@article{RottlerVormoorFranckeetal.2021, author = {Rottler, Erwin and Vormoor, Klaus Josef and Francke, Till and Warscher, Michael and Strasser, Ulrich and Bronstert, Axel}, title = {Elevation-dependent compensation effects in snowmelt in the Rhine River Basin upstream gauge Basel}, series = {Hydrology research : an international journal / Nordic Association of Hydrology ; British Hydrological Society}, volume = {52}, journal = {Hydrology research : an international journal / Nordic Association of Hydrology ; British Hydrological Society}, number = {2}, publisher = {IWA Publ.}, address = {London}, issn = {2224-7955}, doi = {10.2166/nh.2021.092}, pages = {536 -- 557}, year = {2021}, abstract = {In snow-dominated river basins, floods often occur during early summer, when snowmelt-induced runoff superimposes with rainfall-induced runoff. An earlier onset of seasonal snowmelt as a consequence of a warming climate is often expected to shift snowmelt contribution to river runoff and potential flooding to an earlier date. Against this background, we assess the impact of rising temperatures on seasonal snowpacks and quantify changes in timing, magnitude and elevation of snowmelt. We analyse in situ snow measurements, conduct snow simulations and examine changes in river runoff at key gauging stations. With regard to snowmelt, we detect a threefold effect of rising temperatures: snowmelt becomes weaker, occurs earlier and forms at higher elevations. Due to the wide range of elevations in the catchment, snowmelt does not occur simultaneously at all elevations. Results indicate that elevation bands melt together in blocks. We hypothesise that in a warmer world with similar sequences of weather conditions, snowmelt is moved upward to higher elevation. The movement upward the elevation range makes snowmelt in individual elevation bands occur earlier, although the timing of the snowmelt-induced runoff stays the same. Meltwater from higher elevations, at least partly, replaces meltwater from elevations below.}, language = {en} } @article{MtilatilaBronstertVormoor2022, author = {Mtilatila, Lucy Mphatso Ng'ombe and Bronstert, Axel and Vormoor, Klaus Josef}, title = {Temporal evaluation and projections of meteorological droughts in the Greater Lake Malawi Basin, Southeast Africa}, series = {Frontiers in water}, volume = {4}, journal = {Frontiers in water}, publisher = {Frontiers Media}, address = {Lausanne}, issn = {2624-9375}, doi = {10.3389/frwa.2022.1041452}, pages = {16}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The study examined the potential future changes of drought characteristics in the Greater Lake Malawi Basin in Southeast Africa. This region strongly depends on water resources to generate electricity and food. Future projections (considering both moderate and high emission scenarios) of temperature and precipitation from an ensemble of 16 bias-corrected climate model combinations were blended with a scenario-neutral response surface approach to analyses changes in: (i) the meteorological conditions, (ii) the meteorological water balance, and (iii) selected drought characteristics such as drought intensity, drought months, and drought events, which were derived from the Standardized Precipitation and Evapotranspiration Index. Changes were analyzed for a near-term (2021-2050) and far-term period (2071-2100) with reference to 1976-2005. The effect of bias-correction (i.e., empirical quantile mapping) on the ability of the climate model ensemble to reproduce observed drought characteristics as compared to raw climate projections was also investigated. Results suggest that the bias-correction improves the climate models in terms of reproducing temperature and precipitation statistics but not drought characteristics. Still, despite the differences in the internal structures and uncertainties that exist among the climate models, they all agree on an increase of meteorological droughts in the future in terms of higher drought intensity and longer events. Drought intensity is projected to increase between +25 and +50\% during 2021-2050 and between +131 and +388\% during 2071-2100. This translates into +3 to +5, and +7 to +8 more drought months per year during both periods, respectively. With longer lasting drought events, the number of drought events decreases. Projected droughts based on the high emission scenario are 1.7 times more severe than droughts based on the moderate scenario. That means that droughts in this region will likely become more severe in the coming decades. Despite the inherent high uncertainties of climate projections, the results provide a basis in planning and (water-)managing activities for climate change adaptation measures in Malawi. This is of particular relevance for water management issues referring hydro power generation and food production, both for rain-fed and irrigated agriculture.