This study used an ERA5 reanalysis SST dataset re-gridded to a common grid with a 0.25° × 0.25° spatial resolution (latitude × longitude) for the historical (1940–2014) and projected (2015–2100) periods. The SST simulation under the SSP5-8.5 scenario was carried out with outputs from eight General Circulation Models (GCMs). The bias-corrected dataset was developed using Empirical Quantile Mapping (EQM) for the historical (1940–2015) and future (2030–2100) periods while the CMIP6 model simulation was evaluated against the ERA5 monthly observed reanalysis data for temperatures over the Gulf of Guinea. Overall, the CMIP6 models’ future simulations in 2030–20100 based on the SSP5-8.5 scenario indicate that SSTs are projected, for the Gulf of Guinea, to increase by 4.61 °C, from 31 °C in the coast in 2030 to 35 °C in 2100, and 2.6 °C in the Western GOG (Sahel). The Linux-based Ncview, Ferret, and the CDO (Climate Data Operator) software packages were used to perform further data re-gridding and assess statistical functions concerning the data. In addition, ArcGIS was used to develop output maps for visualizing the spatial trends of the historical and future outputs of the GCM. The correlation coefficient (r) was used to evaluate the performance of the CMIP6 models, and the analysis showed ACCESS 0.1, CAMS CSM 0.2, CAN ESM 0.3, CMCC 0.3, and MCM 0.4, indicating that all models performed well in capturing the climatological patterns of the SSTs. The CMIP6 bias-corrected model simulations showed that increased SST warming over the GOG will be higher in the far period than the near-term climate scenario. This study affirms that the CMIP6 projections can be used for multiple assessments related to climate and hydrological impact studies and for the development of mitigation measures under a warming climate.
{"title":"Evaluation of Bias-Corrected GCM CMIP6 Simulation of Sea Surface Temperature over the Gulf of Guinea","authors":"Oye Ideki, Anthony R. Lupo","doi":"10.3390/cli12020019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/cli12020019","url":null,"abstract":"This study used an ERA5 reanalysis SST dataset re-gridded to a common grid with a 0.25° × 0.25° spatial resolution (latitude × longitude) for the historical (1940–2014) and projected (2015–2100) periods. The SST simulation under the SSP5-8.5 scenario was carried out with outputs from eight General Circulation Models (GCMs). The bias-corrected dataset was developed using Empirical Quantile Mapping (EQM) for the historical (1940–2015) and future (2030–2100) periods while the CMIP6 model simulation was evaluated against the ERA5 monthly observed reanalysis data for temperatures over the Gulf of Guinea. Overall, the CMIP6 models’ future simulations in 2030–20100 based on the SSP5-8.5 scenario indicate that SSTs are projected, for the Gulf of Guinea, to increase by 4.61 °C, from 31 °C in the coast in 2030 to 35 °C in 2100, and 2.6 °C in the Western GOG (Sahel). The Linux-based Ncview, Ferret, and the CDO (Climate Data Operator) software packages were used to perform further data re-gridding and assess statistical functions concerning the data. In addition, ArcGIS was used to develop output maps for visualizing the spatial trends of the historical and future outputs of the GCM. The correlation coefficient (r) was used to evaluate the performance of the CMIP6 models, and the analysis showed ACCESS 0.1, CAMS CSM 0.2, CAN ESM 0.3, CMCC 0.3, and MCM 0.4, indicating that all models performed well in capturing the climatological patterns of the SSTs. The CMIP6 bias-corrected model simulations showed that increased SST warming over the GOG will be higher in the far period than the near-term climate scenario. This study affirms that the CMIP6 projections can be used for multiple assessments related to climate and hydrological impact studies and for the development of mitigation measures under a warming climate.","PeriodicalId":37615,"journal":{"name":"Climate","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2024-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140473563","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Q. C. Truong, Thao Hong Nguyen, V. T. Pham, Trung Hieu Nguyen
Land-use planning plays an important role in agricultural development. However, the tools used to support planners in proposing land-use planning solutions are lacking, especially when considering saltwater intrusion conditions in coastal regions. In this study, optimization is applied by analyzing land use in developing solutions for agricultural land-use planning, wherein a multi-objective optimization model is developed to optimize land-use area, including land-use allocation, and taking into account socioeconomic and environmental factors. The model was applied to three districts of Soc Trang province, Vietnam (Long Phu, My Xuyen, and Tran De), representing three ecological regions of salt water, brackish water, and fresh water