Changes in the Hydrological Cycle
The global hydrological cycle is composed of many different elements, which include evaporation from water surfaces and bare soil, evapotranspiration from vegetated land, transport of water vapour in the atmosphere, cloud droplet formation and cloud dynamics, the mechanisms leading to liquid and solid precipitation, surface and river runoff, and subsurface processes such as root dynamics in vegetation and groundwater flow. All these components react in a different way to climate change, sometimes amplifying each other’s action, sometimes giving rise to negative feedbacks. In addition, variations in the hydrological cycle often take place at regional or even local scale (such as variations in ecosystem composition or runoff processes) but can trigger modifications that have an upscale effect possibly leading to global changes in the water cycle.
Precipitation is an especially difficult variable, as it is characterized by strong intermittency at all scales, which makes it often hard to model, and strong orographic dependence, making it hard to estimate from sparse rain gauges networks. The measurement of precipitation itself, either by ground stations, radars or satellites, is still a challenging task which could hamper efforts devoted to understanding and modelling the hydrological cycle and its variability.
In this Collaborative Programme, developed in the framework of ECRA, we intend to foster the study of the changes of the hydrological cycle at global and regional scale, with special emphasis on the following set of research tasks:
- Global precipitation changes and runoff
- Aerosols and the hydrological cycle
- Hydrological cycle and precipitation in mountain areas
- Summer droughts and heat waves at continental midlatitudes
- Hydrological cycle in the Mediterranean basin
- Societal effects of changes in the hydrological cycle
The research tasks illustrated above will be pursued by the research groups and Institutions involved in ECRA who participate in this specific CP, in collaboration with other European and international scientific initiatives devoted to the study of the hydrological cycle, such as the Hymex program, the MedCORDEX initiative, the Ev-K2-CNR SHARE program, the TERENO-MED Water Science Alliance, the SICMED Consortium, the French-Italian PAPRIKA project, the EC-Earth Consortium, the activities of ICIMOD and specific JPI. Collaborations are envisaged with existing EU Projects and new proposals will be developed during the research activities.
The first action of the CP “Changes in the Hydrological Cycle†will be the organisation of a scientific pilot workshop organised along the tasks illustrated above.
ECRA pilot workshop: Changes in the Hydrological Cycle
5./6. March 2012, National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Rome, Italy
The goals of the workshop will be to:
- Review the present understanding of the variability and changes of the hydrological cycle in regions where strong ocean-atmosphere (i.e. cyclogenetic areas) or land-atmosphere (e.g. mountains) interactions take place
- Review ongoing research activities and projects in the field
- Discuss the limits and improvements in the observational system
- Discuss model improving strategies
- Identify critical knowledge gaps
If you are interested to participate in this workshop please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , ISAC-CNR, Turin, Italy and This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , ENEA UTMEA-CLIM, Rome, Italy.
More information on logistics and hotel recommendations can be found here. A preliminary programme of the workshop together with a list of participants is available here.
At the end of the workshop, the scientific agenda and the list of tasks of the CP will be completed and updated, and specific research groups will be established.
