scholarly journals Systematic Modeling of Impacts of Land Use and Land Cover Changes on Regional Climate: A Review

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiangzheng Deng ◽  
Chunhong Zhao ◽  
Haiming Yan
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Regional Climate Model ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Land Cover Changes

There have been tremendous changes in the global land use pattern in the past 50 years, which has directly or indirectly exerted significant influence on the global climate change. Quantitative analysis for the impacts of land use and land cover changes (LUCC) on surface climate is one of the core scientific issues to quantitatively analyze the impacts of LUCC on the climate so as to scientifically understand the influence of human activities on the climate change. This paper comprehensively analyzed the primary scientific issues about the impacts of LUCC on the regional climate and reviewed the progress in relevant researches. Firstly, it introduced the influence mechanism of LUCC on the regional climate and reviewed the progress in the researches on the biogeophysical process and biogeochemical process. Then the model simulation of effects of LUCC on the regional climate was introduced, and the development from the global climate model to the regional climate model and the integration of the improved land surface model and the regional climate model were reviewed in detail. Finally, this paper discussed the application of the regional climate models in the development and management of agricultural land and urban land.

Unmixing the regional climate response to recent historical land cover changes in Europe

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bo Huang ◽  
Xiangping Hu ◽  
Geir-Arne Fuglstad ◽  
Xu Zhou ◽  
Wenwu Zhao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Cover ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Surface Energy Budget ◽  
Land Cover Changes ◽  
Climate Response ◽  
Statistical Regression ◽  
Cooling Effects

<p>Land cover changes (LCCs) influence the regional climate because they alter biophysical mechanisms like evapotranspiration, albedo, and surface roughness. Previous research mainly assessed the regional climate implications of individual land cover transitions, such as the effects of historical forest clearance or idealized large-scale scenarios of deforestation/afforestation, but the combined effects from the mix of recent historical land cover changes in Europe have not been explored. In this study, we use a combination of high resolution land cover data with a regional climate model (the Weather Research and Forecasting model, WRF, v3.9.1) to quantify the effects on surface temperature of land cover changes between 1992 and 2015. Unlike many previous studies that had to use one unrealistic large-scale simulation for each LCC to single out its climate effects, our analysis simultaneously considers the effects of the mix of historical land cover changes in Europe and introduces a new method to disentangle the individual contributions. This approach, based on a ridge statistical regression, does not require an explicit consideration of the different components of the surface energy budget, and directly shows the temperature changes from each land transition.</p><p>            From 1992 to 2015, around 70 Mha of land transitions occurred in Europe. Approximately 25 Mha of agricultural land was left abandoned, which was only partially compensated by cropland expansion (about 20 Mha). Declines in agricultural land mostly occurred in favor of forests (15 Mha) and urban settlements (8 Mha). Relative to 1992, we find that the land covers of 2015 are associated with an average temperature cooling of -0.12±0.20 °C, with seasonal and spatial variations. At a continental level, the mean cooling is mainly driven by agriculture abandonment (cropland-to-forest transitions). Idealized simulations where cropland transitions to other land classes are excluded result in a mean warming of +0.10±0.19 °C, especially during summer. Conversions to urban land always resulted in warming effects, whereas the local temperature response to forest gains and losses shows opposite signs from the western and central part of the domain (where forests have cooling effects) to the eastern part (where forests are associated to warming). Gradients in soil moisture and local climate conditions are the main drivers of these differences. Our findings are a first attempt to quantify the regional climate response to historical LCC in Europe, and our method allows to unmix the temperature signal of a grid cell to the underlying LCCs (i.e., temperature impact per land transition). Further developing biophysical implications from LCCs for their ultimate consideration in land use planning can improve synergies for climate change adaptation and mitigation.</p><p> </p>

scholarly journals Brief Communication: An update of the article "Modeling flood damages under climate change conditions – a case study for Germany"

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (12) ◽  
pp. 7231-7245
Author(s):  
F. F. Hattermann ◽  
S. Huang ◽  
O. Burghoff ◽  
P. Hoffmann ◽  
Z. W. Kundzewicz
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Regional Climate Model ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Considerable Increase ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Global Climate Model ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Flood Damages

Abstract. In our first study on possible flood damages under climate change in Germany, we reported that a considerable increase in flood related losses can be expected in future, warmer, climate. However, the general significance of the study was limited by the fact that outcome of only one Global Climate Model (GCM) was used as large scale climate driver, while many studies report that GCM models are often the largest source of uncertainty in impact modeling. Here we show that a much broader set of global and regional climate model combinations as climate driver shows trends which are in line with the original results and even give a stronger increase of damages.

