Processing Indices of Change and Extremes from Regional Climate Change Data

Advances in computer hardware have made it possible to calculate indicators of climate change and extremes derived from the daily output of high-resolution regional CC models for Europe could be processed using a desktop server using standard components. Using a combination of conventional hard disks, solid state and RAM disk improved the system performance but configuring the server for the processing task proved to be quite complex. Indicators of climate change and extremes from regional models coming from the PRUDENCE project of the Danish Meteorological Institute, the consortial simulation of the Climate Limited-area Modelling Community and 12 runs of bias-corrected data from the ENSEMBLES project were processed. The resulting indicators were standardized to a common map projection, grid size and spatial extent to be directly available for further analysis or integration with other spatial data. The indicators were used in the data available from the European Climate Adaptation Platform (CLIMATE-ADAPT), the European Database of Vulnerabilities to Natural Hazards (EVDAB), the JRC activities within the FP7 RESPONSES project and support the evaluation of changes in soil organic carbon under climate scenarios.JRC.H.5-Land Resources Managemen

Extreme Temperatures and Precipitation in Europe: Analysis of a High-Resolution Climate Change Scenario

Future climate change is generally believed to lead to an increase in climate variability and in the frequency and intensity of extreme events. In this report we analyse the changes in variability and extremes in temperature and precipitation in Europe by the end of this century, based on high-resolution (12 km) simulations of the regional climate model HIRHAM. The results suggest a general trend towards higher temperatures at the end of the 21st century. The magnitude of the changes is, however, not uniform across Europe and varies between seasons. Higher winter temperatures are prevalent in Eastern Europe and in the Alps, while higher summer temperatures mostly affect southern Europe. Also the changes in temperature variability differ between northern and southern Europe and between seasons. In winter the variability in the mean daily temperature decreases considerably in north-eastern Europe, while in summer there is an increase predominantly in southern Europe. Hot summer days and tropical nights become common in areas where such events were previously rare, e.g. in London and Stockholm. While July remains the hottest month in general, the changes in temperature are larger in August. This is also the month with the largest increase in extreme summer temperatures and the occurrence of heat waves. The changes in precipitation are very different between southern and northern Europe. In the south, the annual rainfall is generally decreasing, there is a higher risk of longer dry spells, the differences between the years are getting larger, and arid and semi-arid areas are expanding. In northern Europe, on the other hand, the precipitation amounts are generally increasing, particularly in winter. In between is a broad region where, on an annual basis, the changes are fairly small, but where the differences between the seasons are more pronounced: winter and spring are getting wetter, while summer and, to a lesser extent, autumn are getting drier. On rain days the intensity and variability of the precipitation shows a general increase, even in areas that are getting much drier on average. What is more, the rise in the precipitation extremes tends to be stronger than in the average intensity. Considerably increases in extreme multiday precipitation amounts may be very local, but occur almost everywhere across Europe and in every season, except for summer in southern and western Europe. These findings support the conclusions of earlier studies that a warmer climate will result in a higher incidence of heat waves, less summer precipitation and at the same time higher rainfall intensities throughout much of Europe.JRC.H.7-Land management and natural hazard

Evaluation of BioSoil Demonstration Project - Preliminary Data Analysis

The BioSoil demonstration Project was initiated under the Forest Focus-Scheme (Regulation (EC) Nr. 2152/2003) concerning the monitoring of forests and environmental interactions in the Community, and aimed to broaden the scope of previous forest monitoring activities (on atmospheric pollution and forest fires) to the fields of soil characteristics and biodiversity indicators. The preliminary data analysis concentrated on the evaluation of a selected number of parameters of the data submitted by NFCs and sampling procedures. For soil the parameters needed to establish soil organic carbon densities were analysed. The spatial consistency of data reported between NFCs was found to vary significantly between sources also for assumed constant parameters (volume of coarse fragments). The temporal stability and changes in variable parameters were assessed using data from the previous soil condition survey on Level I sites. A particular problem in sampling and reporting data was the separation of the organic layer from the soil material, which was approached differently by the NFCs. No clear trend in the development of soil organic carbon over the previous survey was found. The analysis of data on biodiversity concentrated on the consistency and completeness of the parameters reported. Plot characteristics were mapped and species diversity was established based on commonly used indices expressing the richness and distribution of species present on a site. Relationships between forest type and species diversity were explored. Regional differences in identifying and reporting species between sites became evident during the analysis. The evaluation of both modules concluded that the manuals detailing sampling and analysis of the data collected need to be up-dated with a clear and unambiguous description of procedures to follow and inconsistencies removed.JRC.DDG.H.7-Land management and natural hazard

