Project: Integration of climate seasonal prediction and ecosystem impact modeling for an efficient adaptation of water resources management to increasing climate extreme events
Acronym | WATExR |
Duration | 15/09/2017 - 14/09/2020 |
Project Topic | Water resources are closely dependent on the services supplied by ecosystems, that maintain both water quantity and quality. Climate extreme events, like heat waves, droughts and floods, stress ecosystems and compromise their capacity to provide key services related to water (e.g., decreasing streamflows, reduced capacity to process nutrients and organic matter, mobilization of pollutants, compromised fish stocks). This implies huge economic and social impacts, which are expected to be even more relevant in the future. However, despite the vulnerability of the water quality sector to climate change, there has been limited development of solution-oriented tools integrating Climate Services and ecosystem impacts modeling for efficient adaptation to climate extreme events.WATExR aims to integrate state-of-the-art climate seasonal prediction and water quality simulation in an advanced solution to ensure efficient decision making and adaptation of water resources management to an increased frequency of climate extreme events. Our goal is to assess the potential of solution-oriented, innovative integrative advanced modeling tool implemented in QGIS for understanding and anticipating the impacts of climate extreme events, thus increasing the adoption of Climate Services in water resources management. This will be achieved by identifying end-user demands in 7 case studies in Europe and Australia relating to the impact of climate extreme events on water supply companies, fisheries, and water authorities implementing the Water Framework Directive (WFD). WATExR activities will be implemented in a co-development framework ensuring a solution-oriented approach tailored to user demands. Finally, WATExR will join the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP2), contributing a selected set of water quality impact models following the ISIMIP2 simulation protocol. |
Website | visit project website |
Network | ERA4CS |
Call | ERA4CS Joint Call on Researching and Advancing Climate Services Development |