in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. The results are shown for the implementation of two multi-objective optimization scenarios (in terms of profit, labor, environment benefits, and risk reduction) as follows: (i) multi-objective optimization of agricultural land use until 2030 under normal conditions; (ii) optimizing agricultural land use until 2030 under climate change conditions similar to the 2016 drought and saltwater intrusion phenomenon in the Mekong Delta. The results demonstrate that the second scenario is the preferred option for implementing land-use planning thanks to the balance between good profits and minimizing economic and environmental risk. Land allocation was carried out by taking into account the factors of household economics, the influence of adjacent production types, local traffic, and canal systems to allocate areas toward ensuring optimal land use. This process, involving a combination of land-use optimization and spatial allocation, can help planners to improve the quality of agricultural land-use planning.
{"title":"Land-Use Optimization and Allocation for Saltwater Intrusion Regions: A Case Study in Soc Trang Province, Vietnam","authors":"Q. C. Truong, Thao Hong Nguyen, V. T. Pham, Trung Hieu Nguyen","doi":"10.3390/cli12020016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/cli12020016","url":null,"abstract":"Land-use planning plays an important role in agricultural development. However, the tools used to support planners in proposing land-use planning solutions are lacking, especially when considering saltwater intrusion conditions in coastal regions. In this study, optimization is applied by analyzing land use in developing solutions for agricultural land-use planning, wherein a multi-objective optimization model is developed to optimize land-use area, including land-use allocation, and taking into account socioeconomic and environmental factors. The model was applied to three districts of Soc Trang province, Vietnam (Long Phu, My Xuyen, and Tran De), representing three ecological regions of salt water, brackish water, and fresh water in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. The results are shown for the implementation of two multi-objective optimization scenarios (in terms of profit, labor, environment benefits, and risk reduction) as follows: (i) multi-objective optimization of agricultural land use until 2030 under normal conditions; (ii) optimizing agricultural land use until 2030 under climate change conditions similar to the 2016 drought and saltwater intrusion phenomenon in the Mekong Delta. The results demonstrate that the second scenario is the preferred option for implementing land-use planning thanks to the balance between good profits and minimizing economic and environmental risk. Land allocation was carried out by taking into account the factors of household economics, the influence of adjacent production types, local traffic, and canal systems to allocate areas toward ensuring optimal land use. This process, involving a combination of land-use optimization and spatial allocation, can help planners to improve the quality of agricultural land-use planning.","PeriodicalId":37615,"journal":{"name":"Climate","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2024-01-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140490980","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This research is framed in Education for Sustainability, aimed at promoting the inclusion of the principles and values of Sustainability in education from a holistic perspective. The study focuses on finding out the concerns and knowledge of secondary school students from Valencia (Spain), who were surveyed during the academic years 2019–2020, 2020–2021 and 2021–2022 about Sustainability and Climate Change. Examining their conceptions, initial ideas, possible shortcomings, and conceptual errors is necessary to build a teaching itinerary with the purpose of adapting and reorienting educational practice to changing situations and different social contexts. The analysis, which is part of a broader research project, focuses on studying what secondary school students know (or rather, what they do not know or are unaware of) about Sustainability and Climate Change, examining their interests and concerns. Our experimental design is based on a wide-ranging questionnaire addressed to students that also promotes initial reflections. The results show that the participating students are concerned about socio-environmental problems, particularly about Climate Change. Nevertheless, they show a limited knowledge of Sustainability. This situation must encourage the involvement of the whole educational community to achieve a greater understanding of the planetary crisis through Education for Sustainability with the final goal of ensuring an effective involvement of the younger generations who are beginning to make their own decisions.