scholarly journals The role of land cover in the climate of glacial Europe

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 1161-1180
Author(s):  
Patricio Velasquez ◽  
Jed O. Kaplan ◽  
Martina Messmer ◽  
Patrick Ludwig ◽  
Christoph C. Raible
Keyword(s):  
Land Cover ◽  
Regional Climate Model ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Global Climate Model ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Quasi Equilibrium ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Vegetation Model ◽  
The Alps

Abstract. Earth system models show wide disagreement when simulating the climate of the continents at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). This disagreement may be related to a variety of factors, including model resolution and an incomplete representation of Earth system processes. To assess the importance of resolution and land–atmosphere feedbacks on the climate of Europe, we performed an iterative asynchronously coupled land–atmosphere modelling experiment that combined a global climate model, a regional climate model, and a dynamic vegetation model. The regional climate and land cover models were run at high (18 km) resolution over a domain covering the ice-free regions of Europe. Asynchronous coupling between the regional climate model and the vegetation model showed that the land–atmosphere coupling achieves quasi-equilibrium after four iterations. Modelled climate and land cover agree reasonably well with independent reconstructions based on pollen and other paleoenvironmental proxies. To assess the importance of land cover on the LGM climate of Europe, we performed a sensitivity simulation where we used LGM climate but present-day (PD) land cover. Using LGM climate and land cover leads to colder and drier summer conditions around the Alps and warmer and drier climate in southeastern Europe compared to LGM climate determined by PD land cover. This finding demonstrates that LGM land cover plays an important role in regulating the regional climate. Therefore, realistic glacial land cover estimates are needed to accurately simulate regional glacial climate states in areas with interplays between complex topography, large ice sheets, and diverse land cover, as observed in Europe.

scholarly journals Atmospheric Rivers in CMIP5 climate ensembles downscaled with a high resolution regional climate model

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Gröger ◽  
Christian Dieterich ◽  
Cyril Dutheil ◽  
Markus Meier ◽  
Dmitry Sein
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Regional Climate Model ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Heavy Precipitation ◽  
Atmospheric Rivers ◽  
Precipitation Events

Abstract. Atmospheric rivers (AR) are important drivers of heavy precipitation events in western and central Europe and often associated with intense floods. So far, the ARs response to climate change in Europe has been investigated by global climate models within the CMIP5 framework. However, their spatial resolution between 1 and 3° is too coarse for an adequate assessment of local to regional precipitation patterns. Using a regional climate model with 0.22° resolution we downscale an ensemble of 24 global climate simulations following the greenhouse gas scenarios RCP2.6, RCP4.5, RCP8.5. The performance of the model was tested against ER-I reanalysis data. The downscaled simulation notably better represents small-scale spatial characteristics which is most obvious over the terrain of the Iberian Peninsula where the AR induced precipitation pattern clearly reflect eat-west striking topographical elements resulting in zonal bands of high and low AR impact. Over central Europe the model simulates a less far propagation of ARs toward eastern Europe compared to ERA-I but a higher share of AR forced heavy precipitation events especially Norway where 60 % of annual precipitation maxima are related to ARs. We find ARs more frequent and more intense in a future warmer climate especially in the higher emission scenarios whereas the changes are mostly mitigated under the assumption of RCP2.6. They also propagate further inland to eastern Europe in a warmer climate. In the high emission scenario RCP8.5 AR induced precipitation rates increase between 20 and 40 % in western central Europe while mean precipitation rates increase by maximal 12 %. Over the Iberian Peninsula AR induced precipitation rates slightly decrease around −6 % but mean rates decrease around −15 %. The result of these changes is an overall increased contribution of ARs to heavy precipitation with greatest impact over Iberia (15–30 %). Over Norway average AR precipitation rates decline between −5 to −30 %. These reductions most likely the originate from regional dynamical changes. In fact, over Norway we find ARs originating from > 60° N are reduced by up to 20 % while those originating south of 45° N are increased. Also, no clear climate change signal is seen for AR related heavy precipitation and annual maximum precipitation over Norway where the uncertainty of the ensemble is quite large.

