ALBERT

Description: To facilitate progress in climate change adaptation policy and practice, it is important not only to ensure the production of accurate, comprehensive and relevant information, but also the easy, timely and affordable access to it. This can contribute to better-informed decisions and improve the design and implementation of adaptation policies and other relevant initiatives. Web-based platforms can play an important role in communicating and distributing data, information and knowledge that become constantly available, reaching out to a large group of potential users. Indeed in the last decade there has been an extensive increase in the number of platforms developed for this purpose in many fields including climate change adaptation. This short paper concentrates on the web-based adaptation platforms developed in Europe. It provides an overview of the recently emerged landscape, examines the basic characteristics of a set of platforms that operate at national, transnational and European level, and discusses some of the key challenges related to their development, maintenance and overall management. Findings presented in this short paper are discussed in greater detailed in the Technical Report of the European Environment Agency Overview of climate change adaptation platforms in Europe.

Description: The objective of this study is to investigate the contribution of biomass burning emissions to O3 production during small-scale dry-grass fires over Western Russia (24 April–10 May 2006) as well as to quantify the effect of biogenic emissions in this environment. By using the Factor Separation methodology, we evaluate the pure contribution of each one of these two sources and we appoint the significance of their synergistic effect on O3 production. The total (actual) contribution of each source is also estimated. Sensitivity simulations assess the effect of various fire emission parameters, such as chemical composition, emissions magnitude and injection height. The model results are compared with O3 and isoprene observations from 117 and 9 stations of the EMEP network, respectively. Model computations show that the fire episode determines the sensitivity of O3 chemistry in the area. The reference run which represents grass fires with high NOx/CO emission ratio (0.06) is characterized by VOC-sensitive O3 production. In that case, the pure impact of fire emissions on surface O3 is up to 40–45 ppb, while their synergistic effect with the biogenic emissions is proven significant (up to 8 ppb). Under a lower NOx/CO molar ratio (0.025, representative of agricultural residues), the area is characterized by NOx-sensitive chemistry and the maximum surface O3 predictions are almost doubled due to higher O3 production at the fire spots and lower fires' NO emissions.

Description: Recent and future changes in temperature and precipitation climate extremes are estimated using the Hadley Centre PRECIS climate model for the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East region. The area of interest is considered vulnerable to extreme climate events as there is evidence for a temperature rise while precipitation tends to decline, suggesting likely effects on vital socioeconomic sectors in the region. Observations have been obtained for the recent period (1961–1990) and used to evaluate the model output. The spatial distribution of recent temporal trends in temperature indicates strong increasing in minimum temperature over the eastern Balkan Peninsula, Turkey and the Arabian Peninsula. The rate of warming reaches 0.4–0.5 °C decade−1 in a large part of the domain, while warming is expected to be strongest in summer (0.6–0.7 °C decade−1) in the E-Balkans and W-Turkey. The trends in annual and summer maximum temperature are estimated at approximately 0.5 and 0.6 °C decade−1. Recent estimates do not indicate statistically significant trends in precipitation except for individual sub-regions. Results indicate a future warming trend for the study area over the last 30 yr of the 21st century. Trends are estimated to be positive and statistically significant in nearly the entire region. The annual trend patterns for both minimum and maximum temperature show warming rates of approximately 0.4–0.6 °C decade−1, with pronounced warming over the Middle Eastern countries. Summer temperatures reveal a gradual warming (0.5–0.9 °C decade−1) over much of the region. The model projects drying trends by 5–30% in annual precipitation towards the end of the 21st century, with the number of wet days decreasing at the rate of 10–30 days yr−1, while heavy precipitation is likely to decrease in the high-elevation areas by 15 days yr−1.