Global Soil Organic Carbon Estimates and the Harmonized World Soil Database

Global estimates of soil organic carbon stocks have been produced in the past to support the calculation of potential emissions of CO2 from the soil under scenarios of change land use/cover and climatic conditions (IPCC, 2006), but very few global estimates are presented as spatial data. For global spatial layers on soil parameters, the most recent and complete dataset is available as the Harmonized World Soil Database (HWSD) (Fisher et al., 2008).The HWSD represents a step forward towards a spatially more detailed and thematically more refined set of global soil data. During the evaluation of the data for generating estimates of global SOC stocks Version 1.1 of the HWSD revealed also some rough edges. Consequential are the values of bulk density attributed to soils high in organic carbon. In the evaluation the database was completed and suitable substitutions for bulk density for soil high in organic carbon were investigated. For the amended data the global SOC stock to 100cm soil depth is estimated at 1, 417 Pg C, although this estimate very much dependent on the ancillary data used. The amended HWSD was compared to data from 4 other global data sets on SOC stocks. The comparative evaluation has demonstrated that bulk density is the most important factor for estimating SOC stocks and mainly responsible for the differences between estimates. Moist affected from the variability in bulk density are SOC stocks in areas with soils which are high in organic carbon.JRC.H.5-Land Resources Managemen

Development of a Spatial European Soil Property Data Set

For many applications of modelling environmental conditions or developing scenarios for environmental change analysis soil property data in form of spatial layers are needed. Raster data formats are widely used for the modelling of movements through space and the storage of parameters, which change constantly and without a pattern that could be described by a plain mathematical function. This study into providing spatial soil property layers uses a soil database where the soil properties are stored in tables of generalized combinations of attributes and linked to a spatial layer of delineated mapping units with the aim to investigate the potential of providing a measure of spatial positioning of attributes within spatial mapping units and options of mapping all attributes associated with the mapping unit to a raster layer. The method developed in the course of the study resulted in a set of spatial data of major soil properties. It also indicates that linking soil morphological data with ancillary spatial information by a multi-criteria analysis could largely improve the mapping of typological soil properties.JRC.H.7 - Land management and natural hazard

Evaluation of BioSoil Demonstration Project - Soil Data Analysis

The BioSoil demonstration Project was initiated under the Forest Focus-Scheme (Regulation (EC) Nr. 2152/2003) concerning the monitoring of forests and environmental interactions in the Community, and aimed to broaden the scope of previous forest monitoring activities (on atmospheric pollution and forest fires) to the fields of soil characteristics and biodiversity indicators. The evaluation of the project concentrated on analysing a selected number of parameters submitted by NFCs for estimating the distribution and changes in soil organic carbon and the performance of the WRB classification. The spatial consistency of data reported between NFCs was found to vary significantly between sources, such as the presence of an organic layer on the over soil. The temporal stability and changes in variable parameters were assessed using data from the previous soil condition survey on Forest Focus / ICP Forests Level I sites. No clear general trend in the development of soil organic carbon over the previous survey was found, but some local changes. The results provided by the Central Laboratory suggest that some methodological differences in assessing the organic carbon content of the organic layers exist between the FSCC / ICP Forests and the BioSoil survey. Those differences limit the scope of a change analysis. A particular problem in sampling and reporting data was the separation of the organic layer from the soil material, which was approached differently by the NFCs. The evaluation also concluded that the specifications provided in the Manual detailing sampling and analysis of the data collected need to be up-dated with a clear and unambiguous description of procedures to follow and making the reporting on key soil parameters a mandatory task.JRC.DDG.H.7-Land management and natural hazard

Background Guide for the Calculation of Land Carbon Stocks in the Biofuels Sustainability Scheme Drawing on the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories

