SMIRES |
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SMIRES (http://www.smires.eu/) is a COST Action addressing the Science and Management of Intermittent Rivers & Ephemeral Streams More than half of the global river network is composed of intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams (IRES), which are expanding in response to climate change and increasing water demands. After years of obscurity, the science of IRES has bloomed recently and it is being recognised IRES support a unique high-diversity, provide essential ecosystems services and are functionally part of river networks and groundwater systems. However, they still lack protective and adequate management, jeopardizing hereby the water resource at the global scale. SMIRES brings together more than 250 hydrologists, biogeochemists, ecologists, modellers, environmental economists, social researchers and stakeholders from 32 different countries to develop a research network for synthesising the fragmented, recent knowledge on IRES, improving our understanding of IRES and translating this into a science-based, sustainable management of river networks.
Historic Droughts |
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The Historic Droughts (http://historicdroughts.ceh.ac.uk) project is a four year interdisciplinary project funded by the UK Research Councils. It aims to develop an interdisciplinary understanding of drought and water scarcity in the UK from a range of different perspectives (hydrometeorological, environmental, agricultural, regulatory, social and cultural). The project will deliver the first systematic account (the UK Drought Inventory) of past droughts (since the late 19th century) in the UK. The Inventory will form the basis of a novel joint hydro-meteorological and socio-economic analysis that will lead to a ‘systems-based’ understanding of drought – i.e. an understanding of the multiple and interconnected drivers of drought, the impacts of drought and the feedbacks between them. We expect this systems-based understanding to improve decision-making for future drought management and planning, and to facilitate more informed and thus effective public discourse related to drought.
DROP |
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Water scarcity and drought are on the increase and expected to aggravate further due to climate change. Early actions are required to adapt to these changes. The transnational project ‘Benefit of governance in DROught adaPtation (DROP)’ aimed to enhance the preparedness and resilience of Northwest European (NWE) regions to such periods of drought and water scarcity. The DROP project receives European Regional Development Funding through INTERREG IVB. Transnational collaboration helps to achieve the objectives by developing better solutions in a more efficient manner. DROP integrates knowledge from science, policy and practice. The project is implemented through collaboration between six regional water authorities (practice partners) and five knowledge institutes (knowledge partners). You can find more information on: http://www.dropproject.eu.
DROUGHT R&SPI |
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Drought is increasingly being observed over the last decades in European countries. In vast areas drought impact will likely increase due to climate change. The increasing trend to more severe drought goes along with growing water scarcity that also is reported in many European regions. DROUGHT-R&SPI reduces future Europe’s vulnerability and risk to drought by innovative, transdisciplinary in-depth studies that combine drought investigations in six case study areas in water-stressed regions (river basin and national scale) with drought analyses at the pan-European scale. Knowledge transfer across these scales is paramount because vulnerability is context-specific (e.g. physical, environmental, socio-economic, cultural, institutional), which requires analyses on detailed scales, whereas international policies and drought-generating climate drivers are operating on large scales. DROUGHT-R&SPI adopted Science-Policy Interfacing at the various scales, by establishing Case Study Dialogue Fora and a pan-Europe Dialogue Forum, which ensures that the research is well integrated into the policy-making right from the start of the project. The aim, objectives and results of the project and the technical reports can be found under the Resources menu (https://europeandroughtcentre.com/resources/drought-rspi/).
WATCH |
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The objective of the EU-funded WATCH project (WATer and global CHange) is to advance our knowledge and skills to predict the effect of global change on water resources, including hydrological extremes. It aims to analyse, quantify and predict the components of the current and future global water cycles, and brings together hydrologists, water resources experts and climate modelers. Hydrological extremes (flood and drought) are analysed within Work Block 4.
XEROCHORE |
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The objective of the EU-funded XEROCHORE project (xerochore (Greek) means “dry land”) is to synthesize knowledge on past and future droughts and to compile a roadmap on research needs. It will initiate a long lasting platform that communicates drought related research and policy making beyond the lifetime of the project through an extension of EDC. Different scientific drought communities (hydrology, climatology, impacts, water management, policy), water managers, stakeholder representatives, planners, policy-analysts and decision-makers will be involved, who come from Europe, neighborhood countries and overseas.