Download Climate and the Hydrological Cycle

Climate and the
Hydrological Cycle
Edited by
Marc Bierkens Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Han Dolman Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Peter Troch University of Arizona, USA
An in-depth overview of the role of the hydrological cycle within
the climate system, including climate change impacts on
hydrological reserves and fluxes, and the controls of terrestrial
hydrology on regional and global climatology. This book,
composed of self-contained chapters by specialists in hydrology
and climate science, is intended to serve as a text for graduate
and postgraduate courses in climate hydrology and
hydroclimatology. It will also be of interest to scientists and
engineers/practioners interested in the water cycle, weather
prediction and climate change.
1. The Role of the Hydrological Cycle in the Climate System 2. Evaporation
3. Physics of Evaporation and Atmospheric Boundary Layers Over Land
4. Precipitation Physics and Rainfall Observation 5. Land Surface Hydrology
6. Land Surface Schemes and Climate Models 7. Arctic and Snow Hydrology
8. Dynamics of Glaciers, Ice Sheets and Global Sea Level
9. Feedback Mechanisms: Precipitation and Soil Moisture
10. Feedback Mechanisms: Land Use, Hydrology and Carbon
11. Palaeohydrology: An Introduction 12. Groundwater Palaeohydrology
13. Global Warming and the Acceleration of the Hydrological Cycle
14. Climate Change and Hydrological Impact Studies
15. Remote Sensing for Hydrological Studies
IAHS Special Publication 8
(October 2008) ISBN 978-1-901502-54-1 (Paperback); 344 + xvi pages
Price £50.00
Sponsored by:
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IAHS Press, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
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Book prices include postage worldwide. IAHS Members receive discounts on IAHS publications.
See www.IAHS.info for information about IAHS (the International Association of Hydrological Sciences),
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Climate and the Hydrological Cycle / Bierkens, Dolman & Troch
1
The Role of the Hydrological Cycle in the Climate System
by Han Dolman
2
Evaporation
by Eddy Moors
3
Physics of Evaporation and Atmospheric Boundary Layers
Over Land
by Albert A. M. Holtslag & Michael B. Ek
4
Precipitation Physics and Rainfall Observation
by Remko Uijlenhoet
5
Land Surface Hydrology
by Peter A. Troch
6
Land Surface Schemes and Climate Models
by Bart Van den Hurk
7
Arctic and Snow Hydrology
by Rutger Dankers
8
Dynamics of Glaciers, Ice Sheets and Global Sea Level
by Roderik Van de Wal
9
Feedback Mechanisms: Precipitation and Soil Moisture
by Marc Bierkens & Bart van den Hurk
10
Feedback Mechanisms: Land Use, Hydrology and Carbon
by Han Dolman
11
Palaeohydrology: An Introduction
by Patrick W. Bogaart
12
Groundwater Palaeohydrology
by Henk Kooi
13
Global Warming and the Acceleration of the
Hydrological Cycle
by Peter A. Troch
14
Climate Change and Hydrological Impact Studies
by Hans Middelkoop
15 Remote Sensing for Hydrological Studies
by Steven de Jong, Hans van der Kwast, Elisabeth Addink & Bob Su
Climate and the Hydrological Cycle / Bierkens, Dolman & Troch
Foreword
Water vapour is the most important of all the greenhouse gases. Were there no water
vapour in the troposphere, near-surface air temperatures would be several tens of
degrees less. Greenhouse warming research investigates a potential change of several
degrees in this already existing substantial warming, and explores the impact of such a
change. Consequently, understanding and correctly modelling how more water vapour
in the atmosphere will amplify the contribution to near-surface warming caused by
other greenhouse gases, and how this extra water may alter cloud cover and therefore
surface solar radiation, are arguably the two biggest challenges for improved climate
change prediction. At the same time, it is through potential changes in the nature and
availability of precipitation falling over land surfaces, and ensuing changes in the water
available for crops, river flow, and groundwater recharge, together with possible
associated changes in evaporative demand, that a changing climate will have its most
direct impact on human welfare and ecological services. This is all the more true
because these climate-related changes in the Earth’s hydrological cycle, which are the
indirect result of the growth in human population and human expectations, will
exacerbate the inevitable stress on water resource systems that will result from the
direct impact of a massively growing global population on water demand and water
quality.
Consequently, the importance of the relationship between climate and hydrology
cannot be overstated. This book is motivated by the need to stimulate and foster this
branch of science to address the challenge. The subject area it documents lies at the
interface between climate science and hydrological science, and is identified in the
preface as “climate hydrology”. The scope of this important emerging topic is massive,
and consequently the scope of this book is also massive. In fact, the 15 chapters it
contains cover much that is currently known in the fields of surface hydrology,
hydrometeorology, and cold climate and remote sensing science, as well as exploring
the interfaces and coupling processes that link these fields. Yet every one of the selfcontained chapters is written by an expert, and all are written with evident depth of
perception and relevant understanding. Their collection together in this volume
represents a huge new resource: a graduate level textbook and source of reference in
the critical area of climate hydrology that was hitherto unavailable. This is a book
which is timely, comprehensive, thorough and comprehensible, but above all, a book
that is needed.
