreasing trend is found in two stations, and for increasing trend in one station. It is also shown that the peak of the rainy season shifted from September to August since the 1980s. Furthermore, changes in the spatio-temporal distribution of the mean decadal rainfall are also observed. This study provides valuable new insights into trends affecting rainfall variables in the Kara River basin

Integrated SASSCAL research to assess and secure current and future water resources in Southern Africa

No abstract available

Integrated water management tools supporting future water security and food production in West Africa

No abstract available

The SASSCAL contribution to climate observation, climate data management and data rescue in Southern Africa

A major task of the newly established "Southern African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management" (SASSCAL; www.sasscal.org) and its partners is to provide science-based environmental information and knowledge which includes the provision of consistent and reliable climate data for Southern Africa. Hence, SASSCAL, in close cooperation with the national weather authorities of Angola, Botswana, Germany and Zambia as well as partner institutions in Namibia and South Africa, supports the extension of the regional meteorological observation network and the improvement of the climate archives at national level. With the ongoing rehabilitation of existing weather stations and the new installation of fully automated weather stations (AWS), altogether 105 AWS currently provide a set of climate variables at 15, 30 and 60 min intervals respectively. These records are made available through the SASSCAL WeatherNet, an online platform providing near-real time data as well as various statistics and graphics, all in open access. This effort is complemented by the harmonization and improvement of climate data management concepts at the national weather authorities, capacity building activities and an extension of the data bases with historical climate data which are still available from different sources. These activities are performed through cooperation between regional and German institutions and will provide important information for climate service related activities

A comparative analysis of the PRMS and J2000 hydrological models applied to the Sandspruit Catchment (Western Cape, South Africa).

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