}, language = {en} } @article{SeleemHeistermannBronstert2021, author = {Seleem, Omar and Heistermann, Maik and Bronstert, Axel}, title = {Efficient Hazard Assessment For Pluvial Floods In Urban Environments}, series = {Water}, volume = {13}, journal = {Water}, number = {18}, publisher = {MDPI}, address = {Basel}, issn = {2073-4441}, doi = {10.3390/w13182476}, pages = {17}, year = {2021}, abstract = {The presence of impermeable surfaces in urban areas hinders natural drainage and directs the surface runoff to storm drainage systems with finite capacity, which makes these areas prone to pluvial flooding. The occurrence of pluvial flooding depends on the existence of minimal areas for surface runoff generation and concentration. Detailed hydrologic and hydrodynamic simulations are computationally expensive and require intensive resources. This study compared and evaluated the performance of two simplified methods to identify urban pluvial flood-prone areas, namely the fill-spill-merge (FSM) method and the topographic wetness index (TWI) method and used the TELEMAC-2D hydrodynamic numerical model for benchmarking and validation. The FSM method uses common GIS operations to identify flood-prone depressions from a high-resolution digital elevation model (DEM). The TWI method employs the maximum likelihood method (MLE) to probabilistically calibrate a TWI threshold (τ) based on the inundation maps from a 2D hydrodynamic model for a given spatial window (W) within the urban area. We found that the FSM method clearly outperforms the TWI method both conceptually and effectively in terms of model performance.}, language = {en} } @article{MtilatilaBronstertVormoor2022, author = {Mtilatila, Lucy Mphatso Ng'ombe and Bronstert, Axel and Vormoor, Klaus Josef}, title = {Temporal evaluation and projections of meteorological droughts in the Greater Lake Malawi Basin, Southeast Africa}, series = {Frontiers in Water}, journal = {Frontiers in Water}, publisher = {Frontiers Media S.A.}, address = {Lausanne, Schweiz}, issn = {2624-9375}, doi = {10.3389/frwa.2022.1041452}, pages = {1 -- 16}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The study examined the potential future changes of drought characteristics in the Greater Lake Malawi Basin in Southeast Africa. This region strongly depends on water resources to generate electricity and food. Future projections (considering both moderate and high emission scenarios) of temperature and precipitation from an ensemble of 16 bias-corrected climate model combinations were blended with a scenario-neutral response surface approach to analyses changes in: (i) the meteorological conditions, (ii) the meteorological water balance, and (iii) selected drought characteristics such as drought intensity, drought months, and drought events, which were derived from the Standardized Precipitation and Evapotranspiration Index. Changes were analyzed for a near-term (2021-2050) and far-term period (2071-2100) with reference to 1976-2005. The effect of bias-correction (i.e., empirical quantile mapping) on the ability of the climate model ensemble to reproduce observed drought characteristics as compared to raw climate projections was also investigated. Results suggest that the bias-correction improves the climate models in terms of reproducing temperature and precipitation statistics but not drought characteristics. Still, despite the differences in the internal structures and uncertainties that exist among the climate models, they all agree on an increase of meteorological droughts in the future in terms of higher drought intensity and longer events. Drought intensity is projected to increase between +25 and +50\% during 2021-2050 and between +131 and +388\% during 2071-2100. This translates into +3 to +5, and +7 to +8 more drought months per year during both periods, respectively. With longer lasting drought events, the number of drought events decreases. Projected droughts based on the high emission scenario are 1.7 times more severe than droughts based on the moderate scenario. That means that droughts in this region will likely become more severe in the coming decades. Despite the inherent high uncertainties of climate projections, the results provide a basis in planning and (water-)managing activities for climate change adaptation measures in Malawi. This is of particular relevance for water management issues referring hydro power generation and food production, both for rain-fed and irrigated agriculture.