{"title":"Secondary School Students’ Perceptions and Concerns on Sustainability and Climate Change","authors":"Raquel de Rivas, Amparo Vilches, Olga Mayoral","doi":"10.3390/cli12020017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/cli12020017","url":null,"abstract":"This research is framed in Education for Sustainability, aimed at promoting the inclusion of the principles and values of Sustainability in education from a holistic perspective. The study focuses on finding out the concerns and knowledge of secondary school students from Valencia (Spain), who were surveyed during the academic years 2019–2020, 2020–2021 and 2021–2022 about Sustainability and Climate Change. Examining their conceptions, initial ideas, possible shortcomings, and conceptual errors is necessary to build a teaching itinerary with the purpose of adapting and reorienting educational practice to changing situations and different social contexts. The analysis, which is part of a broader research project, focuses on studying what secondary school students know (or rather, what they do not know or are unaware of) about Sustainability and Climate Change, examining their interests and concerns. Our experimental design is based on a wide-ranging questionnaire addressed to students that also promotes initial reflections. The results show that the participating students are concerned about socio-environmental problems, particularly about Climate Change. Nevertheless, they show a limited knowledge of Sustainability. This situation must encourage the involvement of the whole educational community to achieve a greater understanding of the planetary crisis through Education for Sustainability with the final goal of ensuring an effective involvement of the younger generations who are beginning to make their own decisions.","PeriodicalId":37615,"journal":{"name":"Climate","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2024-01-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140491361","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Understanding long-term variations in precipitation is crucial for identifying the effects of climate change and addressing hydrological and water management issues. This study examined the trends of the mean and four extreme precipitation indices, which are the max 1-day precipitation amount, the max 5-day precipitation amount, the consecutive wet days, and the consecutive dry days, for historical observations (1971–2000) and two future periods (2041–2060/2081–2100) under RCP2.6 and RCP8.5 emission scenarios over the Nile River Basin (NRB) at 11 major stations. Firstly, the empirical quantile mapping procedure significantly improved the performance of all RCMs, particularly those with lower performance, decreasing inter-model variability and enhanced seasonal precipitation variability. The Mann–Kendall test was used to detect the trends in climate extreme indices. This study reveals that precipitation changes vary across stations, scenarios, and time periods. Addis Ababa and Kigali anticipated a significant increase in precipitation across all periods and scenarios, ranging between 8–15% and 13–27%, respectively, while Cairo and Kinshasa exhibited a significant decrease in precipitation at around 90% and 38%, respectively. Wet (dry) spells were expected to significantly decrease (increase) over most parts of the NRB, especially during the second period (2081–2100). Thereby, the increase (decrease) in dry (wet) spells could have a direct impact on water resource availability in the NRB. This study also highlights that increased greenhouse gas emissions have a greater impact on precipitation patterns. This study’s findings might be useful to decision makers as they create NRB-wide mitigation and adaptation strategies to deal with the effects of climate change.
