Including Water Shortages Research Articles

Laying foundations for transformation: Insights from local government engagement on climate-resilient rural water services in Nepal

Transformative change in how local governments support rural water services is required to accommodate the increasingly extreme effects of climate change on water service systems. This study explores the potential for contextualised soft systems thinking activities to prepare local government officials with responsibilities pertaining to rural water services in Nepal to shift towards more transformative thinking. First, the study presents the findings of focus group discussions in two rural districts of Nepal that identified common climate-related problems for rural water access including water shortages, contamination, and unequal burden of impacts. Second, we facilitated workshops with local government and non-government stakeholders, drawing on the focus group findings to frame the challenges for rural water linked to climate change that require local government response. We designed the workshops drawing on ‘transformative spaces’ concepts and included soft systems thinking activities to foster systemic perspectives. Participants learned about worldviews, leverage points, rich pictures, root cause analysis, and theory-of-change based action planning. Following the workshops, the study team participated in reflective sensemaking in which they deliberated on their experiences and notes from facilitating the workshops to assess the extent to which the participants demonstrated transformative thinking about rural water systems. The workshop approach showed promise in shifting how local government participants think about rural water services beyond technical fixes towards addressing deep-seated issues. However, further work is required to foster new relationships necessary to support transformation and grapple with ethical dilemmas pertaining to power dynamics at community and government levels. Nevertheless, the approach presented here is a replicable, low-cost way to prepare local government stakeholders in Nepal for transforming their thinking and systems to ways that enable sustainable rural water service delivery under threats of climate change.

Organic and inorganic fertilizers combined with a water-saving technique increased soil fertilities and apple production in a rainfed hilly orchard

A high and stable apple yield is critical for rainfed hilly apple orchards; however, many factors threaten apple yield and sustainable apple production, including water shortage, soil erosion, and chemical fertilizer overuse. Therefore, we undertook a field trial with three treatments— (1) organic and inorganic fertilizer combining a water-saving technique (OIWS), (2) inorganic fertilizer combining a water-saving technique (IWS), and (3) inorganic fertilizer alone (CK)—to determine how to alleviate these yield-limiting factors and improve soil fertility. Averaged across five years (2016–2020), the OIWS treatment increased apple yield the most, by 24.87% and 67.34% relative to IWS and CK, respectively. The OIWS treatment also had the highest apple yield stability, despite no significant differences between treatments, indicating OIWS treatment could produce higher apple yield year by year relative to IWS and CK. In comparison to IWS and CK, OIWS treatment showed greater 0–1 m by 12.21% and 26.08% and 0–3 m soil water storage (SWS) by 14.81% and 19.12%, as well as the highest abundance of 0–1 m soil microaggregates (0.053–0.2 mm) and macroaggregates (0.2–2 mm). Moreover, relative to IWS and CK averaged across the five years and 0–2 m soil layers, OIWS treatment substantially enhanced soil organic carbon (SOC) by 4.23 and 3.93 g kg−1 and total nitrogen (TN) by 0.09 and 0.11 g kg−1, respectively. Furthermore, Changes in apple production were positively linked with variations in 0–1 m SWS, soil microaggregate and macroaggregate abundance, and SOC and TN. And the most relevant factor to apple yield is 0–1 m SWS. Overall, on the Loess Plateau, OIWS system is a sustainable approach for increasing apple productivity and soil fertilities in rainfed hilly orchards.

AIDAR-ARNASOY COOKING AROUND MUKHITGA EFFECT

Data on environmental problems resulting from population changes, including water shortages and its consequences, are cited. Also covered are the negative consequences of the problems associated with the emergence of the Aydar – Arnasoy lake system and the transformation of the lake system on the environment, flora and fauna. The decrease in water balance in the Aydar Arnasoy lake system has been analyzed in comparison with the consequences caused by the drying of the Aral Sea.

