ESD Reviews: Extreme Weather and Societal Impacts in the Eastern Mediterranean

Gaining a holistic understanding of extreme weather, from its physical drivers to its impacts on society and ecosystems, is key to supporting future risk reduction and preparedness measures. Here, we provide an overview of the state-of-the-art, knowledge gaps and key open questions in the study of extreme weather events over the vulnerable eastern Mediterranean. This region is situated in a transition zone between subtropical and mid-latitude climates. Extreme weather is mainly governed by the large-scale atmospheric circulation and its interaction with regional synoptic systems, i.e., Cyprus Lows, Red Sea Troughs, Persian Troughs, ‘Sharav’ Lows, and high-pressure systems. Complex orographic features further play an important role in the generation of extreme weather. Most extreme weather events, including heavy precipitation, cold spells, floods and wind storms, are associated with a Cyprus Low or Active Red Sea Trough, whereas heat waves are related with either the Persian Trough and Sub-Tropical High-pressure systems in summer, or the ‘Sharav’ Low during spring time. Heat waves and droughts are projected to significantly increase in both frequency and intensity. In future decades, changes in heavy precipitation frequency and intensity may vary in sign and magnitude depending on the scale, severity and region of interest. There are still relatively large uncertainties concerning the physical understanding and the projected changes of cold spells, wind storms and compound events, as these types of events received comparatively little attention in the literature. We further identify knowledge gaps that relate to the societal impacts of extreme weather. These gaps mainly relate to the effects extreme weather may have on mortality, morbidity and infrastructure in the eastern Mediterranean. Research is currently limited in this context, and we call to strengthen the database of analyzed case-studies. We trust that this can only be suitably accomplished by inter-disciplinary and international regional collaborations, in spite of political unrest.

INGESTION OF MICROPLASTICS BY BENTHIC MARINE ORGANISMS IN THE ILHA GRANDE BAY HERITAGE SITE ON SOUTHEASTERN BRAZIL

Inappropriate disposal, management, treatment of litter are the main sources of plastic accumulation. People, animals, wind, storms, and currents spread continuously the plastic in different sites in the world. Diverse animal groups have been ingesting small particles of plastic, the microplastics (MPs), resulting in negative effects in behaviour, consumption, and nutritional rates. Here, we reported the ingestion of MP by two benthic groups, Ascidiacea and Amphipoda from sites around llha Grande Bay, a Natural Heritage of Humanity site in the Southwest of Brazil.

Concluding Summary

This chapter summarizes the book's study on non-synoptic wind storms (NSWSs). The book covers aspects related the general vulnerability to NSWSs in terms of (1) incidence, including the flow field and intensity and the frequency and occurrence of these storms; and (2) exposure, including preparedness for NSWSs. In doing so, it presents the state of the art regarding full-scale data acquisition and analysis, mesoscale and microscale numerical modeling, physical simulations, structural analysis, risk modeling, building codes implementation, and insurance analysis. For each of these aspects, the presentation aims at being informative, reviewing a large palette of approaches and presenting their advantages and limitations. It also stresses the need for future research.

Nonstationary weather and water extremes: a review of methods for their detection, attribution, and management

Hydroclimatic extremes such as intense rainfall, floods, droughts, heatwaves, and wind/storms have devastating effects each year. One of the key challenges for society is understanding how these extremes are evolving and likely to unfold beyond their historical distributions under the influence of multiple drivers such as changes in climate, land cover, and other human factors. Methods for analysing hydroclimatic extremes have advanced considerably in recent decades. Here we provide a review of the drivers, metrics and methods for the detection, attribution, prediction and projection of nonstationary hydroclimatic extremes. We discuss issues and uncertainty associated with these approaches (e.g arising from insufficient record length, spurious nonstationarities, or incomplete representation of nonstationary sources in modelling frameworks), examine empirical and simulation-based frameworks for analysis of nonstationary extremes, and identify gaps for future research.

Characteristics of Downslope Wind Storms in the View of the Typical Atmospheric Boundary Layer

There is a clear need to learn more about the exact characteristics of downslope wind storms in order to accurately address relevant topics in environmental aerodynamics and wind engineering. In particular, the characteristics of the atmospheric boundary layer are well known and provided in international standards and textbooks; however, further work is required to elucidate characteristics of downslope wind storms and make these characteristics available in a form suitable for engineering applications. While downslope wind storms have been successfully addressed in the meteorology, climatology, and geophysics communities, the focus of those groups is quite different from the focus in wind engineering; that is, the existing data on characteristics of downslope wind storms are of marginal relevance for engineering applications. It is therefore the scope of this chapter to provide a critical review of the state of the art on characteristics of those local and unique winds in comparison with the typical atmospheric boundary layer. It is expected that this work will encourage a more detailed codification of those winds. Another important goal is to enhance an interdisciplinary collaboration among the meteorology, geophysics, and engineering communities because it is shown in this chapter that the current wind engineering standards do not entirely keep up with the atmospheric physics of downslope wind storms.

The Types of Non-Synoptic Wind Systems

This is a brief summary of the names, characteristics, and dynamics and thermodynamics of subsynoptic-scale and smaller weather systems that can produce damaging surface winds in midlatitudes and wherever the damaging winds occur within the systems. Those systems associated with convective storms include tornadoes, gust fronts, and microbursts; those not associated with convective storms include downslope wind storms and, to a lesser extent, bores, katabatic winds, sting jets, dryline bulges, and the diurnal oscillation of the (nocturnal) low-level jet. Fundamental physical processes discussed include extreme positive or negative buoyancy, production of horizontal vorticity baroclinically, production of vertical vorticity through tilting and stretching, gravity-wave generation over orography and downstream propagation, and turbulent vertical mixing.

Measuring the Engineering-Relevant Aspects of Non-Synoptic Wind Hazards

This article reviews the techniques and approaches historically employed to measure non-synoptic wind storms. While most of these efforts have originated from the atmospheric science community, the focus of this article relates to meeting the requirements of the engineering community. While the recognition of the importance of these non-synoptic wind system events is increasing, their engineering-relevant characteristics are still largely unknown. While gaps in knowledge concerning the engineering-relevant aspects of non-synoptic wind systems are plentiful, focused application of high-resolution research instrumentation offers hope to remove many of these unknowns. Future engineering-oriented measurement campaigns will likely make use of both traditional anemometry and remote sensing technologies to document the characteristics of non-synoptic wind systems.