{"title":"Assessing Future Precipitation Patterns, Extremes and Variability in Major Nile Basin Cities: An Ensemble Approach with CORDEX CORE Regional Climate Models","authors":"Gamil Gamal, P. Nejedlík, A. E. El Kenawy","doi":"10.3390/cli12010009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/cli12010009","url":null,"abstract":"Understanding long-term variations in precipitation is crucial for identifying the effects of climate change and addressing hydrological and water management issues. This study examined the trends of the mean and four extreme precipitation indices, which are the max 1-day precipitation amount, the max 5-day precipitation amount, the consecutive wet days, and the consecutive dry days, for historical observations (1971–2000) and two future periods (2041–2060/2081–2100) under RCP2.6 and RCP8.5 emission scenarios over the Nile River Basin (NRB) at 11 major stations. Firstly, the empirical quantile mapping procedure significantly improved the performance of all RCMs, particularly those with lower performance, decreasing inter-model variability and enhanced seasonal precipitation variability. The Mann–Kendall test was used to detect the trends in climate extreme indices. This study reveals that precipitation changes vary across stations, scenarios, and time periods. Addis Ababa and Kigali anticipated a significant increase in precipitation across all periods and scenarios, ranging between 8–15% and 13–27%, respectively, while Cairo and Kinshasa exhibited a significant decrease in precipitation at around 90% and 38%, respectively. Wet (dry) spells were expected to significantly decrease (increase) over most parts of the NRB, especially during the second period (2081–2100). Thereby, the increase (decrease) in dry (wet) spells could have a direct impact on water resource availability in the NRB. This study also highlights that increased greenhouse gas emissions have a greater impact on precipitation patterns. This study’s findings might be useful to decision makers as they create NRB-wide mitigation and adaptation strategies to deal with the effects of climate change.","PeriodicalId":37615,"journal":{"name":"Climate","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2024-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139530572","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Zolisanani Mpanyaro, A. M. Kalumba, Leocadia Zhou, G. A. Afuye
The increasing drought frequency poses a significant threat to global and regional river systems and ecosystem functioning, especially in the complex topographical Buffalo River catchment area of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. This study explored the impact of drought on riparian vegetation dynamics using the Normalize Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Transformed Difference Vegetation Index (TDVI) and Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI) from satellite-derived Landsat data from 1990 to 2020. The least-squares linear regression and Pearson’s correlation coefficient were used to evaluate the long-term drought in riparian vegetation cover and the role of precipitation and streamflow. The correlation results revealed a moderate positive correlation (r = 0.77) between precipitation and streamflow with a significant p-value of 0.04 suggesting consequences on riparian vegetation health. Concurrent with the precipitation, the vegetation trends showed that precipitation increased insignificantly with less of an influence while the reverse was the case with the streamflow in the long term. The results show that the NDVI and TDVI were significant indices for detecting water-stressed vegetation in river catchment dynamics. Much of these changes were reflected for MNDWI in dry areas with a higher accuracy (87.47%) and dense vegetation in the upper catchment areas. The standardized precipitation index (SPI) revealed the inter-annual and inter-seasonal variations in drought-stressed years between 1991–1996, 2000–2004, 2009–2010, 2015, and 2018–2019, while 2020 exhibited slight sensitivity to drought. The findings of this study underscore the need for heightened efforts on catchment-scale drought awareness for policy development, programs, and practices towards ecosystem-based adaptation.
{"title":"Mapping and Assessing Riparian Vegetation Response to Drought along the Buffalo River Catchment in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa","authors":"Zolisanani Mpanyaro, A. M. Kalumba, Leocadia Zhou, G. A. Afuye","doi":"10.3390/cli12010007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/cli12010007","url":null,"abstract":"The increasing drought frequency poses a significant threat to global and regional river systems and ecosystem functioning, especially in the complex topographical Buffalo River catchment area of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. This study explored the impact of drought on riparian vegetation dynamics using the Normalize Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Transformed Difference Vegetation Index (TDVI) and Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI) from satellite-derived Landsat data from 1990 to 2020. The least-squares linear regression and Pearson’s correlation coefficient were used to evaluate the long-term drought in riparian vegetation cover and the role of precipitation and streamflow. The correlation results revealed a moderate positive correlation (r = 0.77) between precipitation and streamflow with a significant p-value of 0.04 suggesting consequences on riparian vegetation health. Concurrent with the precipitation, the vegetation trends showed that precipitation increased insignificantly with less of an influence while the reverse was the case with the streamflow in the long term. The results show that the NDVI and TDVI were significant indices for detecting water-stressed vegetation in river catchment dynamics. Much of these changes were reflected for MNDWI in dry areas with a higher accuracy (87.47%) and dense vegetation in the upper catchment areas. The standardized precipitation index (SPI) revealed the inter-annual and inter-seasonal variations in drought-stressed years between 1991–1996, 2000–2004, 2009–2010, 2015, and 2018–2019, while 2020 exhibited slight sensitivity to drought. The findings of this study underscore the need for heightened efforts on catchment-scale drought awareness for policy development, programs, and practices towards ecosystem-based adaptation.","PeriodicalId":37615,"journal":{"name":"Climate","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2024-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139533557","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ndonaye Allarané, Assouhan Jonas Atchadé, Vidjinnagni Vinasse Ametooyona Azagoun, Adanvo Isaac Houngnigbe, Romain Gouataine Seingue, Tob-Ro N’Dilbé, Follygan Hetcheli
