Cyclones in the Mediterranean region: present and future climate scenarios derived from a general circulation model (HadAM3P)

International audienceIn this paper, an attempt is made to assess and evaluate the skill of the Hadley Center atmospheric General Circulation Model (HadAM3P) in generating successfully the frequency and intensity of severe cyclones (<1000 hPa) in the Mediterranean region. The cyclonic occurrence is studied in three regions of enhanced cyclonic activity: Gulf of Genoa, Southern Italy and Cyprus. It was found that the HadAM3P predicts a future decrease of the frequency of the severe cyclones at the SLP level, but the future cyclones will be more intense (deeper), especially at the 500 hPa level

Investigating the perceptions of the relationship between vocational education and the labour market: a case study of FET college students

The study sought to investigate the perceptions of TVET students regarding vocational education and its relation to the labour market. It hoped to illuminate connections or disconnections between vocational education and employment. The research emanated from the prevailing view that TVET education by its very nature is work-oriented and therefore those who enroll in TVET colleges are able to find employment. Furthermore, that conceptually the TVET curriculum was and continues to be regarded as skills-based for labour market demands thereby enhancing national competiveness and economic growth. Qualitative questionnaires, which are open-ended in nature, were used to gather facts about students’ beliefs and experiences regarding certain engineering programmes and services offered at TVET colleges. Non-probability sampling was used to select one hundred and thirteen (113) participants who voluntarily completed qualitative questionnaires, which were structured to elicit the required information, and the results reveal divergent views shared by students. There are those who feel very strongly that a TVET qualification, in engineering in particular, leads to employment due to its demand and the fact that the institution generally assists students through the placement unit makes it even easier to find employment. Other students firmly believed that whatever qualifications one attained, the world of work cannot accommodate them, as they do not have work experience. They felt this was unfair because they are unable to find employment without being properly monitored and trained by the very same industry that hopes to employ them in the near future. They argue that the only problem pertaining to unemployment is job scarcity, rather than skills scarcity. The research is framed within the human capital theory. Research findings reveal the fact that there is no link between vocational education and the labour market and as a result employment is not easy. There are personal skills required but they are not available in our educational curriculum, which focuses on educational aspirations. The research further posits five distinct but necessary interventions that students are suggesting in order to increase their lack of experience in the job market

Extreme precipitation related to circulation types for four case studies over the Eastern Mediterranean

International audienceThe analysis of the links between the extreme precipitation and the associated atmospheric conditions through an aloft circulation type approach at the 500-hPa geopotential level, for the time period of 1958?2000, is the main motivation for the present study. Four stations in the eastern Mediterranean (17.5° E to 37.5° E and 30° N to 40° N) were selected as separate case studies. The extreme precipitation conditions were defined by the two most widely used indices: the 90th and 95th percentiles. It was found that two cyclonic types (C ? with its centre over the station and Cwsw ? with its centre at the WSW of the station) were mainly associated with extreme rainfall conditions for all the selected stations. Generally, these circulation types are deepening during days with extreme precipitation in comparison to the general mean field of the type

Quantifying uncertainties in precipitation: a case study from Greece

The main objective of the present study was the examination and the quantification of the uncertainties in the precipitation time series over the Greek area, for a 42-year time period. The uncertainty index applied to the rainfall data is a combination (total) of the departures of the rainfall season length, of the median data of the accumulated percentages and of the total amounts of rainfall. Results of the study indicated that all the stations are characterized, on an average basis, by medium to high uncertainty. The stations that presented an increasing rainfall uncertainty were the ones located mainly to the continental parts of the study region. From the temporal analysis of the uncertainty index, it was demonstrated that the greatest percentage of the years, for all the stations time-series, was characterized by low to high uncertainty (intermediate categories of the index). Most of the results of the uncertainty index for the Greek region are similar to the corresponding results of various stations all over the European region

Comparison of an Automated Classification System with an Empirical Classification of Circulation Patterns over the Pannonian Basin, Central Europe

The aim of the study is to compare the performance of the two classification methods, based on the atmospheric circulation types over the Pannonian basin in Central Europe. Moreover, relationships including seasonal occurrences and correlation coefficients, as well as comparative diagrams of the seasonal occurrences of the circulation types of the two classification systems are presented. When comparing of the automated (objective) and empirical (subjective) classification methods, it was found that the frequency of the empirical anticyclonic (cyclonic) types is much higher (lower) than that of the automated anticyclonic (cyclonic) types both on an annual and seasonal basis. The highest and statistically significant correlations between the circulation types of the two classification systems, as well as those between the cumulated seasonal anticyclonic and cyclonic types occur in winter for both classifications, since the weather-influencing effect of the atmospheric circulation in this season is the most prevalent. Precipitation amounts in Budapest display a decreasing trend in accordance with the decrease in the occurrence of the automated cyclonic types. In contrast, the occurrence of the empirical cyclonic types displays an increasing trend. There occur types in a given classification that are usually accompanied by high ratios of certain types in the other classification

Potential impacts of climate change on flow regime and fish habitat in mountain rivers of the southwestern Balkans

The climate change in the Mediterranean area is expected to have significant impacts on the aquatic ecosystems and particular in the mountain rivers and streams that often host important species such as the Salmo farioides, Karaman 1938. These impacts will most possibly affect the habitat availability for various aquatic species resulting to an essential alteration of the water requirements, either for dams or other water abstractions, in order to maintain the essential levels of ecological flow for the rivers. The main scope of this study was to assess potential climate change impacts on the hydrological patterns and typical biota for a south-western Balkan mountain river, the Acheloos. The altered flow regimes under different emission scenarios of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were estimated using a hydrologicalmodel and based on regional climate simulations over the study area. The Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration (IHA) methodology was then used to assess the potential streamflow alterations in the studied river due to predicted climate change conditions. A fish habitat simulation method integrating univariate habitat suitability curves and hydraulic modeling techniques were used to assess the impacts on the relationships between the aquatic biota and hydrological status utilizing a sentinel species, the West Balkan trout. The most prominent effects of the climate change scenarios depict severe flow reductions that are likely to occur especially during the summer flows, changing the duration and depressing the magnitude of the natural low flow conditions. Weighted Usable Area-flow curves indicated the limitation of suitable habitat for the native trout. Finally, this preliminary application highlighted the potential of science-based hydrological and habitat simulation approaches that are relevant to both biological quality elements (fish) and current EUWater policy to serve as efficient tools for the estimation of possible climate change impacts on the south-western Balkan river ecosystems.This study was supported by the ECOFLOW project funded by the Hellenic General Secretariat of Research and Technology in the framework of the NSRF 2007-2013. The W. B. trout data collection was partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness with the project SCARCE (Consolider-Ingenio 2010 CSD2009-00065).Papadaki, C.; Soulis, K.; Muñoz Mas, R.; Martinez-Capel, F.; Zogaris, S.; Ntoanidis, L.; Dimitriou, E. (2016). Potential impacts of climate change on flow regime and fish habitat in mountain rivers of the southwestern Balkans. Science of the Total Environment. 540:418-428. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.06.134S41842854