Energy, Resources and the Environment

Words on Wednesday: Brief Communication – The dark side of risk and crisis communication: legal conflicts and responsibility allocation

Suzanne Hangx July 22, 2015

Incoming Storm.
Credit: Jaap Schellekens (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Words on Wednesday aims at promoting interesting/fun/exciting publications on topics related to Energy, Resources and the Environment. If you would like to be featured on WoW, please send us a link of the paper, or your own post, at ERE.Matters@gmail.com.

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Scolobig, A.: Brief Communication: The dark side of risk and crisis communication: legal conflicts and responsibility allocation, Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 15, 1449-1456, doi:10.5194/nhess-15-1449-2015, 2015.

Abstract:

Inadequate, misinterpreted, or missing risk and crisis communication may be a reason for practitioners, and sometimes science advisors, to become the subjects of criminal investigations. This work discusses the legal consequences of inadequate risk communication in these situations. After presenting some cases, the discussion focuses on three critical issues: the development of effective communication protocols; the role, tasks, and responsibilities of science advisors; and the collateral effects of practitioners’ defensive behaviours. For example, if the avoidance of personal liability becomes a primary objective for practitioners, it may clash with other objectives, such as the protection of vulnerable communities or the transparency of decision making. The conclusion presents some ideas for future research on the legal aspects of risk communication.

Booming Beijing: the impact of urban growth on local environment

Suzanne Hangx July 20, 2015

Hazy/beautiful sunset over Beijing.
Credit: Michelle Cain (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

The global population is ever-growing. Cities are expanding at a rapid pace. A recent study by Mark Jacobsen of Stanford University and Son Nghiem of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory investigated the urban growth of Beijing, China (published on June 15^th in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres). Their results showed that the city had quadripled in size in the span of a decade.

This massive increase in the areal extent of the city had a significant impact on the local environment of the city, even if the increased pollution by the inhabitants and vehicles was neglected. The presence of new infrastructure, such as buildings and roads, created a ring of impact around the older parts of the city. This effectively reduced the wind speed in the city, making the air more stagnant, as well as increasing the average winter temperature, leading amongst others to increased ground-level ozone pollution.

Though Beijing is far from the only city in the world experiencing this increase in size, the study illustrates the impact of urbanization on local weather and pollution, even in the absence of other sources of pollution.

Read the full, original post here, at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory website.

Need support? Check EGU Meetings Support for 2016

Suzanne Hangx July 16, 2015

Are you planning to host a meeting, workshop or training school, but need some support? Check out the EGU Meetings Support scheme for 2016.

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The EGU welcomes proposals for Topical Meetings, Training Schools and Workshops, as well as applications for EGU Sponsorship of External Meetings, for the year 2016.Successful proposals result in high profile EGU events with financial support.

Proposals for events in 2016 must be submitted by 31 July 2015 only via the online form on the EGU website.

More information about the aims, format and mechanisms of the EGU Topical Events Programme together with application guidelines can be found here.

Flying Colours Fever. Credit: Suzanne Voice (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Flying EGU Colours.
Credit: Suzanne Voice (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Towards observation-based gridded runoff estimates for Europe

ERE Matters July 15, 2015

Words on Wednesday aims at promoting interesting/fun/exciting publications on topics related to Energy, Resources and the Environment. If you would like to be featured on WoW, please send us a link of the paper, or your own post, at ERE.Matters@gmail.com.

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Gudmundsson, L. and Seneviratne, S. I.: Towards observation-based gridded runoff estimates for Europe, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 19, 2859-2879, doi:10.5194/hess-19-2859-2015, 2015. http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/19/2859/2015/hess-19-2859-2015.html

Abstract:

Terrestrial water variables are the key to understanding ecosystem processes, feed back on weather and climate, and are a prerequisite for human activities. To provide context for local investigations and to better understand phenomena that only emerge at large spatial scales, reliable information on continental-scale freshwater dynamics is necessary. To date streamflow is among the best-observed variables of terrestrial water systems. However, observation networks have a limited station density and often incomplete temporal coverage, limiting investigations to locations and times with observations. This paper presents a methodology to estimate continental-scale runoff on a 0.5° spatial grid with monthly resolution. The methodology is based on statistical upscaling of observed streamflow from small catchments in Europe and exploits readily available gridded atmospheric forcing data combined with the capability of machine learning techniques. The resulting runoff estimates are validated against (1) runoff from small catchments that were not used for model training, (2) river discharge from nine continental-scale river basins and (3) independent estimates of long-term mean evapotranspiration at the pan-European scale. In addition it is shown that the produced gridded runoff compares on average better to observations than a multi-model ensemble of comprehensive land surface models (LSMs), making it an ideal candidate for model evaluation and model development. In particular, the presented machine learning approach may help determining which factors are most relevant for an efficient modelling of runoff at regional scales. Finally, the resulting data product is used to derive a comprehensive runoff climatology for Europe and its potential for drought monitoring is illustrated.