Climate variability and change are already having a negative impact on the health of tens of millions of Africans through exposure to sub-optimal temperatures and extreme weather conditions as well as increasing the range and transmission of infectious diseases. This study aims to identify climate risks and the vulnerability of health systems as well as individual coping strategies in the city of N’Djaména. To achieve this, we adopted a methodology combining both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Meteorological data on wind, temperature, and rainfall were collected at daily and monthly intervals from the National Meteorological Agency in N’Djaména. Qualitative data were collected via focus group discussions with targets of the city’s health system and quantitative data were collected from the population on the basis of oriented questionnaires. The results show that rising temperatures with heat waves, regular flooding, and strong winds are the major climate risks identified. These have numerous impacts and effects on the city’s health system due to the following vulnerability factors most recognized by city dwellers: insufficient medical equipment in health facilities (IEME), the fragile nature of people’s physiological state in the face of climatic risks (CFEP), and the failure of city sanitation strategies and policies (DSPA). This study proposes a set of recommendations for transformational adaptation of the healthcare sector, which remains vulnerable to climate risks.
{"title":"Assessment of Climate Risks, Vulnerability of Urban Health Systems, and Individual Adaptation Strategies in the City of N’Djaména (Chad)","authors":"Ndonaye Allarané, Assouhan Jonas Atchadé, Vidjinnagni Vinasse Ametooyona Azagoun, Adanvo Isaac Houngnigbe, Romain Gouataine Seingue, Tob-Ro N’Dilbé, Follygan Hetcheli","doi":"10.3390/cli12010005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/cli12010005","url":null,"abstract":"Climate variability and change are already having a negative impact on the health of tens of millions of Africans through exposure to sub-optimal temperatures and extreme weather conditions as well as increasing the range and transmission of infectious diseases. This study aims to identify climate risks and the vulnerability of health systems as well as individual coping strategies in the city of N’Djaména. To achieve this, we adopted a methodology combining both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Meteorological data on wind, temperature, and rainfall were collected at daily and monthly intervals from the National Meteorological Agency in N’Djaména. Qualitative data were collected via focus group discussions with targets of the city’s health system and quantitative data were collected from the population on the basis of oriented questionnaires. The results show that rising temperatures with heat waves, regular flooding, and strong winds are the major climate risks identified. These have numerous impacts and effects on the city’s health system due to the following vulnerability factors most recognized by city dwellers: insufficient medical equipment in health facilities (IEME), the fragile nature of people’s physiological state in the face of climatic risks (CFEP), and the failure of city sanitation strategies and policies (DSPA). This study proposes a set of recommendations for transformational adaptation of the healthcare sector, which remains vulnerable to climate risks.","PeriodicalId":37615,"journal":{"name":"Climate","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2023-12-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139141795","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Karina Angélica García-Pardo, David Moreno-Rangel, Samuel Domínguez-Amarillo, José Roberto García-Chávez
The validated influence of urban biophysical structure on environmental processes within urban areas has heightened the emphasis on studies examining morphological patterns to determine precise locations and underlying causes of urban climate conditions. The present study aims to characterise morphological patterns describing the distribution of Land Surface Temperature (LST) based on a prior classification of biophysical variables, including urban density (building intensity and average height), surface characteristics, shortwave solar radiation (broadband albedo), and seasonal variations in vegetation cover (high, medium, and low levels), retrieved from multisource datasets. To describe the distribution of LST, the variables were calculated, classified, and subsequently, analysed individually and collectively concerning winter and summer LST values applied in an urban neighbourhood in Madrid, Spain. The results from the analytical approaches (observation, correlations, and multiple regressions) were compared to define the morphological patterns. The selection of areas resulting from the morphological patterns with the most unfavourable LST values showed agreement of up to 89% in summer and up to 70% for winter, demonstrating the feasibility of the methods applied to identify priority areas for intervention by season. Notably, low and high vegetation levels emerged as pivotal biophysical characteristics influencing LST distribution compared to the other characteristics, emphasising the significance of integrating detailed seasonal vegetation variations in urban analyses.