Energy vulnerability and pathway towards sustainable energy systems in the Arab region

Abstract Energy vulnerability in the Arab region is linked to various environmental challenges, including water shortage and desertification, as well as accelerating demand for energy which remains largely unchecked, among others. The United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 addresses these cross-cutting issues by setting targets for ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. This article aims to show that progress towards achieving this goal’s targets within the Arab region is currently offtrack, due to a variety of challenges. These include lack of energy demand management needed to decouple energy consumption from economic growth; much required structural and economic reforms, including diversification; lack of long-term planning and technological awareness; and insufficient access to financing. To overcome these problems and address energy vulnerability, Arab countries should integrate sustainable energy as a fundamental element of national development strategies and embrace circular carbon economy principles within the context of SDG 7. Integrated approaches to energy sector management are required, and topics such as natural resources governance and environmental protection should be elevated within domestic policy agendas.

The impact of irrigation modes on agricultural water-energy‑carbon nexus

Despite the tremendous contribution of irrigated agriculture in addressing global food security, there is still confusion for farmers and governments about the choice of irrigation mode owing to the drastic environmental impacts of irrigation, including water shortage, energy crisis, and global warming. Exploring the agricultural water-energy‑carbon (WEC) nexus under different irrigation modes helps to accomplish the multi-objective of water & energy saving and carbon emission reduction. In this paper, a conceptual framework was nominated to evaluate the water & energy consumption and carbon emissions for winter wheat irrigation at township level and quantitatively discuss the complex interaction by the coupling coordination degree (CCD) of the WEC system under different irrigation modes in Henan Province, China. We discovered that irrigation modes profoundly affect water and energy consumption and carbon emissions in agriculture, as well as the spatial distribution of CCD from WEC system. Townships under irrigation mode with diversion and irrigation projects as the primary method (WDI) clustered together in the north and east with highest water consumption and carbon emissions, while townships under irrigation mode with rain-fed agriculture as the primary method (PI) accumulated in the west and south with lower water consumption and carbon emissions. Meanwhile, the CCD of the WEC nexus system was in basic coordination (0.40) and showed an unbalanced spatial distribution pattern with high in the southeast and low in the northwest. By comparing four irrigation modes, the coupling level of the WEC nexus system under irrigation mode with groundwater irrigation as the primary method (GI) was better and PI mode was the least ideal. This study helps to further understand agricultural WEC nexus under different irrigation modes and provide references for local governments in selecting appropriate irrigation modes to realize water-energy saving and carbon emission reduction in agricultural activities.

Water allocation under climate change

Chile is positioned in the 20th rank of water availability per capita. Nonetheless, water security levels vary across the territory. Around 70% of the national population lives in arid and semiarid regions, where a persistent drought has been experienced over the last decade. This has led to water security problems including water shortages. The water allocation and trading system in Chile is based on a water use rights (WURs) market, with limited regulatory and supervisory mechanisms, where the volume to be granted as permanent and eventual WURs is calculated from statistical analyses of historical streamflow records if available, or from empirical estimations if they are not. This computation of WURs does not consider the nonstationarity of hydrological processes nor climatic projections. This study presents the first large sample diagnosis of water allocation system in Chile under climate change scenarios. This is based on novel anthropic intervention indices (IAI), which were computed as the ratio between the total granted water volume to the water availability within 87 basins in north-central and southern Chile (30°S–42°S). The IAI were evaluated for the historical period (1979–2019) and under modeled-based climatic projections (2055–2080). According to these IAI levels, to date, there are 20 out of 87 overallocated basins, which under the assumption that no further WURs will be granted in the future, increases up to 25 basins for the 2055–2080 period. The results show that, to date most of north-central Chilean catchments already have a large anthropic intervention degree, and the increases for the future period occurs mostly in the southern region of the country (approximately 38°S), which has been considered as possible source of water for large water transfer projects (i.e., water roads). These indices and diagnosis are proposed as a tool to help policy makers to address water scarcity under climate change.