}, language = {en} } @article{BryantMcGrathBoudreault2022, author = {Bryant, Seth and McGrath, Heather and Boudreault, Mathieu}, title = {Gridded flood depth estimates from satellite-derived inundations}, series = {Natural hazards and earth system sciences}, volume = {22}, journal = {Natural hazards and earth system sciences}, number = {4}, publisher = {European Geophysical Society}, address = {Katlenburg-Lindau}, issn = {1561-8633}, doi = {10.5194/nhess-22-1437-2022}, pages = {1437 -- 1450}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Canada's RADARSAT missions improve the potential to study past flood events; however, existing tools to derive flood depths from this remote-sensing data do not correct for errors, leading to poor estimates. To provide more accurate gridded depth estimates of historical flooding, a new tool is proposed that integrates Height Above Nearest Drainage and Cost Allocation algorithms. This tool is tested against two trusted, hydraulically derived, gridded depths of recent floods in Canada. This validation shows the proposed tool outperforms existing tools and can provide more accurate estimates from minimal data without the need for complex physics-based models or expert judgement. With improvements in remote-sensing data, the tool proposed here can provide flood researchers and emergency managers accurate depths in near-real time.}, language = {en} } @article{KuehnBeckerHarpkeetal.2022, author = {K{\"u}hn, Elisabeth and Becker, Marc and Harpke, Alexander and K{\"u}hn, Ingolf and Kuhlicke, Christian and Schmitt, Thomas and Settele, Josef and Musche, Martin}, title = {The benefits of counting butterflies: recommendations for a successful citizen science project}, series = {Ecology and Society}, volume = {27}, journal = {Ecology and Society}, number = {2}, publisher = {Resilience Alliance}, address = {Wolfville}, issn = {1708-3087}, doi = {10.5751/ES-12861-270238}, pages = {39}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Citizen science (CS) projects, being popular across many fields of science, have recently also become a popular tool to collect biodiversity data. Although the benefits of such projects for science and policy making are well understood, relatively little is known about the benefits participants get from these projects as well as their personal backgrounds and motivations. Furthermore, very little is known about their expectations. We here examine these aspects, with the citizen science project "German Butterfly Monitoring" as an example. A questionnaire was sent to all participants of the project and the responses to the questionnaire indicated the following: center dot Most transect walkers do not have a professional background in this field, though they do have a high educational level, and are close to retirement, with a high number of females; center dot An important motivation to join the project is to preserve the natural environment and to contribute to scientific knowledge; center dot Participants benefit by enhancing their knowledge about butterflies and especially their ability to identify different species (taxonomic knowledge); center dot Participants do not have specific expectations regarding the project beyond proper management and coordination, but have an intrinsic sense of working for a greater good. The willingness to join a project is higher if the project contributes to the solution of a problem discussed in the media (here, insect decline). Based on our findings from the analysis of the questionnaire we can derive a set of recommendations for establishing a successful CS project. These include the importance of good communication, e.g., by explaining what the (scientific) purpose of the project is and what problems are to be solved with the help of the data collected in the project. The motivation to join a CS project is mostly intrinsic and CS is a good tool to engage people during difficult times such as the COVID-19 pandemic, giving participants the feeling of doing something useful.