{"title":"Characterisation of Morphological Patterns for Land Surface Temperature Distribution in Urban Environments: An Approach to Identify Priority Areas","authors":"Karina Angélica García-Pardo, David Moreno-Rangel, Samuel Domínguez-Amarillo, José Roberto García-Chávez","doi":"10.3390/cli12010004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/cli12010004","url":null,"abstract":"The validated influence of urban biophysical structure on environmental processes within urban areas has heightened the emphasis on studies examining morphological patterns to determine precise locations and underlying causes of urban climate conditions. The present study aims to characterise morphological patterns describing the distribution of Land Surface Temperature (LST) based on a prior classification of biophysical variables, including urban density (building intensity and average height), surface characteristics, shortwave solar radiation (broadband albedo), and seasonal variations in vegetation cover (high, medium, and low levels), retrieved from multisource datasets. To describe the distribution of LST, the variables were calculated, classified, and subsequently, analysed individually and collectively concerning winter and summer LST values applied in an urban neighbourhood in Madrid, Spain. The results from the analytical approaches (observation, correlations, and multiple regressions) were compared to define the morphological patterns. The selection of areas resulting from the morphological patterns with the most unfavourable LST values showed agreement of up to 89% in summer and up to 70% for winter, demonstrating the feasibility of the methods applied to identify priority areas for intervention by season. Notably, low and high vegetation levels emerged as pivotal biophysical characteristics influencing LST distribution compared to the other characteristics, emphasising the significance of integrating detailed seasonal vegetation variations in urban analyses.","PeriodicalId":37615,"journal":{"name":"Climate","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2023-12-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139148857","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
I. E. Agbehadji, Stefanie Schütte, M. Masinde, Joel Botai, T. Mabhaudhi
Early warning systems (EWS) facilitate societies’ preparedness and effective response capabilities to climate risks. Climate risks embody hazards, exposure, and vulnerability associated with a particular geographical area. Building an effective EWS requires consideration of the factors above to help people with coping mechanisms. The objective of this paper is to propose an approach that can enhance EWSs and ensure an effective climate risk resilience development. The paper focuses on the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region and highlights the issues with EWS, identifying weaknesses and characteristics of EWS to help in climate risk adaptation strategies. The SADC region was chosen as the context because it is a climate variability and change hotspot with many vulnerable populations residing in rural communities. Trending themes on building climate risk resilience were uncovered through scientific mapping and network analysis of published articles from 2008 to 2022. This paper contributes to on-going research on building climate risks resilience through early warning systems to identify hidden trends and emerging technologies from articles in order to enhance the operationalization and design of EWS. This review provides insight into technological interventions for assessing climate risks to build preparedness and resilience. From the review analysis, it is determined that there exists a plethora of evidence to support the argument that involving communities in the co-designing of EWS would improve risk knowledge, anticipation, and preparedness. Additionally, Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies provide effective tools to address existing EWS’ weaknesses, such as lack of real-time data collection and automation. However, 4IR technology is still at a nascent stage in EWS applications in Africa. Furthermore, policy across societies, institutions, and technology industries ought to be coordinated and integrated to develop a strategy toward implementing climate resilient-based EWS to facilitate the operations of disaster risk managers. The Social, Institutional, and Technology model can potentially increase communities’ resilience; therefore, it is recommended to develop EWS.
