ALBERT

Description: As the negative impacts of hydrological extremes increase in large parts of the world, a better understanding of the drivers of change in risk and impacts is essential for effective flood and drought risk management and climate adaptation. However, there is a lack of comprehensive, empirical data about the processes, interactions and feedbacks in complex human-water systems leading to flood and drought impacts. To fill this gap, we present an IAHS Panta Rhei benchmark dataset containing socio-hydrological data of paired events, i.e. two floods or two droughts that occurred in the same area (Kreibich et al. 2017, 2019). The contained 45 paired events occurred in 42 different study areas (in three study areas we have data on two paired events), which cover different socioeconomic and hydroclimatic contexts across all continents. The dataset is unique in covering floods and droughts, in the number of cases assessed and in the amount of qualitative and quantitative socio-hydrological data contained. References to the data sources are provided in 2022-002_Kreibich-et-al_Key_data_table.xlsx where possible. Based on templates, we collected detailed, review-style reports describing the event characteristics and processes in the case study areas, as well as various semi-quantitative data, categorised into management, hazard, exposure, vulnerability and impacts. Sources of the data were classified as follows: scientific study (peer-reviewed paper and PhD thesis), report (by governments, administrations, NGOs, research organisations, projects), own analysis by authors, based on a database (e.g. official statistics, monitoring data such as weather, discharge data, etc.), newspaper article, and expert judgement. The campaign to collect the information and data on paired events started at the EGU General Assembly in April 2019 in Vienna and was continued with talks promoting the paired event data collection at various conferences. Communication with the Panta Rhei community and other flood and drought experts identified through snowballing techniques was important. Thus, data on paired events were provided by professionals with excellent local knowledge of the events and risk management practices.

Description: Risk management has reduced vulnerability to floods and droughts globally1,2, yet their impacts are still increasing3. An improved understanding of the causes of changing impacts is therefore needed, but has been hampered by a lack of empirical data4,5. On the basis of a global dataset of 45 pairs of events that occurred within the same area, we show that risk management generally reduces the impacts of floods and droughts but faces difficulties in reducing the impacts of unprecedented events of a magnitude not previously experienced. If the second event was much more hazardous than the first, its impact was almost always higher. This is because management was not designed to deal with such extreme events: for example, they exceeded the design levels of levees and reservoirs. In two success stories, the impact of the second, more hazardous, event was lower, as a result of improved risk management governance and high investment in integrated management. The observed difficulty of managing unprecedented events is alarming, given that more extreme hydrological events are projected owing to climate change

Description: In the coming years, the meteorological hazard will increase in intensity and frequency, producing higher rainfall volumes or more prolonged droughts. In the case of flooding in urban catchments, previous research has evaluated the use of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) as a potential solution to reduce rainfall-flood transformation. However, possible future socioeconomic scenarios will likely need more robust solutions for adaptation to these phenomena. We propose the use of index insurance to protect urban areas under the effects of extreme rainfall events as a complement in structuring city resilience. A combined proposal of NBS and insurance analyzed under an economic perspective complements the decision making for the definition of the useful range of these measures, considering Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES); a collection of municipal fees for excessive producers of runoff, and insurance costs depending on the degree of adaptation of neighborhoods. Our proposal is applied in the Gregório catchment in the city of São Carlos, São Paulo-Brazil. Preliminary results show how proactive scenarios manage to mitigate much of the increases in additional surface runoff due to the effects of climate change on rainfall. In addition, in socioeconomic scenarios with poor NBS development and high degree of urbanization, solutions using risk transfer are shown to be more attractive and consistent with the type of socioeconomic narrative adopted.

