DATE2022-05-30 14:52:21
IDABSTRACT20220530145221-207
CONTACTgkitsara@noa.gr
PRESENTATIONORAL
INVITED0
IDSESSION5
TITLELIFE-IP AdaptInGR: climate change projections for Greece available at the national Geoportal, contributing to the implementation of national adaptation policies
AUTHORSGianna Kitsara (1) ,Giannis Lemesios (1) ,Anna Karali (1) ,Ioannis Kapsomenakis (2) ,Konstantinos V. Varotsos (1) ,Christos Giannakopoulos (1) ,Christos Zerefos (2)
AFFILIATIONS
  1. 1) Institute For Environmental Research And Sustainable Development,national Observatory Of Athens, Athens (Greece) ,2) Research Centre For Atmospheric Physics And Climatology, Academy Of Athens, Athens (Greece)
ABSTRACTThe latest IPCC report, (IPCC, 2022) provides new estimates of the chances of crossing the global warming level of 1.5°C in the next decades, and finds that unless there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to close to 1.5°C or even 2°C will be beyond reach. The observed and expected rise in air temperature for the Mediterranean region, including Greece, will be accompanied by an increase in heatwaves, a decrease in rainfall, and an increase in droughts and forest fires risk. Thus, the country has to include future climate change adaptation policies and plans, taking appropriate actions to address the expected damage and adverse impacts of climate change. The use of climate projections on higher resolution, through climate services is necessary to assess the national and regional climate change signal and their impact over the complex topographical area of Greece and will contribute to adaptation plans mainly on those sectors of activity that are most vulnerable to climate change (including water resources management, forest fire risk, flood risk management, coastal erosion, building environment, energy and tourism sector). In the framework of the integrated project “LIFE-IP AdaptInGR – Boosting the implementation of adaptation policy across Greece (https://www.adaptivegreece.gr/en-us/), the National Observatory of Athens and the Academy of Athens, have produced future climate change projections for several climatic parameters such as temperature, precipitation, wind speed and relative humidity at a national level with horizontal spatial analysis of approx. 0.11°. Climate simulations were extracted from seven pairs of Global Climate Models (GCMs)/Regional Climate Models (RCMs), developed within the EURO-CORDEX (http://www.cordex.org) initiative, after their evaluation against E-OBS v19 for the period 1971-2000 for the essential climate variables of temperature and precipitation. Future projections were based on three IPCC emission scenarios, namely: the RCP2.6 (stringent mitigation scenario), the RCP4.5 (stabilization, intermediate scenario) and the RCP8.5 (extreme scenario, very high greenhouse gas emissions). Twenty-two (22) climatic indices related to the vulnerable sectors to climate change have been produced based on the ensemble mean of seven selected climate models, for two future periods: the near future (2031-2060) and the distant future (2071-2100), under the three emission scenarios relative to the reference period 1971-2000 (current climate/control period). Climate indices tailored to the climatic conditions of Greece were constructed, relevant to climate variability and risks: high temperatures (number of hot and very hot days, maximum and mean temperature), droughts (total precipitation, dry days, consecutive dry days), extreme rainfall (precipitation days, high and very high precipitation days), wind (wind speed), energy demand (heating and cooling degree days), low temperatures (night frost), thermal stress (tropical nights, relative humidity, humidex), fire risk (mean FWI for the fire season, extreme fire danger days). The produced climate projections, indices and maps were combined with geospatial data providing high quality future climate information to further support mainstreaming of adaptation across policies and projects in Greece. Maps of the 22 climate indices for Greece were integrated as an online tool in the Geospatial Information Portal of the Greek Ministry of Environment and Energy (http://mapsportal.ypen.gr/thema_climatechange) in order to provide a useful climate service to support public authorities and stakeholders in assessing the impacts of climate change in their areas for competence. Maps are easily accessible and downloadable through the GIS Mapsportal of the Greek Ministry of Environment and Energy. The resolution of the maps is approx. 500m after applying spatial interpolation methods to the initial data. The user can find detail climate information of a specific region of the country, focusing on the map of the online tool which provides the value of the respective climate index of the area. The incorporation of climate information, related to future climate risks, into the national mapsportal, through an easy-to-use online tool, is considered necessary for supporting adaptation planning to climate change on a national and regional level. Policy makers from the public, or private sector can use climate services to access scientific information offering best decisions to society, understanding current climate variability, reduce the economic and social damage caused by climate-related disasters and build resilience to climate change.
PAGE67
STATE1