}, language = {en} } @article{VogelPatonAichetal.2021, author = {Vogel, Johannes and Paton, Eva and Aich, Valentin and Bronstert, Axel}, title = {Increasing compound warm spells and droughts in the Mediterranean Basin}, series = {Weather and climate extremes}, volume = {32}, journal = {Weather and climate extremes}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {2212-0947}, doi = {10.1016/j.wace.2021.100312}, pages = {14}, year = {2021}, abstract = {The co-occurrence of warm spells and droughts can lead to detrimental socio-economic and ecological impacts, largely surpassing the impacts of either warm spells or droughts alone. We quantify changes in the number of compound warm spells and droughts from 1979 to 2018 in the Mediterranean Basin using the ERA5 data set. We analyse two types of compound events: 1) warm season compound events, which are extreme in absolute terms in the warm season from May to October and 2) year-round deseasonalised compound events, which are extreme in relative terms respective to the time of the year. The number of compound events increases significantly and especially warm spells are increasing strongly - with an annual growth rates of 3.9 (3.5) \% for warm season (deseasonalised) compound events and 4.6 (4.4) \% for warm spells -, whereas for droughts the change is more ambiguous depending on the applied definition. Therefore, the rise in the number of compound events is primarily driven by temperature changes and not the lack of precipitation. The months July and August show the highest increases in warm season compound events, whereas the highest increases of deseasonalised compound events occur in spring and early summer. This increase in deseasonalised compound events can potentially have a significant impact on the functioning of Mediterranean ecosystems as this is the peak phase of ecosystem productivity and a vital phenophase.}, language = {en} } @article{BuergerPfisterBronstert2021, author = {B{\"u}rger, Gerd and Pfister, Angela and Bronstert, Axel}, title = {Zunehmende Starkregenintensit{\"a}ten als Folge der Klimaerw{\"a}rmung}, series = {Hydrologie und Wasserbewirtschaftung : HyWa = Hydrology and water resources management, Germany / Hrsg.: Fachverwaltungen des Bundes und der L{\"a}nder}, volume = {65}, journal = {Hydrologie und Wasserbewirtschaftung : HyWa = Hydrology and water resources management, Germany / Hrsg.: Fachverwaltungen des Bundes und der L{\"a}nder}, number = {6}, publisher = {Bundesanst. f{\"u}r Gew{\"a}sserkunde}, address = {Koblenz}, issn = {1439-1783}, doi = {10.5675/HyWa_2021.6_1}, pages = {262 -- 271}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Extreme rainfall events of short duration in the range of hours and below are increasingly coming into focus due to the resulting damage from flash floods and also due to their possible intensification by anthropogenic climate change. The current study investigates possible trends in heavy rainfall intensities for stations from Swiss and Austrian alpine regions as well as for the Emscher-Lippe area in North Rhine-Westphalia on the basis of partly very long (> 50 years) and temporally highly resolved time series (<= 15 minutes). It becomes clear that there is an increase in extreme rainfall intensities, which can be well explained by the warming of the regional climate: the analyses of long-term trends in exceedance counts and return levels show considerable uncertainties, but are in the order of 30 \% increase per century. In addition, based on an "average" climate simulation for the 21st century, this paper describes a projection for extreme precipitation intensities at very high temporal resolution for a number of stations in the Emscher-Lippe region. A coupled spatial and temporal "downscaling" is applied, the key innovation of which is the consideration of the dependence of local rainfall intensity on air temperature. This procedure involves two steps: First, large-scale climate fields at daily resolution are statistically linked by regression to station temperature and precipitation values (spatial downscaling). In the second step, these station values are disaggregated to a temporal resolution of 10 minutes using a so-called multiplicative stochastic cascade model (MC) (temporal downscaling). The novel, temperature-sensitive variant additionally considers air temperature as an explanatory variable for precipitation intensities. Thus, the higher atmospheric moisture content expected with warming, which results from the Clausius-Clapeyron (CC) relationship, is included in the temporal downscaling.
For the statistical evaluation of the extreme short-term precipitation, the upper quantiles (99.9 \%), exceedance counts (P > 5mm), and 3-yr return levels of the <= 15-min duration step has been used. Only by adding temperature is the observed temperature observed of the extreme quantiles ("CC scaling") well reproduced. When comparing observed data and present-day simulations of the model cascade, the temperature-sensitive procedure shows consistent results. Compared to trends in recent decades, similar or even larger increases in extreme intensities are projected for the future. This is remarkable in that these appear to be driven primarily by local temperature, as the projected trends in daily precipitation values are negligible for this region.