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The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) has published the KNMI'06 climate scenarios in 2006. These scenarios give the possible states of the climate in The Netherlands for the next century. Projections of changes in precipitation were made for a time scale of 1 day. The urban drainage sector is, however, more interested in projections on shorter time scales. Specifically, time scales of 1 h or less. The aim of this research is to provide projections of precipitation at these shorter time scales based on the available daily scenarios. This involves an analysis of climate variables and their relations to precipitation at different time scales. On the basis of this analysis, one can determine a numeric factor to translate daily projections into shorter time scale projections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A question arising when considering the changing climate is whether real time control (RTC) can be considered as a ‘No Regret’ measure, i.e. can RTC maintain its proven current added-value to reduce emissions from sewage systems in the future under altered rainfall patterns and often higher extreme rainfall intensities. This study explored four climate scenarios relevant for the lowland area of North-western Europe under two time horizons and proved that RTC’s performance only marginally decreased for a representative Flemish catchment under study. Based on this case study, it was found that effects of climate change will lead to, on average, 30-40% more overflow volume in 2050 and 35-65% more overflow volume in 2085. To restore the current situation, additional measures need to be taken, but RTC preserves its contribution to the reduction of overflows. The elaborated methodology is transposable to other locations provided that the necessary information is available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In regions where water is more scarce than land, the water productivity concept (e.g. crop yield per unit of water utilized) provides a useful framework to analyse crop production increase or water savings in irrigated agriculture. Generic crop and soil models were applied at field and regional scale, together with geographical and satellite data to analyse water productivity in Sirsa District (India). In this district certain parts show a serious decline in groundwater levels and water shortage, while other parts experience a serious rise of groundwater levels, causing waterlogging and salinization. The regional analysis showed a large spatial variability of water productivity, net groundwater recharge and salinization. Scenario analysis showed that improved crop husbandry, reallocation of canal water from fresh to saline groundwater areas and reduction of seepage losses in saline groundwater areas are effective measures to increase the overall water productivity and to attain sustainable irrigation in Sirsa District. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate observations, research, and models are used extensively to help understand key processes underlying changes to the climate on a range of time scales from months to decades, and to investigate and describe possible longer-term future climates. The knowledge generated serves as a scientific basis for climate services that are provided with the aim of tailoring infor- mation for decision-makers and policy-makers. Climate models and climate services are crucial elements for supporting policy and other societal actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change, and for making society better prepared and more resilient to climate-related risks. We present recommendations for future research topics for climate modeling and for climate services. These recommendations were produced by a group of experts in climate modeling and climate services, selected based on their individual leadership roles or participation in international activities. The recommendations were reached through extensive analysis, consideration and discussion of current and desired research capabilities, and wider engagement and refinement of the recommendations was achieved through a targeted workshop of initial recommendations and an open meeting at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly. The findings emphasize how research and innovation activities in the fields of climate modeling and climate services can contribute to improving climate knowledge and information with saliency for users in order to enhance capacity to transition to a sustainable and resilient society. The findings are relevant worldwide but are deliberately intended to influence the European Commission's next major multi-annual framework program of research and innovation over the period 2021--27. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new set of climate change scenarios for 2050 for the Netherlands was produced recently. The scenarios span a wide range of possible future climate conditions, and include climate variables that are of interest to a broad user community. The scenario values are constructed by combining output from an ensemble of recent General Climate Model (GCM) simulations, Regional Climate Model (RCM) output, meteorological observations and a touch of expert judgment. For temperature, precipitation, potential evaporation and wind four scenarios are constructed, encompassing ranges of both global mean temperature rise in 2050 and the strength of the response of the dominant atmospheric circulation in the area of interest to global warming. For this particular area, wintertime precipitation is seen to increase between 3.5 and 7% per degree global warming, but mean summertime precipitation shows opposite signs depending on the assumed response of the circulation regime. Annual maximum daily mean wind speed shows small changes compared to the observed (natural) variability of this variable. Sea level rise in the North Sea in 2100 ranges between 35 and 85 cm. Preliminary assessment of the impact of the new scenarios on water management and coastal defence policies indicate that particularly dry summer scenarios and increased intensity of extreme daily precipitation deserves additional attention in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]