Panagiotis Balabanis DG Research - Directorate I Water Cycle and Soil-related aspects

1. Global water resources and environmental changeOverview of water related EC funded projects Info Day, 9 July 2004, Brussels Panagiotis Balabanis DG Research - Directorate I Water Cycle and Soil-related aspects panagiotis.balabanis@cec.eu.int

2. Three decades of EU water research • Water research was a major component of successive EU environmental research programmes • EU funded research in the field of water covered a wide number of areas (e.g. hydrological and biogeochemical aspects, aquatic ecosystems functioning, etc.) • Earlier programmes were focussed on the development of scientific knowledge to support environmental quality standards and objectives • In FP5 and FP6 emphasis is given on integrated approaches for sustainable water management, support to water policies and global change impact assessment

3. Water and Global Change research in the context of FP5 • Key Action “Sustainable Management and Quality of Water” • emphasis on integrated management at catchment scale, ecological quality, treatment and reuse, pollution prevention, monitoring and forecasting, arid and semi-arid region, standardisation • Key Action “Global Change, Climate and Biodiversity” • emphasis on climate change, ozone depletion, biodiversity loss or loss of habitats and fertile land

4. Water Key Action The CATCHMOD cluster • Development and validation of various mathematical and IT tools describing and monitoring the status of the water system, identifying pressures and impacts and providing integrated assessments (EUROHARP, EUROCAT, INCA, DANUBS, MULINO, GOUVERNe, etc.) • Development of benchmarking criteria helping stakeholders selecting appropriate modeling tools in a consistent way (BMW) • Development of a general methodological framework for River Basin Management Planning (HARMONICA) • Establishment of various networks of experimental river basins, including 6 river basins (Shannon, Odense, Jucar, Pinios, Guadiana and Somos)which are part of the PRBs exercise (HARMONIRIB, EUROHARP, EUROCAT) • Development of an architecture of an open modelling interface that allows both new and existing specific domaine and catchment based models to be linked together (HARMONIT) • Development of methodologies for including the human dimension aspects of water resources management, especially public participation, in integrated assessment modelling tools (FIRMA, HARMONICOP)

5. The EUROCAT project

6. CLIMEClimate and Lake Impacts in Europe

7. SWURVE SWURVE - Objectives Study of the impacts of climate variability and change on the sustainable use of water and its related activities in Europe • Assessment of risks to hydrologic and hydraulic systems posed by climate variability and change • Assessment of vulnerability in terms of operation as well as economic, ecological and social costs • Research into methods of mitigating possible effects of climate change on system vulnerability • Account for uncertainty due to natural variability and error due to incomplete knowledge of future conditions

9. Evaluation of alternative techniques for determination of water budget components in water-limited, heterogeneous land-use systems (WATERUSE) • developing high-resolution geophysical and physiological (e.g. sap flow) techniques for the study of water in soils, roots and trees; • evaluating methods for studying evapotranspiration at a single tree scale and for scaling up to communities and catchments, including the use of satellite remote-sensing; • using large-scale multi-user field experiments to compare the techniques • developing a model framework for integrating these results for hydrological - water management - purposes.

10. Global Change, Climate and Biodiversity Key Action – Examples of related projects • Predictability and variability of monsoons, and the agricultural and hydrological impacts of climate change (PROMISE) • Development of a European Multi-model Ensemble for Seasonal to Interannual Prediction (DEMETER) • Statistical and Regional Downscaling of Extremes for European Regions (STARDEX) • Modelling the Impact of Climate Extremes (MICE) • Prediction of Regional scenarios and Uncertainties for Defining European Climate change risks and Effects (PRUDENCE) • European Land Data Assimilation System (ELDAS)

11. ACTIF:Achieving Technology Innovation in Flood Forecasting Consortium partners from UK, NO, IT, NL, DK http://www.hrwallingford.co.uk/projects/ACTIF EFFS: A European Flood Forecasting System Consortium partners from NL, DK, DE, IT, UK, SE, SI, RO, BG, SK, LT, HU, PL http://effs.wldelft.nl FLOODMAN: Near real-time flood forecasting, warning and management system based on sat­ellite radar images, hydrological and hydraulic models and in-situ data. Consortium partners from NO, FI, IT, NL, DE http://www.itek.norut.no/projects/floodman/Index.htm FLOODRELIEF: REaL-tImE Flood Decision Support System Integrating Hydrological, Meteoro­logical and Remote Sensing Technologies Consortium partners from DK, UK, DE, PL http://projects.dhi.dk/floodrelief MUSIC: Multi-sensor precipitation measurements integration, calibration and flood forecasting Consortium partners from IT, UK, DE, DK, PL http://www.geomin.unibo.it/orgv/hydro/music CARPE DIEM:Critical assessment of Available Radar Precipitation Estimation techniques and Devel­op­ment of Innovative approaches for Environmental Management Consortium partners from ES, IT, DE, SE, FI, UK, IE http://carpediem.am.ub.es/home EURAINSAT:European satellite rainfall analysis and monitoring at the geostationary scale Consortium partners from IT, IL, DE, UK http://www.isac.cnr.it/~eurainsat/ MANTISSA:Microwave Attenuation as a New Tool for Improving Stormwater Supervision Administra­tion Consortium partners from UK, DE, IT, DK http://prswww.essex.ac.uk/mantissa VOLTAIRE:Validation of multisensors precipitation fields and numerical modelling in Mediterra­nean test sites Consortium partners from DE, IT, ES, CH, CY, SI, US http://www.voltaireproject.org Ongoing FP5 flood research projects