A risk-simulation based optimization model for wetland reallocation on Yongding floodplain, China

In this study, a wetland reallocation (WR) plan based on water-indicator is designed to confront various ecological crisis and flood risks on Yonding River Floodplain, China, where converting farmland to wetland (CFW) and water diversion (WD) can be considered to balance the tradeoff between manual land utilization and wetland conservation. A risk-simulation based two-stage stochastic fuzzy (RTF) method is developed for handling multiple uncertainties in a WR issue, which cannot only map various risks (including water shortage, soil loss, flood and pollution) through Geographic Information System (GIS), but also deal with objective / subjective uncertainties in a two-stage context. Through risk-simulation, numbers of risk maps have been obtained based on various WD scenarios, which displayed that ecological risk would be the lowest when water diversion reached 200 x 106m3, while flooding risk would increase. Meanwhile, based on WR optimization, natural-artificial wetland reallocations would decrease ecological loss about US$ 0.92 x 106 at highest. Moreover, the optimized land utilizations under various CFW and WD scenarios have been obtained. This study is useful for policymakers of floodplain to adjust current land utilization strategies with consideration of artificial regulations in a sustainable manner.

黄河三角洲刺槐群落土壤优先流及养分分布特征

黄河三角洲湿地面临严重的水资源短缺、湿地退化、土壤盐碱化等问题，湿地土壤干旱缺水，土壤收缩产生裂隙等优先流路径，在小尺度上改变湿地内部以及湿地板块之间水文连通性，小尺度水文效应往往制约大尺度水文连通性，基于当前社会对湿地修复的迫切需求，从小尺度对水文连通研究有必要加以重视。然而，目前的研究多集中在大尺度水文连通的阐述，为进一步明确黄河三角洲湿地小尺度水文连通和养分随优先流路径运移分布情况，以此区域典型刺槐群落为研究对象，基于室外染色示踪实验和室内图像处理技术，分析土壤优先流形态和分布特征，并探究优先流和土壤养分含量之间的关系。结果表明：（1）刺槐群落染色面积比随土壤深度变化主要包括2个阶段，第一阶段：优先流和基质流相互影响作用显著，第二阶段：优先流和基质流相互作用不显著，优先流强度逐渐增强，明显存在指流现象，极少部分管流现象。（2）刺槐群落染色面积比、基质流深度和百分之五十染色深度的数值较大，优先流区染色面积比较小，基质流深度发生在土壤深10-15 cm区间，该类型植被群落水流均匀入渗深度较大，优先流和基质流相互作用程度大，水文连通性较高。（3）优先流区土壤有机碳、有机质、全氮、全磷和有效磷含量值均高于基质流区；（4）土壤优先流区染色面积比与5种养分指标均呈负相关关系，有机碳、有机质和有效磷含量受优先流路径影响显著。（5）土壤中有机碳、有机质和有效磷含量在一定程度上可以衡量土壤优先流发育水平。研究结果可为黄河三角洲湿地生态系统保护和管理提供参考。;More serious environmental problems including water shortage, wetland degradation, and soil salinization are gradually recognized in the Yellow River Delta wetland. Due to water deficiency of wetland soils, preferential pathways including soil cracks occur as soil shrinkage which changes the hydrological connectivity of inside wetlands or between wetlands at small scale, and small scale hydrological processes tend to affect the large scale hydrological cycle, depending on our urgent needs to restore wetlands, it is necessary to pay attentions to the study of hydrological connectivity research from microcosmic perspectives to promote the understanding of connotation of hydrological connectivity. However, most of the current studies focused on the hydrological connectivity from macroscopical perspectives. In order to clarify the small-scale hydrological connectivity in the Yellow River Delta, the morphology and distribution characteristics of preferential flow in soil were analyzed based on outdoor dyeing tracer experiment and indoor image processing technology. The relationship between preferential flow and soil nutrient content was explored. The results show that:(1) There are two stages in the variation of the dry coverage of Robinia pseudoacacia Linn community with soil depth. The first stage:the interaction between preferential flow and matrix flow is significant; the second stage:the interaction between preferential flow and matrix flow is not significant, and the intensity of preferential flow is gradually increasing, finger flow phenomenon and a small part of pipe flow phenomenon is observed. (2) Vertical soil-profile indexes (dry coverage, dry coverage of preferential pathway, depth of diffusion area, and depth of 50% dry coverage) reveal a strong interaction between preferential flow and matrix flow, and depth of diffusion area occurs in the range of 10-15cm in the soil, which indicates that this type of vegetation community has large depth of water infiltration flow uniformly and the hydrological connectivity is high; (3) The contents of soil organic carbon, organic matter, total nitrogen, total phosphorus and available phosphorus in preferential flow area were higher than those in matrix flow area; (4) The dye coverage ratio of preferential flow area was negatively correlated with the five nutrient indexes, and the contents of organic carbon, organic matter and available phosphorus were significantly affected by preferential pathway. (5) The content of organic carbon, organic matter and available phosphorus in soil can measure the development level of preferential flow to a certain extent. These results can provide references for wetland ecosystem protection and management in the Yellow River Delta.