{"title":"Climate Risks Resilience Development: A Bibliometric Analysis of Climate-Related Early Warning Systems in Southern Africa","authors":"I. E. Agbehadji, Stefanie Schütte, M. Masinde, Joel Botai, T. Mabhaudhi","doi":"10.3390/cli12010003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/cli12010003","url":null,"abstract":"Early warning systems (EWS) facilitate societies’ preparedness and effective response capabilities to climate risks. Climate risks embody hazards, exposure, and vulnerability associated with a particular geographical area. Building an effective EWS requires consideration of the factors above to help people with coping mechanisms. The objective of this paper is to propose an approach that can enhance EWSs and ensure an effective climate risk resilience development. The paper focuses on the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region and highlights the issues with EWS, identifying weaknesses and characteristics of EWS to help in climate risk adaptation strategies. The SADC region was chosen as the context because it is a climate variability and change hotspot with many vulnerable populations residing in rural communities. Trending themes on building climate risk resilience were uncovered through scientific mapping and network analysis of published articles from 2008 to 2022. This paper contributes to on-going research on building climate risks resilience through early warning systems to identify hidden trends and emerging technologies from articles in order to enhance the operationalization and design of EWS. This review provides insight into technological interventions for assessing climate risks to build preparedness and resilience. From the review analysis, it is determined that there exists a plethora of evidence to support the argument that involving communities in the co-designing of EWS would improve risk knowledge, anticipation, and preparedness. Additionally, Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies provide effective tools to address existing EWS’ weaknesses, such as lack of real-time data collection and automation. However, 4IR technology is still at a nascent stage in EWS applications in Africa. Furthermore, policy across societies, institutions, and technology industries ought to be coordinated and integrated to develop a strategy toward implementing climate resilient-based EWS to facilitate the operations of disaster risk managers. The Social, Institutional, and Technology model can potentially increase communities’ resilience; therefore, it is recommended to develop EWS.","PeriodicalId":37615,"journal":{"name":"Climate","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2023-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139157208","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In recent decades, southern Africa has experienced a shift towards hotter and drier climate conditions, affecting vital sectors like agriculture, health, water, and energy. Scientific research has shown that the combination of high temperatures and unreliable rainfall can have detrimental effects on agricultural production. Thus, this study focused on assessing climate variability, with implications on rangelands in the Limpopo Province of South Africa over 38 years. Historical climate data from 15 stations, including rainfall and minimum and maximum temperatures from 1980 to 2018, were analysed. To achieve the main objective, various statistics including mean, standard deviation, and coefficient of variation (CV) were computed for all variables across four seasons. The results highlighted significant variability in rainfall, with Musina (71.2%) and Tshiombo (88.3%) stations displaying the highest variability during the September-to-April season. Both minimum and maximum temperatures displayed low variability. The Mann–Kendall test revealed both increasing and decreasing trends in minimum temperatures and rainfall across different stations. Notably, there was a significant increase in maximum temperatures. This study provides valuable climate information for decision makers, aiding in the planning and management of agricultural activities, particularly in understanding how climate variations affect forage availability in rangelands.
