meteo-hydrological forecast and observations for improved water

FORALPS
METEO-HYDROLOGICAL FORECAST AND OBSERVATIONS FOR IMPROVED
WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN THE ALPS
CONTRIBUTIONS FOR A WISE MANAGEMENT OF WATER RESOURCES FROM METEOROLOGY AND CLIMATOLOGY
www.foralps.net
www.alpinespace.org
Partners
The project FORALPS (Meteo Hydrological Forecast and Observations
for improved water resource management in the ALPS) was approved
for the period 2005-2007 and financed within the INTERREG IIIB
“Alpine Space” Funding Programme in the framework of Priority 3
“Wise management of nature, landscapes and cultural heritage,
promotion of the environment and the prevention of natural disasters”,
Measure 1: “Nature and resources, in particular water”.
The actions of FORALPS are organised in five main work packages:
Regional Agency for Environmental Protection
Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Regional Meteorological Observatory
University of Trento
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Autonomous Province of Bolzano
Hydrographic Office
Italian Agency for Environmental Protection
and Technical Services
Autonomous Province of Trento
Office for Forecasts and Organization
Regional Agency for Environmental Protection
Lombardia
Regional Meteorological Service
Regional Hydrographic Office
Valle d'Aosta Autonomous Region
Meteorological Office
Regional Agency for Environmental Protection
Veneto
Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics
Regional Office for Tirol and Vorarlberg
Regional Office for Carinthia
Regional Office for Salzburg and Oberösterreich
Regional Office for Wien, Niederösterreich and Burgenland
Environmental Agency of the Republic of Slovenia
WP5: DATASET
WP6: MONITORING
WP7: WEATHER AND WATER RESOURCES
AVAILABILITY FORECASTING
WP Leader: ZAMG Vienna
WP Leader: OSMER
WP Leader: OSMER
Extreme weather events, especially heavy precipitation, heavy
snowfall and drought periods are important components of the
alpine climate. They carry ecological and economical risks and
demand for an accurate assessment of past and ongoing
variations. However, studying and understanding the changes in
climate extremes requires data with high temporal and spatial
resolution.
Pilot applications of innovative X-band microradar prototypes
for high resolution monitoring of rainfall are being promoted and
tested at selected target areas in connection with existing longrange radars. Tools for data analysis and integration between
various instruments are being developed and calibrated in view
of operational use. Traditional meteo-hydrological monitoring is
being implemented as well.
DATA RECOVERY AND COMPOSITION OF LONG-TERM SERIES
FORALPS partners are particularly concerned with the issue of
model verification, and are going to define and adopt a common
verification scheme, after a recognition of the many already
available.
SPATIALISATION
Observational data, when available, are essentially in situ
measurements representing a local reality. On the contrary a wise
management of resources as well as an effective control of hazards
needs the spatial knowledge of variable. In this task spatialisation
methods of atmospheric variables ín areas with complex orography
such as the alpine space have been investigated.
X-BAND RADAR
Historical datasets hidden in national archives, services or private collections have been located.
Adding hand written or printed data sources to the already digitized data, series have been extended.
Small and fully portable short range micro-RADARs provide direct informations on the rain rate
along mountain valleys and supply informations even concerning the vertical reflectivity profile to
the already existing C-band long range RADARs to correct and integrate their measurements.
7.1 Spatialised temperature field,
Lombardia region 12/03/2006.
SIMULATION
5.1 Data retrieving at ARPA Lombardia.
A fruitful management of resources cannot avoid the forecasting procedure. Currently, specially
dealing with complex areas, the only way to obtain sufficiently accurate predictions is represented
by numerical models. But numerical models just mimic the behavior of atmosphere and do not
reproduce it. Numerical models are powerful tools, but it is important to learn how and up to which
level it is possible to trust in them.
DATA RESCUE BY ELECTRONIC IMAGING AND DIGITALISATION
Historical climate manuscripts were preserved from deterioration by electronic imaging via or
digitalisation. A database to assess regional climate change in the alpine region was created.