Automatic Mapping of Rice Growth Stages Using the Integration of SENTINEL-2, MOD13Q1, and SENTINEL-1

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a staple food crop for more than half of the world’s population. Rice production is facing a myriad of problems, including water shortage, climate, and land-use change. Accurate maps of rice growth stages are critical for monitoring rice production and assessing its impacts on national and global food security. Rice growth stages are typically monitored by coarse-resolution satellite imagery. However, it is difficult to accurately map due to the occurrence of mixed pixels in fragmented and patchy rice fields, as well as cloud cover, particularly in tropical countries. To solve these problems, we developed an automated mapping workflow to produce near real-time multi-temporal maps of rice growth stages at a 10-m spatial resolution using multisource remote sensing data (Sentinel-2, MOD13Q1, and Sentinel-1). This study was investigated between 1 June and 29 September 2018 in two (wet and dry) areas of Java Island in Indonesia. First, we built prediction models based on Sentinel-2, and fusion of MOD13Q1/Sentinel-1 using the ground truth information. Second, we applied the prediction models on all images in area and time and separation between the non-rice planting class and rice planting class over the cropping pattern. Moreover, the model’s consistency on the multitemporal map with a 5–30-day lag was investigated. The result indicates that the Sentinel-2 based model classification gives a high overall accuracy of 90.6% and the fusion model MOD13Q1/Sentinel-1 shows 78.3%. The performance of multitemporal maps was consistent between time lags with an accuracy of 83.27–90.39% for Sentinel-2 and 84.15% for the integration of Sentinel-2/MOD13Q1/Sentinel-1. The results from this study show that it is possible to integrate multisource remote sensing for regular monitoring of rice phenology, thereby generating spatial information to support local-, national-, and regional-scale food security applications.

Air Pollution a Major Health Hazard In Future

Population, pollution and poverty are the major problems faced by the globe. These problems are interconnected with each other. Population is the major problem that leads to other problems. The population explosion along with urbanization and industrialization has greatly increased the intensity of environmental pollution. More than two million annual deaths and billions of cases of diseases are attributed to pollution. All over the world, people experience the negative effects of environmental degradation ecosystems decline, including water shortage, fisheries depletion, natural disasters due to deforestation and unsafe management and disposal of toxic and dangerous wastes and products. Indigenous peoples suffer directly from the degradation of the ecosystems that they rely upon for their livelihoods. Climate change is exacerbating many of these negative effects of environmental degradation on human health and wellbeing and is also causing new ones, including an increase in extreme weather events such as hot, cold spells of temperature or wet or dry spells of rainfall or cyclones or floods. Last year floods in States of Kerala and Karnataka were also attributed to climatic changes. Recent Delhi climatic conditions are also very alarming. The above facts clearly show the close link between the environment and the enjoyment of human rights, and justify an integrated approach to environment and human rights. The good practices were collected at the international, national and regional levels in collaboration through regional/sub-regional consultations as well as questionnaires and surveys Environmental factors must be favorable for the existence and development of living organisms. It is prime responsibility of human to protect, preserve and to sustain nature for the well being of every organism on this earth.

Extreme heat and drought in 1473 and their impacts in Europe in the context of the early 1470s

Droughts and heatwaves are both dangerous natural hazards with a potential significant impact on human societies. In order to understand these hazards, it is important to examine such extreme events in the past. During the years 1471 to 1474, warm and dry weather conditions are described in most parts of Europe. Until now, these extraordinary years have not been examined in depth. Moreover, in spring 1473, a great drought and heat occurred in Europe. This heatwave facilitated a fast phenological development. During the summer and the autumn, temperatures were unusually high, and extremely dry weather conditions continued. In many places, the harvest began remarkably early, and there was abundant wine of a good quality. Fruit trees even bloomed for the second time in autumn. The heat and drought had a considerable impact on the environment and also caused damage to agriculture and society, including water shortages, harvest failures and rising food prices. The weather conditions of the years from 1471 to 1474 were outstanding during the fifteenth century and the heatwave and drought, as well as impacts on environment, economy, and society in the year 1473, were comparable to—if not more severe—than those in the year 1540. Learning from past climate anomalies like the 1473 drought in Europe is important for evaluating more recent and future climate extremes under increasing anthropogenic pressure.