{"title":"Analysis of Climate Variability and Its Implications on Rangelands in the Limpopo Province","authors":"P. Maluleke, M. Moeletsi, Mitsuru Tsubo","doi":"10.3390/cli12010002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/cli12010002","url":null,"abstract":"In recent decades, southern Africa has experienced a shift towards hotter and drier climate conditions, affecting vital sectors like agriculture, health, water, and energy. Scientific research has shown that the combination of high temperatures and unreliable rainfall can have detrimental effects on agricultural production. Thus, this study focused on assessing climate variability, with implications on rangelands in the Limpopo Province of South Africa over 38 years. Historical climate data from 15 stations, including rainfall and minimum and maximum temperatures from 1980 to 2018, were analysed. To achieve the main objective, various statistics including mean, standard deviation, and coefficient of variation (CV) were computed for all variables across four seasons. The results highlighted significant variability in rainfall, with Musina (71.2%) and Tshiombo (88.3%) stations displaying the highest variability during the September-to-April season. Both minimum and maximum temperatures displayed low variability. The Mann–Kendall test revealed both increasing and decreasing trends in minimum temperatures and rainfall across different stations. Notably, there was a significant increase in maximum temperatures. This study provides valuable climate information for decision makers, aiding in the planning and management of agricultural activities, particularly in understanding how climate variations affect forage availability in rangelands.","PeriodicalId":37615,"journal":{"name":"Climate","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2023-12-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139159920","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nazario Tartaglione, T. Toniazzo, O. Otterå, Y. Orsolini
In this study, we use the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model, forced by present-day atmospheric composition and coupled to a Slab Ocean Model, to simulate the state of the climate under grand solar minimum forcing scenarios. Idealized experiments prescribe time-invariant solar irradiance reductions that are either uniform (percentage-wise) across the total solar radiation spectrum (TOTC) or spectrally localized in the ultraviolet (UV) band (SCUV). We compare the equilibrium condition of these experiments with the equilibrium condition of a control simulation, forced by perpetual solar maximum conditions. In SCUV, we observe large stratospheric cooling due to ozone reduction. In both the Northern Hemisphere (NH) and the Southern Hemisphere (SH), this is accompanied by a weakening of the polar night jet during the cold season. In TOTC, dynamically induced polar stratospheric cooling is observed in the transition seasons over the NH, without any ozone deficit. The global temperature cooling values, compared with the control climate, are 0.55±0.03 K in TOTC and 0.39±0.03 K in SCUV. The reductions in total meridional heat transport outside of the subtropics are similar in the two experiments, especially in the SH. Despite substantial differences in stratospheric forcing, similarities exist between the two experiments, such as cloudiness; meridional heating transport in the SH; and strong cooling in the NH during wintertime, although this cooling affects two different regions, namely, North America in TOTC and the Euro–Asian continent in SCUV.
{"title":"Equilibrium Climate after Spectral and Bolometric Irradiance Reduction in Grand Solar Minimum Simulations","authors":"Nazario Tartaglione, T. Toniazzo, O. Otterå, Y. Orsolini","doi":"10.3390/cli12010001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/cli12010001","url":null,"abstract":"In this study, we use the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model, forced by present-day atmospheric composition and coupled to a Slab Ocean Model, to simulate the state of the climate under grand solar minimum forcing scenarios. Idealized experiments prescribe time-invariant solar irradiance reductions that are either uniform (percentage-wise) across the total solar radiation spectrum (TOTC) or spectrally localized in the ultraviolet (UV) band (SCUV). We compare the equilibrium condition of these experiments with the equilibrium condition of a control simulation, forced by perpetual solar maximum conditions. In SCUV, we observe large stratospheric cooling due to ozone reduction. In both the Northern Hemisphere (NH) and the Southern Hemisphere (SH), this is accompanied by a weakening of the polar night jet during the cold season. In TOTC, dynamically induced polar stratospheric cooling is observed in the transition seasons over the NH, without any ozone deficit. The global temperature cooling values, compared with the control climate, are 0.55±0.03 K in TOTC and 0.39±0.03 K in SCUV. The reductions in total meridional heat transport outside of the subtropics are similar in the two experiments, especially in the SH. Despite substantial differences in stratospheric forcing, similarities exist between the two experiments, such as cloudiness; meridional heating transport in the SH; and strong cooling in the NH during wintertime, although this cooling affects two different regions, namely, North America in TOTC and the Euro–Asian continent in SCUV.","PeriodicalId":37615,"journal":{"name":"Climate","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2023-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138994513","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}