Technical note: Surface fields for global environmental modelling

Climate change has resulted in more frequent occurrences of extreme events, such as flooding and heavy snowfall, which can have a significant impact on densely populated or industrialised areas. Numerical models are used to simulate and predict these extreme events, enabling informed decision-making...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Choulga, Margarita, Moschini, Francesca, Mazzetti, Cinzia, Grimaldi, Stefania, Disperati, Juliana, Beck, Hylke, Salamon, Peter, Prudhomme, Christel
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: 2023
Subjects:
V Lake
Antarc*
Antarctica
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1306
https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2023/egusphere-2023-1306/
Description
Summary:Climate change has resulted in more frequent occurrences of extreme events, such as flooding and heavy snowfall, which can have a significant impact on densely populated or industrialised areas. Numerical models are used to simulate and predict these extreme events, enabling informed decision-making and planning to minimise human casualties and protect costly infrastructure. LISFLOOD is an integrated hydrological model underpinning the European and Global Flood Awareness Systems (EFAS and GloFAS, respectively) developed by the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS). The CEMS_SurfaceFields_2022 dataset is a new set of high-resolution surface fields at 1 and 3 arc min (approximately 2 and 6 km at the Equator respectively) covering Europe and the global land surface (excluding Antarctica) respectively, based on a wide variety of high-resolution and up-to-date data sources. The dataset has been created together with upgrades to the open source LISFLOOD code. The set encompasses (i) catchment morphology and river network, (ii) land use, (iii) vegetation cover type and properties, (iv) soil properties, (v) lake information, and (vi) water demand. This manuscript details the complete workflow to generate CEMS_SurfaceFields_2022 fields, including data sources and methodology. The use of these fields is expected to significantly improve accuracy, detail, and realism of LISFLOOD simulations. CEMS_SurfaceFields_2022 can also be used as input for other Earth system models or for carrying out general statistical analyses across various spatial scales, ranging from global and regional to local levels.

Similar Items