Climate change effects on crop evapotranspiration, Pannonian basin

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A Comprehensive Gridded Dataset Associated to the Climate Change Effect on the Water Resources in the Grand Est Region, France

Water resources and environment quality are nowadays under high pressure because of climate change, land use practices, as well as human actions. A comprehensive gridded dataset becomes a necessary instrument to assess the risk level at regional scale, and also for territorial planning, the defining strategies to address future natural and anthropological challenges. In order to obtain a complete database with the most important parameters at spatial scale, this study is constructed as a preparation of layers used for various environmental risks, but mostly with the climate change effect on the water resources from the Grand Est region, France. In addition, geological formations, terrain data, and land cover were harmonized as grid format for the study area. Thus, the temperature and precipitation parameters, related to the 1961–1990 (1990s), 2011–2040 (2020s), and 2041–2070 (2050s), become useful data for evapotranspiration, water availability, and effective precipitation calculations. The geology layer indicates the composition and types of aquifers and it contributes to the potential infiltration map (PIM). The morphology of the terrain contributes to the slope angle and PIM. Through the typology of land cover, the pollution load index (PLI) was estimated. The findings indicate intense aridization and the depletion of the effective precipitation (below 650 mm) during the present and future periods. With respect to these concerns, the surface waters and groundwater resources from the Grand Est region are experiencing the negative effects of climate change on runoff and aquifers recharge respectively. In addition, the high PLI in the industrial and agricultural areas contribute to the possibility of the increasing water resources vulnerability. The affected areas extend mainly in the western, north-central, and north-eastern parts of the region, mainly in the Rhine, Aube, and Marne Valleys. Considered as a precious resource in the region, the water management should follow best practices for vulnerability and risk assessment, and further to delineate the protection areas. As a comprehensive gridded dataset, the calculations and original maps presented in this paper represent a complex product with main environmental parameters processed at spatial scale of 1 km2 in ArcGIS. This product has the purpose to integrate the geospatial data for the Grand Est region of France

Climate change effect on groundwater resources in South East Europe during 21st century

Groundwater is a precious resource that depends directly by the climate regime. The South East Europe region presents high sensitive climatic parameters due to climate change. Different approaches could be applied to assess the climate change impact on the water resources. Climate models and land cover data were used here in two shift times, present (2011–2040) and future (2041–2070), to evaluate the climate effect on groundwater resources. ’New Implemented Spatial-Temporal On Regions–Climate Effect on Groundwater’ (NISTOR-CEGW) method was proposed for this study because it implies an analysis at spatial scale based on land cover, actual crop evapotranspiration (AETc), effective precipitation, and De Martonne Aridity Index. This method uses an inference matrix to combine the effective precipitation and De Martonne Aridity Index to assess the impact of climate on groundwater giving six classes of effects, from very low to extremely high. For the present period, the findings indicate extremely high climate effect in the Pannonian basin, in the East and South of Romania, in the North and South of Bulgaria, in the East and central parts of Macedonia, in the North and East of Greece and in the European part of Turkey. In the future, the areas with the extremely high climate effect on groundwater increase mainly in the northern, eastern, and southeastern sides of the South East Europe region. The Dinarics and the Alps Mountains are the areas with low and very low effect of climate on groundwater. These areas experience a very humid and extremely humid climate. The findings show that about half territory of the South East Europe is facing with drought and the environment, groundwater, and related ecosystems are triggered by climate change

Groundwater vulnerability in the Piedmont region under climate change

Groundwater vulnerability has increased in recent decades due to several factors, but mainly due to climate change. In this study, we applied a complex approach to determine groundwater vulnerability at a regional scale in the Piedmont region including high-resolution climate models. Aquifers, terrain model, climate data, land cover, and groundwater monitoring stations data of nitrate (NO3) concentration were the main layers used for the vulnerability and risk mapping. Validation of the groundwater vulnerability map consisted of pixel pair comparison (PPC) using the quality status of a monitored groundwater station, dating from 2005 to 2012. The groundwater vulnerability maps that related to the 1990s and 2020s periods indicated very high and high vulnerability of groundwater in the central and eastern parts of the region, especially in the porous aquifers of Po Plain. The areas with very low and low vulnerability extend into the north and west, mainly in the non-aquiferous media and fissured aquifers. The future scenarios of groundwater vulnerability indicate a consistent increase of the very high vulnerability class, from the 1990s to the 2050s periods, in all scenarios, and mainly in the Po Plain.Published versio

Vulnerability of groundwater resources under climate change in the Pannonian basin