Rainwater Harvesting - A Potential Safety Net for Water Security in Ghana

Water is an important medium for many activities including water for consumptive and non-consumptive purposes. Lack of water quality and quantity does not only hampers socio-economic development but affects agricultural productivity, sustainable development, sanitation, health, industrial development and the ecosystem. The advent of climate change is known to affect water flow, increases dry season spells and drought, and influences reservoirs or deep groundwater wells thus worsening the precarious water situation in Africa. About 1.7 billion of the world population lives in water scarce regions and this is projected to grow to about 300% or 5 billion by 2025 especially in Africa. In Ghana, population growth, pollution of river bodies, high evapotranspiration, erratic rainfall pattern and environmental degradation among others have affected water availability and use. These challenges will therefore require a deliberate water harvesting, integrated water management and conservation, water use efficiency and capacity building to withstand the dwindling trend of water resources in the country. This paper therefore seeks to inform policy makers, stakeholders, institutions responsible for water resources management among others to consider water harvesting as a potential solution to the many challenges including water shortages, floods, and land degradation. The article was carried out through extensive review of literature, official reports and policy documents. It shows the need to adopt appropriate techniques for rainwater harvesting to address the perennial water scarcity in the country.

Perceptions of climate change and water availability in the Mediterranean tourist sector

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is understand these perceptions and identify main problems associated to climate change in order to design effective mitigation and adaptation strategies to guarantee the sustainability of tourism and natural resources. The Mediterranean basin is a leading international tourist destination and one that is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Although these effects are largely known, in-depth studies of how they and the associated risks are perceived by key tourism stakeholders have not been performed.Design/methodology/approachInterviews were held with 31 hotels, campsites and rural lodgings in the Muga River basin in north-east Catalonia, in which both owners and managers were asked about their perceptions of climate change, effects and countermeasures.FindingsPerceptions of climate change and its effects varied according to the type of establishment and location (coast, cities or inland). Significant differences were observed for perceptions of how responsibilities for implementing mitigation and adaptation measures to counter the effects of climate change, including water shortages, should be shared out between the main agents with an interest in guaranteeing the sustainability of tourism, namely, government bodies, tourist establishments and clients. The predominant opinion, however, was that the bulk of the responsibility should lie with government bodies.Practical implicationsOnly when those responsible for running tourist establishments are aware of the risks of climate change, it will be possible to design and implement effective short-, medium- and long-term strategies aimed at strengthening the resilience of the tourist industry.Originality/valueThe originality of this study lies in its novel methodology and approach, which involved analyzing perceptions of climate change, including water shortages and its effects among owners and managers of different types of tourist accommodation establishments in distinct parts of the same area.

The He-Zhang (River chief/keeper) system: an innovation in China's water governance and management

ABSTRACTGoverning and managing water sustainably is a critical issue globally. Given its rapid economic development and the effects of global climate change, China faces serious water challenges including water shortages and pollution. The Chinese government has long been considering governance reforms which will improve water and river management. Conscious of the negative effects of fragmented institutions and the lack of incentives to support environmentally-sustainable management, China has recently established and implemented the ‘He-Zhang’ system - a network of River Chiefs and River Keepers across the country and at all administrative levels. This paper outlines the origins, purpose and structure of the system; summarizes progress with its implementation; and identifies some of its future challenges.