12. ADC-RBM:Advanced Study Course in River Basin Modelling for Flood Risk Mitigation Study course organised by UK http://www.bham.ac.uk/CivEng/rbm/index.htm ECOFLOOD:Towards Natural Flood Reduction Strategies Consortium partners from NL, PL, DK, UK http://levis.sggw.waw.pl/ecoflood MITCH: Mitigation of Climate Induced Hazards Consortium partners from UK, DE, ES, IT, NL, DK, IL http://www.mitch-ec.net PHEFRA:Palaeoflood and Historical Evidence in Flood Risk Assessment Workshop organised by ES http://www.ccma.csic.es/dpts/suelos/hidro/phefra IMPACT:Investigation of Extreme Flood Processes and Uncertainty Consortium partners from UK, DE, BE, FR, IT, ES, NO, PT, CZ, HU http://www.samui.co.uk/impact-project/ SPHERE: Systematic, Palaeoflood and Historical data for the improvement of flood Risk Esti­mation Consortium partners from ES, IL, FR, DE, CA http://www.ccma.csic.es/dpts/suelos/hidro/sphere/index.html SWURVE: Sustainable Water, Uncertainty, Risk and Vulnerability in Europe Consortium partners from UK, NL, CH, PT http://www.ncl.ac.uk/swurve Ongoing FP5 flood research projects (cont.)

13. FP6 - Global Change and Ecosystems • Research Priorities • Impact and mechanisms of greenhouse gas emissions and atmospheric pollutants on climate, ozone depletion and carbon sinks (oceans, forests and soil) • Water cycle, including soil-related aspects • Biodiversity and ecosystems • Desertification and natural disasters • Strategies for sustainable land management, including coastal zones, agricultural land and forests • Operational forecasting and modelling, including global climate change observation systems • Complementary research on advanced methods for risk assessment and quality appraisal

14. FP6 – Water and global environmental change related IPs • First call (April 2003): • Ecological impact of global change on freshwater ecosystems (EUROLIMPACS), • River-soil-groundwater interactions (AQUATERRA), • Twinning river basins from EU/Africa/NIS (EUWI) (4 projects selected), • ENSEMBLE-based Predictions of Climate Changes and their Impacts (ENSEMBLES), • Integrated Flood Risk Analysis and Management Methodologies (FLOODSITE)

15. FP6 – Water and global environmental change related IPs • Second call (October 2003): • New Approaches to Adaptive Water Management under Uncertainty (NEWATER), • Mitigation of Water Stress through new Approaches to Integrating Management, Technical, Economic and Institutional Instruments (AQUASTRESS), • African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis (AMMA)

16. ENSEMBLE-based Predictions of Climate Changes and their Impacts Develop a common ensemble climate forecast system for use across a range of timescales (seasonal, decadal and longer) and spatial scales (global, regional and local) and provide a basis for quantitative risk assessment of climate change and climate variability, with emphasis on changes in extremes, including changes in storminess and precipitation and the severity and frequency of drought, and the effects of “surprises”, such as the shutdown of the thermohaline circulation

17. Integrated Project to Evaluate the Impacts of Global Change on European Freshwater Ecosystems (EUROLIMPACS) To improve understanding of how global change, especially climate change in its interaction with other drivers (land-use change, nutrient loading, acid deposition, toxic pollution) has changed, is changing and will change the structure and functioning of European freshwater ecosystems and to encapsulate this understanding in the form of predictive, testable models

18. A recent example….River Basins and Organisations (RBOs) in river ‘t-winning’ research co-operation EUROPE: Spain (Guadalentin River Basin) , UK (Thames), Sweden (Norrstrom), Germany (Neckar), Austria (Mur) and various RBOs in France, Netherlands, Italy, Poland, Hungary AFRICA: Namibia (Kuiseb Catchment), South Africa (Western Namaqualand), Botswana (Okavango), Benin (Queme), RBOs in Niger and Senegal MEDITERRANEAN COUNTRIES: RBOs in Algeria, Morocco, Israel (Nahal Zin Catchment - Negev Desert) EECCA Countries: Uzbekistan (Chirchik/Upper Syrdaria), Kazakhstan (Nura) LATIN AMERICA:Chile (Bio Bio) and RBOs from Mexico and Brasil SE ASIA: RBOs in Indonesia • RIVERTWIN: A regional model for Integrated Water Management in Twinned River Basins • TWINBAS: Twinning European and third countries river basins for development of integrated water resources management methods • WADE: Floodwater Recharge of Alluvial Aquifers in Dryland Environments • TWINBASINXN: Promoting Twinning of River Basins for Developing Integrated Water Resources Management Practices

19. New Approaches to Adaptive Water Management under Uncertainty (NEWATER)

20. Conclusions • Past and ongoing EC funded RTD projects provide a huge patrimony of knowledge and expertise, which should be capitalized in proposals expected in the 3rd call • EU water and global change activities: • focus on both process understanding at various scales, • pay particular attention to the human dimension aspects of water resources management • call for integrative, interdisciplinary and comprehensive approaches • Closer links between various research communities working in different thematic areas is of paramount importance • emphasis should not be given only to linking atmospheric sciences with land surface studies but linking also the natural, social and economic system • recent technological advances and opportunities offered by recent observation and monitoring initiatives should be taken more into consideration • A more concerted activity is needed to make EU research in the field of water more visible and raise its profile into the international global water cycle research • intecomparison at various scales, synthesis, added value