Lorena Liuzzo

Basin-Scale Water Resources Assessment in Oklahoma under Synthetic Climate Change Scenarios Using a Fully Distributed Hydrologic Model

Climate change resulting from the enhanced greenhouse effect is expected to have significant implications for the hydrological cycle. Several studies have pointed out the importance of basin-scale investigations for determining regional impacts on water resources, including the effects of floods and droughts. In this study, a fully distributed hydrologic model is used to assess the potential impacts of climate change on water availability in a basin in Oklahoma (United States). With this aim, the hydrologic model was applied for current conditions as well as under the hypotheses of climate variations represented by scenarios consistent with a climatic trend analysis generated using a stochastic weather model. Hydrologic simulations indicate that streamflow and evapotranspiration reflect variations in precipitation differently. Positive trends in precipitation result in an increase in surface and groundwater resources, while evapotranspiration is only affected slightly due to the higher soil moisture in th...

Modifications in Water Resources Availability Under Climate Changes: A Case Study in a Sicilian Basin

Climate variability due to the greenhouse effect has important implications on hydrological processes and water resources systems. Indeed, water availability, quality and streamflow are very sensitive to changes in temperature and precipitation regimes whose effects have to be fully considered in current water management and planning. International literature proposes several models, attempting to assess accurately the available water resources under stationary and changing climatic conditions at different spatial and temporal scales. In order to assess the potential impacts of climate change on surface and groundwater resources water availability in a Southern area of Italy, a conceptual hydrologic model, the TOPDM, was applied at daily scale to simulate the hydrological processes in the Belice river basin, located in Sicily and which feeds an artificial lake. The analysis of climatic forcings trend provided the parameters needed in order to generate synthetic climate forcing series through the use of the AWE-GEN, an hourly weather generator, able to reproduce the characteristics of hydro-climatic variables and their statistical properties. . The hydrological model was used to estimate the basin water balance components and the surface and groundwater availability, at annual and monthly scale, in a no trend scenario, representing the current climate conditions, and in three different groups of scenarios, in which a decrease of precipitation, an increase of temperature, and a combination of these effect were reproduced. The application of TOPDM to the test basin provided some important conclusions about the implications of climate change in the Southern part of Italy. Results showed that runoff and evapotranspiration reflect variations in precipitation and in temperature; in particular the negative trend in precipitation determines a decrease in surface and groundwater resources, and this effect is intensified in the scenarios that include an increase in potential evapotraspiration as well. The consequences of changes on water supply system were also analyzed through a simple balance evaluation of the lake water reservoir, in order to assess the possible impacts on the resource managements. Results indicated an exacerbation of the water resources stresses, in which water scarcity is already an important issue for water resource management. The analysis provides useful information about the quantification of the potential effects of climate change in the area of study, in order to develop new strategies to deal with these changes.

Analysis of Extreme Rainfall Trends in Sicily for the Evaluation of Depth-Duration-Frequency Curves in Climate Change Scenarios

AbstractThe design of urban drainage systems and the development of flood mitigation strategies commonly require knowledge of extreme rainfall for a given return period. In the context of climate variability that is no longer imputable to only natural forces, the estimation of this variable represents a critical issue. Climate change effects, particularly on precipitation, should be considered in the design and planning of hydraulics infrastructures. The aim of this study is to provide an assessment of the effects of statistically significant trends in extreme rainfall on the rainfall depth-duration-frequency (DDF) curves for the return periods typically used in design in order to obtain useful information for the definition of DDF curves in climate change scenarios. The study was applied in Sicily, in the center of the Mediterranean Area, because the study may provide interesting insights in a highly populated coastal region. The first step of the study consisted of the detection and quantification of tr...

Wind speed and temperature trends impacts on reference evapotranspiration in Southern Italy

In this study, the impacts of both temperature and wind speed trends on reference evapotranspiration have been assessed using as a case study the Southern Italy, which present a wide variety of combination of such climatic variables trends in terms of direction and magnitude. The existence of statistically significant trends in wind speed and temperature from observational datasets, measured in ten stations over Southern Italy during the period 1968–2004, has been investigated. Time series have been examined using the Mann–Kendall nonparametric statistical test in order to detect possible evidences of wind speed and temperature trends at different temporal resolution and significance level. Once trends have been examined and quantified, the effects of these trends on seasonal reference evapotranspiration have been evaluated using the FAO-56 Penman–Monteith equation. Results quantified the effects of extrapolated temperature and wind speed trends on reference evapotranspiration. Where these climatic drivers are on the same direction, reference evapotranspiration generally increases during the growing season due to a nonlinear overlapping of effects. Whereas wind speed decreases and temperature increases, there is a sort of counterbalancing effect between the two considered climatic forcing in determining future reference evapotranspiration.

Uncertainty related to climate change in the assessment of the DDF curve parameters

In the context of climate change, the evaluation of the parameters of Depth-Duration-Frequency (DDF) curves has become a critical issue. Neglecting future rainfall variations could result in an overestimation/underestimation of DDF parameters and, consequently, of the design storm. In this study, uncertainty analysis was integrated into trend analysis to provide an estimate of trends that cannot actually be rigorously verified. A Bayesian procedure was suggested for the updating of DDF curve parameters and to evaluate the uncertainty related to their assessment. The proposed procedure also allowed identification of the years of a series that contributed most to the overall uncertainty related to the parameter estimation. The methodology was implemented to estimate the DDF parameters for 65 sites in Sicily (Southern Italy). The results showed that the DDF parameters were affected by increases and decreases over the 1950–2008 period, with different levels of uncertainty.