The Sensitivity of Regional Climate Projections to SSP-Based Land Use Changes in the North American CORDEX Domain

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Bukovsky ◽  
Linda Mearns ◽  
Jing Gao ◽  
Brian O'Neill
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Use ◽  
North American ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Climate Projections ◽  
Rcp Scenarios ◽  
The North

<p>In order to assess the combined effects of green-house-gas-induced climate change and land-use land-cover change (LULCC), we have produced regional climate model (RCM) simulations that are complementary to the North-American Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment (NA-CORDEX) simulations, but with future LULCCs that are consistent with particular Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs).  In standard, existing NA-CORDEX simulations, land surface characteristics are held constant at present day conditions.  These new simulations, in conjunction with the NA-CORDEX simulations, will help us assess the magnitude of the changes in regional climate forced by LULCC relative to those produced by increasing greenhouse gas concentrations.     </p><p>Understanding the magnitude of the regional climate effects of LULCC is important to the SSP-RCP scenarios framework.  Whether or not the pattern of climate change resulting from a given SSP-RCP pairing is sensitive to the pattern of LULCC is an understudied problem.  This work helps address this question, and will inform thinking about possible needed modifications to the scenarios framework to better account for climate-land use interactions.</p><p>Accordingly, in this presentation, we will examine the state of the climate at the end of the 21<sup>st</sup> century with and without SSP-driven LULCCs in RCM simulations produced using WRF under the RCP8.5 concentration scenario.  The included LULCC change effects have been created following the SSP3 and SSP5 narratives using an existing agricultural land model linked with a new long-term spatial urban land model. </p>

scholarly journals CHANGES IN PARAMETERIZATIONS OF REGIONAL CLIMATE MODEL REGCM4.4.5: THE ROLE OF LAND COVER ON REGIONAL CLIMATE OVER MEDITERRANEAN

2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 1062
Author(s):  
K. Velikou ◽  
K. Tolika ◽  
Ch. Anagnostopoulou
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Regional Climate Model ◽  
Mediterranean Region ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Heat Waves ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Mediterranean Forests ◽  
The Mediterranean

A parameter that affects significantly the local, regional and global climate system is land cover and the changes that may occur to it. During winter season, heavy precipitation assists vegetation growth of Mediterranean forests and woodlands, whereas during summer, absence of precipitation and severe heat waves result to arid and semiarid vegetation. For that reason, it was quite interesting to track the changes that may occur in the climate of the Mediterranean region due to land cover/land use changes on regional climate over the Mediterranean region. The main objective of the study is the assessment of the impacts of land cover/land use changes on regional climate over the Mediterranean region. The examined regional climate model used in the study is RegCM4.4.5. Its spatial resolution is 25x25km and different simulations were performed with changes in land cover/land use for the time period 1981-1990. The different simulated data were compared in order to examine the modifications that occur from land cover/land use changes in evapotranspiration and surface albedo to direct and diffuse radiation in the domain of study.

scholarly journals Effect of Climate Change on Land Degradation

2020 ◽  
pp. 483-494
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Land Degradation ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Ecological Resources ◽  
Sequestration Potential ◽  
The Impact

Degradation currently affects 25 % of the land on Earth and 40 % of the agricultural land on Earth. Environmental effects of soil degradation are widespread, including increased soil losses, deterioration of water quality, decline of biodiversity and degradation of ecological resources and associated values, especially where actual land use is disrespectful (natural use in circumstances where land is in conflict with the environment. Changes in temperature, wind velocity, and precipitation patterns can affect the production of plant biomass, land use, land cover, soil moisture, infiltration rate, runoff and crop management, and eventually land degradation. In recent decades, powerful partnerships have been seen between global climate change and land loss processes. In order to reliably define or forecast the effect of climate change on the loss of land, models of climate change and land use models should be combined with hydrology. Until the first seventies land degradation and geological process weren't thought of a serious issue in most Mediterranean regions. Traditional agricultural systems were believed to be able to keep those processes under control. So low priority was appointed to research programmes and comes on eroding and conservation, preference being given to the impact of farm machinery on soil structure and compaction beside the role of organic matter within the soil. To regulate the destruction of soil, it is therefore important to have limited and global strategies and regulations. Land use and land cover changes influence carbon fluxes and GHGs emissions that directly alter atmospherical composition and radioactive forcing properties. Land degradation aggravates greenhouse gas-induced global climate change through the discharge of CO2 from cleared and dead vegetation and thru the reduction of the carbon sequestration potential of degraded land. The present analysis furnishes effects of climate amendment on land degradation.

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