Reconstruction of total annual rainfall in Andalusia (Southern Spain) during the 16th and 17th centuries from documentary sources

Summary This study describes a reconstruction of rainfall characteristics in Southern Spain from 1501 to 1700 AD, during the beginning of the period called the Little Ice Age. Weather information was taken from original documentary sources (urban annals, local and religious histories, municipal documents, relations, etc.) in the region. A numerical index was established to characterize the rainfall, its characteristics, evolution and geographical distribution. Results were characteristics compared with modern precipitation data and with the results of other studies of historical climate. The general conclusion is that rainfall in Western Andalusia increased from approximately 1550 to 1650 AD. Some perspectives for future research work are outlined.With 6 Figures     

Correction to: Extreme waves induced by cyclone Nargis at Myanmar coast: numerical modeling versus satellite observations

Natural Hazards - A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-021-04687-9     

Extreme waves induced by cyclone Nargis at Myanmar coast: numerical modeling versus satellite observations

Natural Hazards - The deltaic coast of Myanmar was severely hit by tropical cyclone Nargis in May 2008. In the present study, a top-down numerical simulation approach using the Weather Research and...     

Tsunami vulnerability evaluation in the Mentawai islands based on the field survey of the 2010 tsunami

On October 25, 2010, a large earthquake occurred off the coast of the Mentawai islands in Indonesia, generating a tsunami that caused damage to the coastal area of North Pagai, South Pagai, and Sipora islands. Field surveys were conducted soon after the event by several international survey teams, including the authors’. These surveys clarified the tsunami height distribution, the damage that took place, and residents’ awareness of tsunamis in the affected islands. Heights of over 5 m were recorded on the coastal area of the Indian Ocean side of North and South Pagai islands and the south part of Sipora island. In some villages, it was difficult to evacuate immediately after the earthquake because of the lack of routes to higher ground or the presence of rivers. Residents in some villages had taken part in tsunami drills or education; however, not all villages shared awareness of tsunami threats. In the present paper, based on the results of these field surveys, the vulnerability of these islands with regards to future tsunami threats was analyzed. Three important aspects of this tsunami disaster, namely the geographic disadvantage of the islands, the resilience of buildings and other infrastructure, and people’s awareness of tsunamis, are discussed in detail, and corresponding tsunami mitigation strategies are explained.     

A note on climate change adaptation for seaports: a challenge for global ports, a challenge for global society

With 80 % of world trade carried by sea, seaports provide crucial linkages in global supply-chains and are essential for the ability of all countries to access global markets. Seaports are likely to be affected directly and indirectly by climatic changes, with broader implications for international trade and development. Due to their coastal location, seaports are particularly vulnerable to extreme weather events associated with increasing sea levels and tropical storm activity, as illustrated by hurricane “Sandy”. In view of their strategic role as part of the globalized trading system, adapting ports in different parts of the world to the impacts of climate change is of considerable importance. Reflecting the views of a diverse group of stakeholders with expertise in climate science, engineering, economics, policy, and port management, this essay highlights the climate change challenge for ports and suggests a way forward through the adoption of some initial measures. These include both “soft” and “hard” adaptations that may be spearheaded by individual port entities, but will require collaboration and support from a broad range of public and private sector stakeholders and from society at large. In particular, the essay highlights a need to shift to more holistic planning, investment and operation.     

Improvement of pollutant drift forecast system applied to the Prestige oil spills in Galicia Coast (NW of Spain): development of an operational system

An integrated system named METEOMOHID, developed by MeteoGalicia in the first stage of the Prestige accident in November 2002 was used successfully in an operational form to support decision making and assist in recovering tasks. Afterwards, METEOMOHID has been enhanced with the aim of developing an operational oceanography system to be used in the NW of the Iberian Peninsula. The METEOMOHID system includes local area hydrodynamic coastal ocean modelling (MOHID), real time atmospheric forcing from a local meteorological model (ARPS). Using the available data from the Prestige crisis, a set of simulations were designed in order to reproduce the oil spill drift. The implementation of a detailed vertical resolution in the model has allowed obtaining a detailed surface dynamic, improving our knowledge of the behaviour of tarballs into the water column. Thus, the wind-driven Eckman drift, the direct dragging of the wind were detached, and the possible existence of subsurface oil was assessed. In addition, the present work evaluates the effects of introducing climatologic large scale currents in the METEOMOHID system.     

Intercomparison of measurements of bulk snow density and water equivalent of snow cover with snow core samplers: Instrumental bias and variability induced by observers

Manually collected snow data are often considered as ground truth for many applications such as climatological or hydrological studies. However, there are many sources of uncertainty that are not quantified in detail. For the determination of water equivalent of snow cover (SWE), different snow core samplers and scales are used, but they are all based on the same measurement principle. We conducted two field campaigns with 9 samplers commonly used in observational measurements and research in Europe and northern America to better quantify uncertainties when measuring depth, density and SWE with core samplers. During the first campaign, as a first approach to distinguish snow variability measured at the plot and at the point scale, repeated measurements were taken along two 20 m long snow pits. The results revealed a much higher variability of SWE at the plot scale (resulting from both natural variability and instrumental bias) compared to repeated measurements at the same spot (resulting mostly from error induced by observers or very small scale variability of snow depth). The exceptionally homogeneous snowpack found in the second campaign permitted to almost neglect the natural variability of the snowpack properties and focus on the separation between instrumental bias and error induced by observers. Reported uncertainties refer to a shallow, homogeneous tundra-taiga snowpack less than 1 m deep (loose, mostly recrystallised snow and no wind impact). Under such measurement conditions, the uncertainty in bulk snow density estimation is about 5% for an individual instrument and is close to 10% among different instruments. Results confirmed that instrumental bias exceeded both the natural variability and the error induced by observers, even in the case when observers were not familiar with a given snow core sampler.     

Parasite communities in the red mullet, Mullus barbatus L., respond to small-scale variation in the levels of polychlorinated biphenyls in the Western Mediterranean

We examined parasite populations and communities in the Mediterranean sentinel fish species, Mullus barbatus, sampled at a small-scale PCB gradient at the shelf sediments off Catalonian coasts of the Western Mediterranean. A recurrent feature at both the population and community level was the differentiation of the samples along the increasing PCB levels simultaneously registered in the sediments. Both directly transmitted ectoparasites and endoparasites with complex life-cycles transmitted via food chains exhibited a decrease in abundance with the increase in PCB levels. Parasite numerical responses translated into significant differences in infracommunity structure with decreasing predictability associated with increasing PCB levels. The abundance of two species, the specialist Opecoeloides furcatus and the generalist nematode Hysterothylacium fabri, contributed substantially to the observed dissimilarity between infracommunity samples along the gradient. The observed parasite responses to moderate levels of pollution were simultaneously validated by both chemical monitoring and effect biomarkers.