Sustaining the unsustainable? Environmental impact assessment and overdevelopment in Bali

Bali faces serious environmental crises arising from overdevelopment of the tourism and real estate industry, including water shortage, rapid conversion of agricultural land, pollution, and economic and cultural displacement. This article traces continuities and discontinuities in the role of Indonesian environmental impact assessment (EIA) during and since the authoritarian ‘New Order’ period. Following the fall of the Suharto regime in 1998, the ‘Reform Era’ brought dramatic changes, democratizing and decentralizing Indonesia's governing institutions. Focusing on case studies of resort development projects in Bali from the 1990s to the present, this study examines the ongoing capture of legal processes by vested interests at the expense of prospects for sustainable development. Two particularly controversial projects in Benoa Bay, proposed in the different historical and structural settings of the two eras—the Bali Turtle Island Development (BTID) at Serangan Island in the Suharto era and the Tirta Wahana Bali Internasional (TWBI) proposal for the other side of Benoa in the ‘Reform Era’—enable instructive comparison. The study finds that despite significant changes in the environmental law regime, the EIA process still finds itself a tool of powerful interests in the efforts of political and economic elites to maintain control of decision-making and to displace popular opposition forces to the margins.

Exploring the factors influencing ecological land change for China's Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Region using big data

With the advent of big data, such data regarding the harmonious relationship of “people-land-time” have also gradually entered into the fields of natural resource management. Ecological land is one of the important natural resources and is fundamental to maintaining ecological security. Ecological land change can lead to a series of eco-environmental problems, including water shortages, soil erosion, increased drought intensity, ecosystem damage, and biodiversity loss. Based on relevant sets of big data, including spatial land data, soil data, DEM, climatic data, and socio-economic data, this study explores the factors influencing ecological land change during the period of 2000–2005 in China's Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Region. The results show that the factors influencing different types of ecological land change have substantial differences. For forest land coverage change, Slope type, Soil organic matter (SOM) content, Farmer's population percentage, and Landform type are the most important independent variables. However, for grassland change, altitude, distance to the primary road and GDP per capita are the most important spatial determinants. Regarding the wetland change, farmer's population percentage, GDP per capita and altitude are the most important factors influencing wetland changes. This study indicates that natural and social-economic factors can affect ecological land change in China's Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Region.

Sustainable Management of Water Resources

Water is a very valuable resource, sustaining human life, production processes, and ecosystems; thus, particular attention should be paid to the management of water resources. China is now facing a serious water crisis, including water shortages, flooding, and water pollution, due to both natural and artificial causes. This water crisis has threatened human health and economic development. Natural water resources in China have two main characteristics. First, they are insufficient: Water availability in China is only 1780 m per capita, which is one quarter that of the global value and very close to the universally accepted figure for countries lacking water resources (≤ 1700 m per capita). Second, they are unevenly distributed: Although there are rich water resources in South China, there is a lack of water in North China. North China possesses 47% of the population and 65% of the farmland, but only 17% of China’s water resources. In addition, rainfall is unevenly distributed over the four seasons in China. Water pollution is caused by human activities. Industry, agriculture, and the activities of daily life all discharge wastewater and create water pollution. The seven major water systems in China all contain pollution to different degrees, including organic pollution, nutrient pollution, heavy metal pollution, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), and so forth. It is estimated that more than 100 million urban residents and 320 million residents in rural areas lack safe drinking water. Many accidents related to water pollution have occurred in China in recent years, seriously threatening people’s health and lives. Flooding and water-logging are sudden events. However, most of the responsibility for these issues lies with sewer systems that are not well-designed, constructed, and/or operated. For example, some cities in North China have had flood-related accidents that were mainly caused by problems with urban sewer systems. All these facts make it clear that close attention should be paid to the management of water resources in China in order to prevent the harmful effects of water crises. The targets of sustainable water resource management should include: providing sufficient water resources for economic development and the population’s daily lives; protecting a clean water environment; ensuring safe drinking water; and preventing disasters caused by flooding and water-logging. To ensure that the above targets are achieved, the sustainable management of water resources in China should be based on these strategies [1,2]: • Making water conservation the main priority, and controlling water demand; • Controlling water pollution rigorously and reducing the pollution created by sources; • Using wastewater as water, energy, and fertilizer resources; and • Preventing flooding and water-logging disasters, while using rainwater as a water resource.