}, language = {de} } @article{vonSpechtOeztuerkVehetal.2019, author = {von Specht, Sebastian and {\"O}zt{\"u}rk, Ugur and Veh, Georg and Cotton, Fabrice and Korup, Oliver}, title = {Effects of finite source rupture on landslide triggering}, series = {Solid earth}, volume = {10}, journal = {Solid earth}, number = {2}, publisher = {Copernicus}, address = {G{\"o}ttingen}, issn = {1869-9510}, doi = {10.5194/se-10-463-2019}, pages = {463 -- 486}, year = {2019}, abstract = {The propagation of a seismic rupture on a fault introduces spatial variations in the seismic wave field surrounding the fault. This directivity effect results in larger shaking amplitudes in the rupture propagation direction. Its seismic radiation pattern also causes amplitude variations between the strike-normal and strike-parallel components of horizontal ground motion. We investigated the landslide response to these effects during the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake (M-w 7.1) in central Kyushu (Japan). Although the distribution of some 1500 earthquake-triggered landslides as a function of rupture distance is consistent with the observed Arias intensity, the landslides were more concentrated to the northeast of the southwest-northeast striking rupture. We examined several landslide susceptibility factors: hillslope inclination, the median amplification factor (MAF) of ground shaking, lithology, land cover, and topographic wetness. None of these factors sufficiently explains the landslide distribution or orientation (aspect), although the landslide head scarps have an elevated hillslope inclination and MAF. We propose a new physics-based ground-motion model (GMM) that accounts for the seismic rupture effects, and we demonstrate that the low-frequency seismic radiation pattern is consistent with the overall landslide distribution. Its spatial pattern is influenced by the rupture directivity effect, whereas landslide aspect is influenced by amplitude variations between the fault-normal and fault-parallel motion at frequencies < 2 Hz. This azimuth dependence implies that comparable landslide concentrations can occur at different distances from the rupture. This quantitative link between the prevalent landslide aspect and the low-frequency seismic radiation pattern can improve coseismic landslide hazard assessment.}, language = {en} } @article{RitterAngelesBurgosBoeckmannetal.2018, author = {Ritter, Christoph and {\´A}ngeles Burgos, Mar{\´i}a and B{\"o}ckmann, Christine and Mateos, David and Lisok, Justyna and Markowicz, Krzysztof M. and Moroni, Beatrice and Cappelletti, David and Udisti, Roberto and Maturilli, Marion and Neuber, Roland}, title = {Microphysical properties and radiative impact of an intense biomass burning aerosol event measured over Ny-angstrom lesund, Spitsbergen in July 2015}, series = {Tellus - Series B, Chemical and Physical Meteorology}, volume = {70}, journal = {Tellus - Series B, Chemical and Physical Meteorology}, publisher = {Routledge, Taylor \& Francis Group}, address = {Abingdon}, issn = {1600-0889}, doi = {10.1080/16000889.2018.1539618}, pages = {23}, year = {2018}, abstract = {In this work, an evaluation of an intense biomass burning event observed over Ny-angstrom lesund (Spitsbergen, European Arctic) in July 2015 is presented. Data from the multi-wavelengths Raman-lidar KARL, a sun photometer and radiosonde measurements are used to derive some microphysical properties of the biomass burning aerosol as size distribution, refractive index and single scattering albedo at different relative humidities. Predominantly particles in the accumulation mode have been found with a bi-modal distribution and dominance of the smaller mode. Above 80\% relative humidity, hygroscopic growth in terms of an increase of particle diameter and a slight decrease of the index of refraction (real and imaginary part) has been found. Values of the single scattering albedo around 0.9 both at 355nm and 532nm indicate some absorption by the aerosol. Values of the lidar ratio are around 26sr for 355nm and around 50sr for 532nm, almost independent of the relative humidity. Further, data from the photometer and surface radiation values from the local baseline surface radiation network (BSRN) have been applied to derive the radiative impact of the biomass burning event purely from observational data by comparison with a clear background day. We found a strong cooling for the visible radiation and a slight warming in the infra-red. The net aerosol forcing, derived by comparison with a clear background day purely from observational data, obtained a value of -95 W/m(2) per unit AOD500.}, language = {en} }