6.1 X-band radar (horizontal scansion) emitting system and
installation on the Valeggio Castle (Verona, Italy).
6.2 X-Band radar (vertical scansion) testing, performed and
installed in Friuli Venezia Giulia (Italy) by Politecnico of Turin.
OTHER INSTRUMENTS
In the Ridanna watershed 4 water level gauges and 2 weather stations were installed. The aim
of the new stations is to make possible monitoring at a thinner spatial scale to meet the needs of
a better comprehensions of the hydrological and meteorological phenomena.
5.2 Data rescue was carried out by the most project partners. Inter alias, the italian “Annali Idrologici” were degitalised by APAT.
DATA QUALITY CONTROL, METADA RESCUE, HOMOGENITY TESTS
AND CALCULATION OF CLIMATE INDICES
7.2 Non hydrostatic simulation of daily total precipitation with spatial
resolution of 50.0 km, 09/09/2005.
Informations about stations location, instruments and methods of observation and measurements
in the specific time-frame were collected to check data inhomogeneities in climatological time
series. Regional climate variability has been investigated working with climate indices.
7.3 Non hydrostatic simulation of daily total precipitation with spatial
resolution of 10.2 km, 09/09/2005.
VERIFICATION
6.3 Installation of Cima Libera weather station
(3390 m a.s.l.).
Forecasts have to be accompanied by an evaluation of their
reliability. Numerical models and subjective forecasts issued by
human operators have to be verified giving to decision makers
the fundamental information for the cost/loss evaluation. Barnes
procedure and remapping techniques are used for model
verifications.
6.5 Glaciological survey on
the Malavalle glacier.
6.4 Water level gauge on the Giovo river.
VOLUNTEERS TRAINING
Trained volunteers (Storm Chasers) can supply information on the very
local, mainly severe, weather phenomena that usually escape from the
mesh of official monitoring networks. The training courses were hold in
Friuli (Italy). They increased the people awareness on the risks and their
sensitivity of the atmosphere and water cycle as well.
7.4 Two-pass Barnes procedure on 14 October 2000. Punctual rain gauge measures
5.3 Sketch of meteorological station in Šetnjošt (Slovenia) in 1904.
5.4 Centennial increase of summer days (Tmax > 25°C) in Vienna.
6.6 Local Severe Weather Training droplet.
WP8: SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF WATER RESOURCES
and Barnes gridded precipitation analysis on the QBOLAM 10-km domain.
WP9: ASSESSMENT ON COSTS AND BENEFITS DERIVING FROM
IMPROVED METEO-HYDROLOGICAL INFORMATION
WP Leader: APAT
WP Leader: UNITN
In FORALPS coupling of meteo and hydrological models is performed, calibrated and tested at
selected river basins with the aim to provide tools for operational use. A quantitative estimation of
the availability of water resources in alpine water bodies, including glaciers, is modeled and
evaluated on test cases.
COUPLING OF METEO AND HYDROLOGICAL MODELS
The operational implementation of a forecasting system based on the
coupling of meteorological and hydrological models is performed on smallmedium target Alpine basins. In those watersheds the concentration time is
too short to allow an effective hydrological forecast using as input data only
rain gauge measures. Meteorological forecast input is required to provide a
usable pre-alarm in the frame of a flood alert system (see, for instance, the
European Flood Alert System – EFAS, JRC).
MEASURES
FROM RAIN
GAUGES
TOPKAPI
HYDROL.
MODEL
7.5 Application of remapping techniques.
DOWNSCALING TECHNIQUES
FORALPS will provide an assessment of the managerial, economic and financial aspects deriving
from the transfer of recent advances into technological applications (improvement in the
environmental monitoring and modeling, development, setup and application of up-to-date
instruments), procedures (e.g. environmental impact studies and assessment), and “best practices”
(e.g. sustainable planning management of environmental and land resources).