Prolonged dry spells in the Levant region: climatologic-synoptic analysis

Prolonged dry spells (PDSs) during the rainy season have severe environmental implications, including water shortage, damage to agriculture and increased potential for forest fires. This holds in particular for vulnerable regions, such as the Levant, already subjected to decrease in rainfall and lengthening of dry spells, in agreement with predictions of climatic models for the coming decades. This is the first comprehensive study which identifies atmospheric patterns responsible for PDS occurrence on thousands of kilometres scale. A total of 178 PDSs, of >7 days, were found within the 62 seasons studied. A subjective inspection of upper-level geopotential height (GPH), sea-level pressure (SLP) and lower-level temperature anomalies point at three types, each associated with a definite climatic regime. The ‘subtropical’ type is associated with an expansion of the subtropical high over the majority of the Mediterranean, accompanied by northward migration of the Mediterranean cyclone track. The ‘baroclinic’, the most frequent type, is induced by a pronounced stagnant ridge over the eastern Mediterranean, being a part of Rossby wave, accompanied by a pronounced trough/cut-off low over the western Mediterranean. The ‘polar’ type results from intrusion of lower-level continental polar air associated with upper-level trough east of the Levant and blocking high over central Europe. Quantitative indices were derived for objective classification of the types, based on the climatic regimes defined subjectively, and the centers of action representing each. Composite maps for each type indicate substantial differences in the synoptic configuration and the factors explaining absence of rain. For the subtropical type, the dynamic factor of subsidence is dominant. For the polar, the thermodynamic factor of continental dry advection is dominant and for the baroclinic, both dynamic and thermodynamic factors are important. Classification of PDSs according to synoptic scenarios enables analysis of future changes in the occurrence and duration pattern of PDSs, using output of climate models.

HyMeX: A 10-Year Multidisciplinary Program on the Mediterranean Water Cycle

The Mediterranean countries are experiencing important challenges related to the water cycle, including water shortages and floods, extreme winds, and ice/snow storms, that impact critically the socioeconomic vitality in the area (causing damage to property, threatening lives, affecting the energy and transportation sectors, etc.). There are gaps in our understanding of the Mediterranean water cycle and its dynamics that include the variability of the Mediterranean Sea water budget and its feedback on the variability of the continental precipitation through air–sea interactions, the impact of precipitation variability on aquifer recharge, river discharge, and soil water content and vegetation characteristics specific to the Mediterranean basin and the mechanisms that control the location and intensity of heavy precipitating systems that often produce floods. The Hydrological Cycle in Mediterranean Experiment (HyMeX) program is a 10-yr concerted experimental effort at the international level that aims to advance the scientific knowledge of the water cycle variability in all compartments (land, sea, and atmosphere) and at various time and spatial scales. It also aims to improve the processes-based models needed for forecasting hydrometeorological extremes and the models of the regional climate system for predicting regional climate variability and evolution. Finally, it aims to assess the social and economic vulnerability to hydrometeorological natural hazards in the Mediterranean and the adaptation capacity of the territories and populations therein to provide support to policy makers to cope with water-related problems under the influence of climate change, by linking scientific outcomes with related policy requirements.

A natural stream created by human engineering: investigations on the succession of the Marchfeld Canal in Austria

The Marchfeld, north-east of the river Danube between the cities of Vienna and Hainburg (Austria) is known for its special geological and climatic conditions, including water shortage. Water is heavily used for agricultural purposes and for domestic use due to the proximity of Vienna, Austria's capital. An artificial channel resembling a natural river of 18.8 km was built to carry up to 15 m3/s of water diverted from the Danube. It is supposed to increase the groundwater level, supply sufficient water for irrigation and supplement flows in two small rivers, the Russbach and the Stempfelbach. In 1992 the channel was finally filled. This project review describes the development of the fluvial ecosystem. The research encompassed limnology (nutrients, algae, macrophytes, invertebrates), fish-ecology (colonisation, migration, habitat preference, fish pass function), hydrology (current patterns, current model), sedimentology (surveys, types of structures, quality and quantity of the sediment) and bioclimatology (bioclimate, physical limnology). Main differences between the newly created watercourse and a natural river are highlighted. From an ecological point of view, the Marchfeld Canal could be regarded more like an artificial branch of the river Danube than an independent river system. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.