This Guide covers the calculation of carbon-stock changes in soil and above- and below-ground vegetation due to land use conversion in support of Directive 2009/28/EC on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources, particularly for assessing carbon-stock changes due to land conversion for biofuel production. The methodology put forward is based on the Tier 1 approach as developed under the IPCC Guidelines 2006. It is based on specifying default values for carbon stocks and using coefficients of divergence from the default values according to land use/cover. The methodological approach of the IPCC was adapted for use with spatial layers instead of data tables. The spatial layers of the factors influencing carbon-stock changes were generated with global coverage and thematically aligned to comply with stipulations made in the Directive. According to the types of land use/cover conversion, a review is made of the methodology of the IPCC (2006). Particular problems regarding peatlands are presented. Drained peatlands cannot be assessed in terms of carbon-stock changes because drainage occurs on the overall peat soil profile (not only on the first 30- cm). This has direct consequences not only on CO2 emissions but also on CH4 and N2O. Tables of coefficients of conversions are then proposed according to climate zone and continental boundaries for soil carbon-stock changes and for above- and below-ground carbon stock changes in biomass in a Technical Annex.JRC.DDG.H.7 - Land management and natural hazard

The Map of Organic Carbon in Topsoils in Europe

Abstract not availableJRC.H-Institute for environment and sustainability (Ispra

Forest Focus Monitoring Database System - Technical Report 2005 Level II Data

Forest Focus (Regulation (EC) No 2152/2003) is a Community scheme for harmonized, broad-based, comprehensive and long-term monitoring of European forest ecosystems. Under this scheme the monitoring of air pollution effects on forests is carried out by participating countries on the basis of the systematic network of observation points (Level I) and of the network of observation plots for intensive and continuous monitoring (Level II). According to Article 15(1) of the Forest Focus Regulation Member States shall annually, through the designated authorities and agencies, forward to the Commission geo-referenced data gathered under the scheme, together with a report on them by means of computer telecommunications and/or electronic technology. For managing the data JRC has implemented a Forest Focus Monitoring Database System. This Technical Report presents the results obtained from all processing stages (data reception, validation checks ¿ compliance, conformity, uniformity) for submitted data referring to the monitoring year 2005. This report presents the results at the end of the processing phase after data have been re-submitted in 2007. It presents in addition a brief comment on the data status for each NFC, for the reporting year, with respect to the parameter assessed and including analyses of spatial variability of data and temporal trends of parameters.JRC.DDG.H.7-Land management and natural hazard

Forest Focus Monitoring Database System - Technical Report 2001 Level II Data

Forest Focus (Regulation (EC) No 2152/2003 ) is a Community scheme for harmonised, broad-based, comprehensive and long-term monitoring of European forest ecosystems. It concentrates in particular on protecting forests against air pollution and fire. To supplement the monitoring system, Forest Focus stipulates the development of new instruments relating to soil monitoring, carbon sequestration, biodiversity, climate change and protective functions of forests. Under this scheme the monitoring of air pollution effects on forests is carried out by participating countries on the basis of the systematic network of observation points (Level I) and of the network of observation plots for intensive and continuous monitoring (Level II). The monitoring activity continues from the network and plots established and implemented under Council Regulation (EEC) No 3528/86 .and Regulations (EEC) No 1696/87 and (EC) No 1091/94 . The monitoring programme of air pollution effects is linked to International Cooperative Programme on Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Forest (ICP Forests). ICP Forests reports to the working Group on Effects of the Convention of the Long-Range Trans-boundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN-ECE). Forest Focus Article 15(1) stipulates that the Member States shall annually, through the designated authorities and agencies, forward to the Commission geo-referenced data gathered under the scheme, together with a report on them by means of computer telecommunications and/or electronic technology. For managing the data DG JRC has implemented a Forest Focus Monitoring Database System. The system was developed and realized under contract by a Consortium, coordinated by I-MAGE Consult with Nouvelles Solutions Informatiques s.a. (NSI) as consortium partner and the Bundesforschungsanstalt für Forst- und Holzwirtschaft (BFH) as sub-contractor. The designated authorities and agencies submitted annually to DG Joint Research Centre of the European Commission their observations made on the network of observation plots for intensive and continuous monitoring (Level II). Data are submitted via a Web-Module specifically designed for the task as part of the Forest Focus Monitoring Database System.JRC.DDG.H.7-Land management and natural hazard