Description: Recent and future changes in temperature and precipitation climate extremes are estimated using the Hadley Centre PRECIS ("Providing REgional Climates for Impacts Studies") climate model for the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East region. The area of interest is considered vulnerable to extreme climate events as there is evidence for a temperature rise while precipitation tends to decline, suggesting likely effects on vital socioeconomic sectors in the region. Observations have been obtained for the recent period (1961–1990) and used to evaluate the model output. The spatial distribution of recent temporal trends in temperature indicates strong increasing in minimum temperature over the eastern Balkan Peninsula, Turkey and the Arabian Peninsula. The rate of warming reaches 0.4–0.5 °C decade−1 in a large part of the domain, while warming is expected to be strongest in summer (0.6–0.7 °C decade−1) in the eastern Balkans and western Turkey. The trends in annual and summer maximum temperature are estimated at approximately 0.5 and 0.6 °C decade−1 respectively. Recent estimates do not indicate statistically significant trends in precipitation except for individual sub-regions. Results indicate a future warming trend for the study area over the last 30 years of the 21st century. Trends are estimated to be positive and statistically significant in nearly the entire region. The annual trend patterns for both minimum and maximum temperature show warming rates of approximately 0.4–0.6 °C decade−1, with pronounced warming over the Middle Eastern countries. Summer temperatures reveal a gradual warming (0.5–0.9 °C decade−1) over much of the region. The model projects drying trends by 5–30% in annual precipitation towards the end of the 21st century, with the number of wet days decreasing at the rate of 10–30 days year−1, while heavy precipitation is likely to decrease in the high-elevation areas by 15 days year−1.

Description: Current trends in the Mediterranean climate and more specifically in Greece indicate longer and more intense summer droughts that even extend out of season. In connection to this, the frequency of forest fire occurrence and intensity is on the rise. In the present study, the Canadian Fire Weather Index (FWI) is used in order to investigate the relationship between fire risk and meteorological conditions in Greece. FWI is a meteorologically-based index designed in Canada and used worldwide, including the Mediterranean basin, to estimate fire danger in a generalized fuel type, based solely on weather observations. Here, an evaluation of the index is initially performed for the Greek territory using fire observations that cover a 15-yr period. Three critical fire risk threshold values are established for the area of Greece; FWI = 15, FWI = 30 and FWI = 45 increasing from the north-west to the south-east. Subsequently, a regional climate model is employed providing input for the FWI system to investigate the impacts of climate change on fire risk for two future time periods, 2021–2050 and 2071–2100. Days with critical fire risk are expected to increase by as many as 50 days per year by the end of the century.

Description: Current trends in the Mediterranean climate, and more specifically in Greece, indicate longer and more intense summer droughts that even extend out of season. In connection to this, the frequency of forest fire occurrence and intensity is on the rise. In the present study, the Canadian Fire Weather Index (FWI) is used in order to investigate the relationship between fire risk and meteorological conditions in Greece. FWI is a meteorologically based index designed in Canada and used worldwide, including the Mediterranean Basin, to estimate fire danger in a generalised fuel type based solely on weather observations. Here, an evaluation of the index is initially performed for the Greek territory using fire observations that cover a 15 yr period. Three critical fire risk threshold values are established for the area of Greece based on daily mean meteorological data: FWI = 15, FWI = 30 and FWI = 45, increasing from the northwest to the southeast. Subsequently, a regional climate model is employed providing input for the FWI system to investigate the impacts of climate change on fire risk for two future time periods, 2021–2050 and 2071–2100, under the A1B emissions scenario. Days with critical fire risk are expected to increase by as many as 50 days per year by the end of the century.

Description: The objective of this study is to investigate the contribution of biomass burning in the formation of tropospheric O3. Furthermore, the impact of biogenic emissions under fire and no fire conditions is examined. This is achieved by applying the CAMx chemistry transport model for a wild-land fire event over Western Russia (24 April–10 May 2006). The model results are compared with O3 and isoprene observations from 117 and 9 stations of the EMEP network, respectively. Model computations show that the fire episode altered the O3 sensitivity in the area. In particular, the fire emissions increased surface O3 over Northern and Eastern Europe by up to 80% (40–45 ppb). In case of adopting a high fire NOx/CO emission ratio (0.06), the area (Eastern Europe and Western Russia) is characterized by VOC-sensitive O3 production and the impact of biogenic emissions is proven significant, contributing up to 8 ppb. Under a lower ratio (0.025), total surface O3 is almost doubled due to higher O3 production at the fire spots and lower fires' NO emissions. In this case as well as in the absence of fires, the impact of biogenic emissions is almost negligible. Injection height of the fire emissions accounted for O3 differences of the order of 10%, both at surface and over the planetary boundary layer (PBL).