FLOOD ANALYSIS
HYDROPOWER MANAGEMENT
In the contest of decision making in the Steyr watershed (Austria),
an analysis scheme for the economic benefits evaluation is
developed.
Downscaling techniques fill the
gap between the large scale and
coarse resolution of forecast
fields generated by General
Circulation Models and the
smaller scale and thinner spatial
resolution required by many
practical problems. The basic
concept is to use a large-scale
parameter (predictor) to predict a
small-scale
local
parameter
(predictand).
Downscaling
techniques are applied on the
Speccheri dam pilot watershed
(Vallarsa, Trento, Italy).
The management of an hydroelectric plant can greatly benefit from the
increasingly deeper knowledge in the fields of meteorology and hydrology. This
is true both as far as the environmental impact and as far as the hydropower
production. Such analyses are carried out in cooperation with AGSM (Verona),
i.e. the company which is currently responsable for the management of the
hydroelectric plant in Leno (Vallarsa, Italy).
9.1 City of Steyr (Austria)
8.3 Downscaling technique representation.
NEW IMPLEMENTATION
(work in progress)
8.1 APAT Forecasting System “Sistema Idro-MeteoMare” (SIMM; or POSEIDON), with identification of
the future hydrological module (TOPKAPI model).
8.2 Outer (H.R.) and inner (V.H.R.) domains of the
QBOLAM meteorological model.
HYDRO-MODEL SENSITIVITY TO CATCHMENT SIZE
An extensive study for the
application
of
hydrological
models in the northern Alps,
with the main focus on model
sensitivity to the catchment size
is performed. The target area
selected for the study is the
Steyr river basin (population of
the city of Steyr: 40000
inhabitants – catchment surface:
2000 km²). Several case studies
were carried out for the
catchment area of the Steyr
river for different meteorological
parameters concerning short
convective events and rainfall
periods with longer duration, as
well as snow melt phases.
WATER MANAGEMENT IN ALPINE BASINS
This task concerns the implementation of effective tools for water
resources management in representative alpine catchments, suitable
for different applications (ecology, hydropower generation, risk
assessment). Water balance studies are carried out on the Ridanna
(Bozen, Italy) river basin (pilot basin). For this aim, on the new water
level gauges installed, topographic surveys and discharge
measurements campaigns has been performed. A complete, semi
distributed, hydrological model is going to be applied.
existing stations
stations to be updated
new stations
9.2 The Steyr river catchment.
9.3 Surface pressure analysis (19/03/2005).
9.4 View of the Speccheri Dam.
9.5 Detail of the Leno hydropower plant.
ECONOMIC IMPACT ON TOURISM
ARTIFICIAL SNOW PRODUCTION
WATER MANAGEMENT
The Garda Lake region (North Italy) has been
identified as a crucial target area to analyse
the benefits deriving from improvement of
weather forecast and water management. In
order to estimate the main requests and
questions related to the weather forecast,
warning and wished improvements, many
social categories and associations of the area
has been interviewed.
Artificial snowing is acquiring an increasingly
important role in the alpine environment,
considering both the economic and the
environmental impacts. The Fassa Valley area
(Trento, Italy), where artificial snowing is widely
spread and winter tourism is the main economic
activity, was chosen as a case study. Improved
water management programs and increased
meteorological fields knowledge are considered.
A remarkable water deficiency is a severe
restriction for the economic development of
the Monte Baldo area (Verona, Italy). The
objective of the work on this pilot is to
develop a better knowledge of resource
availability and help decision makers dealing
with water management in this region
improving collaboration and coordination of
the activities made in this field.
Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, DLR Oberpfaffenhofen
http://www.dlr.de/ipa
8.4 Topology of Steyr river basin.
8.5 Map of the Ridanna river watershed.
8.6 Severe even observed the
night between october 3rd an 4th.
9.6 View of the Garda Lake.
9.7 Snowing propeller.
9.8 Position of the area of study.
9.9 Monte Baldo.
9.10 Weather station.