Unit:
Department of Geology and GeoenvirommentLibrary of the School of Science
Author:
Politi Konstantina
Dissertation committee:
Παναγιώτης Νάστος, Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Γεωλογίας και Γεωπεριβάλλοντος, ΕΚΠΑ
Νικόλαος Δαλέζιος ,Καθηγητής, Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλίας
Διαμάντω Βλαχογιάννη, Διευθύντρια Ερευνών, ΕΚΕΦΕ Δημόκριτος
Αθανάσιος Σφέτσος, Διευθυντής Ερευνών, ΕΚΕΦΕ Δημόκριτος
Μαρία Χατζάκη, Επίκουρη Καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Γεωλογίας και Γεωπεριβάλλοντος, ΕΚΠΑ
Κωνσταντίνος Ελευθεράτος, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Γεωλογίας και Γεωπεριβάλλοντος, ΕΚΠΑ
Εμμανουήλ Βασιλάκης, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Γεωλογίας και Γεωπεριβάλλοντος, ΕΚΠΑ
Original Title:
Seasonal assessment of climate conditions favouring drought with the use of downscaling methods under different emission scenarios for Greece
Translated title:
Seasonal assessment of climate conditions favouring drought with the use of downscaling methods under different emission scenarios for Greece
Summary:
During the last decades, Greece is experiencing an increasing number of various extreme events such as heat waves, drought, wildfires and floods, with serious environmental and socio-economic impacts, which could be attributed to climate change due to global warming. In this thesis, the dynamical downscaling technique was selected to perform high resolution climate change projections of drought over Greece, using the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) and EC-EARTH global model under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. Historical and future simulations were performed at a spatial resolution of 5 km, to produce downscaled datasets, aiming to capture the complex topographical characteristics of this country. The downscaled results aimed to investigate the climate change signal of the regional climate, regarding the mean minimum and maximum temperatures and total precipitation as well as the projected changes on the indices of extremes. The investigation of drought characteristics in Greece focused on predicted changes in temperature and precipitation using appropriate drought indices, which provided a comprehensive interpretation of drought events for the examined periods and scenarios. The present study indicated that Greece will face relatively severe drought conditions in the upcoming years. This research also revealed a shift of drought in the western parts of the country, by the end of the 21st century, under both scenarios. Moreover, owing to the high spatial resolution used, substantial differences in drought characteristics were found in future projections between areas, highly varying in temporal and spatial terms under the two emission scenarios. Within this context, the produced high resolution projected changes of the present study can serve as a firm and reliable basis for climate change impact assessments based on drought characteristics for the area of Greece.
Main subject category:
Science
Keywords:
climate change, dynamical downscaling, WRF, drought, Greece
Number of references:
286
