Supporting the Austrian Research Community in using recent Climate Change Projections for Climate Impact Studies
Abstract
The Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management together with the federal state governments of Austria funded the one-year project, called “Klimaszenarien für Österreich (ÖKS15)”, end of 2014. In the light of limited effective resolutions of both, underlying RCM data and observational data, and in the light of methodological limitations of statistical downscaling, bias correction, and interpolation approaches, the reliability and quality of the ÖKS15 climate projections generated on such small scales (1 km x 1 km grid spacing; daily bases) ask for a deeper consideration – especially, in the complex terrain of Austria. STARC-Impact is designed to evaluate differences in the characteristics and climate change signal of current RCM simulations, as well as to assess strengths and limitations of the ÖKS15 projections and to elucidate its range of applicability, seen from an impact modeller’s point of view. The objectives include: Analyse the quality, reliability and uncertainty of the ÖKS15 dataset as well as of the observational, gridded data used in ÖKS15 (provided to the community through ZAMG); Analyse differences in the ÖKS15 dataset when the emission scenarios are changed from SRES to RCPs as well as from IPCC-AR4 to latest IPCC-AR5 climate models; Assess differences in the climate change signal between different climate models and model-generations therein as well as between different emission scenarios for various climate variables; Investigate the applicability of the ÖKS15 projections from an impact modeller’s point of view with respect to the ÖKS15’ limitations and with respect to changes in the emission scenario from SRES to RCP; Exemplify climate change impacts on crop production through crop model application in regional case studies and their sensitivity against uncertainty in emission scenario based on the ÖKS15 projections; Establish guidelines for the Austrian Climate Research Community for selecting and using the extended ÖKS15 data or available regional climate model raw data.
crop models Klimawandelauswirkungen crops climate change scenarios Agrometeorology
Publikationen
Project staff
Josef Eitzinger
Univ.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.nat.techn. Josef Eitzinger
josef.eitzinger@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-81422
Project Leader
01.07.2016 - 30.09.2018
Sabina Thaler
Mag. Mag. Dr. Sabina Thaler
sabina.thaler@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-81420
Project Staff
01.11.2017 - 31.12.2018
BOKU partners
External partners
Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik
none
partner
Karl Franzens Universität Graz, Wegener Center für Klima und Globalen Wandel
Dr. Heimo Truhetz
coordinator