The impact of climate change on groundwater vulnerability has been assessed in the Pannonian basin over 1961–2070. High-resolution climate models, aquifers composition, land cover, and digital elevation model were the main factors which served to perform the spatial analysis using Geographical Information Systems. The analysis reported here is focused on the long-term period, including three temporal time sets: the past period of 1961–1990 (1990s), the present period of 2011–2040 (2020s), and the future period of 2041–2070 (2050s). During the 1990s, the high and very high areas of groundwater vulnerability were identified in all the central, western, eastern, southeastern, and northern sides of the Pannonian basin. In these areas, the water availability is lower and the pollution load index is high, due to the agricultural activities. The low and very low vulnerability class was depicted in the South-West part of the basin and in few locations from the peripheral areas, mainly in the North and West. The medium groundwater vulnerability spreads over the Pannonian basin, but it is more concentrated in the central, South, and South-West. The most affected territory is Hungary, while the territories of Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina are less affected. In the present and future periods, the very high groundwater vulnerability increased in areas by 0.74% and 0.87%, respectively. The low class area decreased between the 1990s and the 2020s by 2.33% and it is expected to decrease up to 2.97% in the 2050s. Based on this analysis and the groundwater vulnerability maps, the Pannonian basin appears more vulnerable to climate change in the present and future. These findings demonstrate that the aquifers from Pannonian basin experience high negative effect under climate conditions. In addition, the land cover contributes to this negative status of groundwater resources. The original maps of groundwater vulnerability represent an instrument for water management planning and for research

European Grid Dataset of Actual Evapotranspiration, Water Availability and Effective Precipitation

The sustainability of a territory is closely related to its resources. Due to climate change, the most precious natural resource, water, has been negatively affected by climatic conditions in terms of quantity and quality. CLIMAT datasets of 1 km2 spatial resolution were used and processed in the ArcGIS environment to generate maps of actual evapotranspiration, water availability, and effective precipitation for the periods of 1961–1990 (1990s), 2011–2040 (2020s), and 2041–2070 (2050s). The product is of paramount importance for the analysis of the actual situation in Europe indicating high water availability in the Alps Range, the Carpathians Mountains, Northern European countries, and the British Islands. On the other hand, low water availability has been evidenced in the Southern and Eastern European areas. For the future period (2050s), the monthly potential evapotranspiration is expected to increase by 30%. The climate models also show an increase in the actual evapotranspiration between past and future periods by 40%. The changes in water availability and effective precipitation between the past (1990s) and future (2050s) indicate decreases of 10%. The most affected areas by climate change are located within the Mediterranean areas, the Iberian Peninsula, and Eastern Europe

Record year for annual retreat rate of Whittier Glacier from South Alaska in 2014

An unexpectedly retreat of 0.655 km² yr-1 was calculated for Whittier Glacier, South Alaska only for 2014 year. Under recent global warming the Arctic regions presents various fluctuations in the ice mass retreat. Here we bring forward the maximum retreat rate of Whittier Glacier in the last 42 years. Starting to 1973, the glaciers from Passage Canal melt continuously, but no more than 0.105 km² yr-1. From September 2013 to September 2014 Whittier Glacier registered a huge area retreat of 0.655 km² yr-1 and beat the record measured up presen

How to compute the land cover evapotranspiration at regional scale? A spatial approach of Emilia-Romagna region

The Earth is rapidly changing in both its climate and its land distribution. The numerous methods from the literature show various possibilities to assess the crop evapotranspiration and evaporation rate, both with direct measurements and empirical formulas. The present paper brings forward a methodology that demonstrates how to compute the potential land cover evapotranspiration (ETc) at regional scale using climate data from 13 meteorological stations, empirical equations, Corine Land Cover data, and the Geographical Information System (GIS). Based on Thornthwaite method and evapotranspiration coefficients, the study assesses the ETc of Emilia-Romagna region in four stages. Moreover, the Budyko approach was applied to calculate the actual evapotraspiration (AET0) and actual land cover evapotranspiration (AETc) to identify the critical areas of water deficit. Po Plain represents an area with high evapotranspiration rate, due to temperatures and cultivation patterns. A value of 778.87 mm/year at Ferrara station was calculated for the potential evapotranspiration (ET0), while the ETc ranging to 800-1000 mm/year in the central and northeastern part of the region. The AETc reached the maximum values of724 mm in the southcentral part of the Emilia-Romagn

Advance in glacier modelling : GIS and oriented programming approach applied on whittier glacier, Alaska

The global warming affects drastically the glaciers melting, a fact for which the glaciers from Alaska are continuously retreating. Based on Geographical Information System and oriented programming, we have defined a new method to model the glaciers. The Whittier Glacier from South Alaska was analysed in the last 30 years and it was modelled under climate conditions of the 21st century. The glacier modelling has come out from calculations of annual retreat rate, the hemisphere, the latitude, the annual temperature, the precipitation, the altitude data, and the aspect of flow direction. The prediction model of Whittier Glacier shows a value of 1.0544 km² of losing ice area up to year 2030, a value of 2.2184 km² of retreat area up to 2050, a value of 3.9704 km² up to 2080, and a value of 5.1524 km² up to 2100. We estimate a total loss ice volume related to this melting area of 0.3393 km³. The future scenario indicates a glacier volume reduction of 84.89% up to 2050. These findings are useful for glaciologists, but also the paper contributes to Alaskan glaciers knowledge.Published versio

Increasing territorial planning activities through viewshed analysis

Visibility analyses are employed in various fields, from landscape to archeology or territorial planning. Two case studies, of different elevation, from Romania were selected to be considered for setting up some observation points as lookout points. Fuzzy viewshed analysis was performed to evaluate the degree of visibility of certain landscape components and was also used as a tool for territorial planning. The main results of the research were some particular viewshed analysis area according to the dominant visibility directions. This methodology may be useful to local authorities, which are the only responsible bodies for authorizing, creating and setting up lookout points in a given space or for organizing certain planning activities