Description: As the adverse impacts of hydrological extremes increase in many regions of the world, a better understanding of the drivers of changes in risk and impacts is essential for effective flood and drought risk management and climate adaptation. However, there is currently a lack of comprehensive, empirical data about the processes, interactions, and feedbacks in complex human–water systems leading to flood and drought impacts. Here we present a benchmark dataset containing socio-hydrological data of paired events, i.e. two floods or two droughts that occurred in the same area. The 45 paired events occurred in 42 different study areas and cover a wide range of socio-economic and hydro-climatic conditions. The dataset is unique in covering both floods and droughts, in the number of cases assessed and in the quantity of socio-hydrological data. The benchmark dataset comprises (1) detailed review-style reports about the events and key processes between the two events of a pair; (2) the key data table containing variables that assess the indicators which characterize management shortcomings, hazard, exposure, vulnerability, and impacts of all events; and (3) a table of the indicators of change that indicate the differences between the first and second event of a pair. The advantages of the dataset are that it enables comparative analyses across all the paired events based on the indicators of change and allows for detailed context- and location-specific assessments based on the extensive data and reports of the individual study areas. The dataset can be used by the scientific community for exploratory data analyses, e.g. focused on causal links between risk management; changes in hazard, exposure and vulnerability; and flood or drought impacts. The data can also be used for the development, calibration, and validation of socio-hydrological models. The dataset is available to the public through the GFZ Data Services (Kreibich et al., 2023, https://doi.org/10.5880/GFZ.4.4.2023.001).

Description: Developing an understanding of how land use and climate change impacts groundwater provides a basis for management of water resources, environmental protection, and land management. However, there is currently no systematic guidance for characterizing these impacts on groundwater dynamics and evaluating their potential effect on management issues. To address this, a holistic framework is proposed to provide a comprehensive and logical approach for identifying and understanding these mechanisms of change. The framework will be proposed for the Guarani Aquifer System (GAS), one of the largest reservoirs of freshwater worldwide, shared by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. For this, a bibliometric and bibliographic review of studies on the GAS will be conducted. Preliminary results indicated a concentration of studies in São Paulo State (Brazil) where the aquifer is best known and most exploited. However, further research is necessary to explore the interaction between the GAS and surface water bodies, its ecosystem services, and the effect of climate change on the aquifer. The framework's applicability will be evaluated through cases of study in the SAG outcrop area. This study aims to provide a solid conceptual foundation and guidance for future research on the impact of land use and climate change on groundwater in the GAS and other similar systems.

Description: As the negative impacts of hydrological extremes increase in large parts of the world, a better understanding of the drivers of change in risk and impacts is essential for effective flood and drought risk management and climate adaptation. However, there is a lack of comprehensive, empirical data about the processes, interactions and feedbacks in complex human-water systems leading to flood and drought impacts. To fill this gap, we present an IAHS Panta Rhei benchmark dataset containing socio-hydrological data of paired events, i.e. two floods or two droughts that occurred in the same area (Kreibich et al. 2017, 2019). The contained 45 paired events occurred in 42 different study areas (in three study areas we have data on two paired events), which cover different socioeconomic and hydroclimatic contexts across all continents. The dataset is unique in covering floods and droughts, in the number of cases assessed and in the amount of qualitative and quantitative socio-hydrological data contained. References to the data sources are provided in 2023-001_Kreibich-et-al_Key_data_table.xlsx where possible. Based on templates, we collected detailed, review-style reports describing the event characteristics and processes in the case study areas, as well as various semi-quantitative data, categorised into management, hazard, exposure, vulnerability and impacts. Sources of the data were classified as follows: scientific study (peer-reviewed paper and PhD thesis), report (by governments, administrations, NGOs, research organisations, projects), own analysis by authors, based on a database (e.g. official statistics, monitoring data such as weather, discharge data, etc.), newspaper article, and expert judgement. The campaign to collect the information and data on paired events started at the EGU General Assembly in April 2019 in Vienna and was continued with talks promoting the paired event data collection at various conferences. Communication with the Panta Rhei community and other flood and drought experts identified through snowballing techniques was important. Thus, data on paired events were provided by professionals with excellent local knowledge of the events and risk management practices.

Description: Drought is a complex phenomenon, which involves natural factors such as meteorology, hydrology, agriculture, landform, geology, and is also closely related to human conditions, like society, economy and culture. At present, there are many studies on the diagnosis, transmission, causes and influences of drought events, but there are some deficiencies in the review of historical drought events under a comparative analysis of different regions. Taking the Yangtze River Basin in China and Sao Francisco Basin in Brazil as objects, we analyze how ca we learn from historical evidences in regional differences of the spatio-temporal evolution of drought events, the driving forces of drought formation, the influence of climate change, and the disaster risk reduction strategies for the two basins. Despite of different monitoring periods, we elucidate similarities and differences in the historical solutions for droughts in the two basins. Thus, we address how history can help on adaptation strategies to learn from extreme droughts and provide more robust decision support schemes. This work is supported by 2022 NSFC(China)-FAPESP(Brazil) SDIC Program.