Jim Shuttleworth
February 2008
James W. Shuttleworth, Professor of Hydrology and Atmospheric Science
University of Arizona, USA
Climate and the Hydrological Cycle / Bierkens, Dolman & Troch
Preface
Traditionally, the terrestrial part of the hydrological cycle is studied by hydrologists
while the atmospheric part is left to atmospheric scientists. Consequently, and
unfortunately, these two branches of Earth Science have shown limited interaction,
apart perhaps from the study of evaporation and precipitation generation. The last two
decades have shown an increased interest in climate change and its impacts, not only
by the atmospheric science community, but also by hydrologists. The first studies on
hydrology and climate that were performed by hydrologists focused on the impact of
climate change and variability on the water balance and river discharge. Recently,
atmospheric scientists have turned more and more to hydrology to come up with better
land–atmosphere parameterizations in order to improve climate models and weather
prediction. These developments have led to an almost separate hydrological discipline,
called “climate hydrology”, in which hydrological systems are viewed as part of the
climate system, being both influenced by climate change and variability, as well as
constraining the climate system through positive and negative feedbacks. The study of
the hydrological cycle in the context of the climate system has developed sufficiently
to warrant a self-contained book on the subject.
The purpose of this book is to provide an in depth overview of the role of the
hydrological cycle within the climate system, including climate change impacts on
hydrological stores and fluxes, as well as controls of terrestrial hydrology on regional
and global climatology. The book is intended to serve as material for graduate and
postgraduate courses in climate hydrology and hydroclimatology. Furthermore, its
contents will be of interest to scientists and engineers/practitioners interested in the
water cycle, weather prediction, and climate change.
The book started out as lecture notes provided by the lecturers of an international
summer course named “Climate and the Hydrological Cycle” which was held at
Utrecht University, 4–15 July 2005, with 55 participants from various parts of the
world. This was the first summer course organized by the Boussinesq Centre for
Hydrology, which is the Dutch centre that aims to promote fundamental hydrological
research. Its members are the university-based hydrology groups in The Netherlands,
and we happily refer to the website (www.BoussinesqCenter.nl) for an overview of
their activities.
The lecture notes were reviewed by the editors, resulting in 15 self-contained
chapters by specialists in the field of hydrology and climate science. The logic of the
chapters’ contents follows that of the original course and is as follows:
We start out with an introductory chapter providing an overview of the role of the
hydrological cycle in the climate system. Next, we focus on the drivers of the
hydrological cycle: evaporation and precipitation. Evaporation theory and observations
are treated in Chapter 2, while Chapter 3 treats evaporation as part of the dynamics of
the planetary boundary layer. Next, Chapter 4 provides a description of precipitation
physics and of the various ways of observing precipitation, including remote sensing.
In the following four chapters we focus on hydrological processes at the land surface
Climate and the Hydrological Cycle / Bierkens, Dolman & Troch
(Chapter 5) and how these processes are generally conceptualized in the land surface
component of weather prediction and climate models (Chapter 6). As climate change is
expected to have the greatest impact at the higher latitudes, Chapter 7 deals with
hydrological processes of sub-arctic regions and how climate change impacts these
processes. Chapter 8 is another “cold chapter”, describing the dynamics of glaciers and
ice sheets and how these relate to sea level change. Because of their long turnover
times, we sometimes forget that glaciers and ice sheets are also part of the terrestrial
hydrological cycle. We are proud that we charmed a leading glaciologist to fill this gap.
As the first part of the book (chapters 2 to 8) deals with the various components of
the hydrological cycle, in the second part (chapters 9 to 14) the hydrological cycle is
treated in its various modes of interaction with the climate system. We begin with two
important feedbacks that are currently the subject of much research. First, the role of
soil moisture–precipitation feedbacks is treated in Chapter 9. These feedbacks are
important at the sub-daily to seasonal time scale, i.e. the scale of weather prediction. In
Chapter 10 we treat the exchange of carbon between land and atmosphere, which is
intimately linked to hydrology. Understanding this feedback, which operates at larger
time scales, is essential to predicting climate change. To understand how climate
impacts hydrology, much can be learned from the past, while relics from the past may
teach us a lot about past climate variability. This is the topic of Chapter 11, where an
overview is given of methods to reconstruct the components of the terrestrial water
balance in the past. The appendix to this chapter provides a review about the use of
palaeo-climatological model experiments in understanding the sudden climate change
at the end of the African humid period 6000 years ago. This case study exemplifies the
importance of vegetation dynamics and hydrology in climate change. This chapter is
followed with a review on groundwater palaeohydrology (Chapter 12), showing,
through various types of tracers, that groundwater bodies are valuable repositories of
past climate change information. The treatment of interaction between the hydrological
cycle and the climate system culminates in two chapters about climate change. Chapter
13 deals with the much debated question as to whether climate change is already
causing the hydrological cycle to speed up. Here the various, often contradictory,
observational evidence is reviewed. Chapter 14 describes methods of determining the
hydrological impact of climate change, including various ways of downscaling and
bias-correcting climate scenarios. Much of the current research into the global water
and energy cycle depends heavily on remotely sensing. Therefore, we complete the
book with an overview of various remote sensing techniques and satellite missions
designed to monitor components of the hydrological cycle (except for rainfall by radar,
which is treated in Chapter 2).
We would like to end this Preface by expressing our thanks. First, to the Dutch
government funded research programme “Climate Changes Spatial Planning”, for
financial support. Thanks to Nynke Vellinga for editing assistance and to Ton Markus
and Margot Stoete of GeoMedio for fixing many of the figures. Finally, special thanks
to Cate Gardner of IAHS Press for excellent guidance in preparing the book.
Marc F. P. Bierkens
Peter A. Troch
A. J. (Han) Dolman
Utrecht, February 2008
Climate and the Hydrological Cycle / Bierkens, Dolman & Troch
Contributors
Elizabeth A. Addink Department of Physical Geography, Faculty of Geosciences,
Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Marc F. P. Bierkens Department of Physical Geography, Faculty of Geosciences,
Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Patrick Bogaart Hydrology and Quantitative Water Management Group, Center for
Water and Climate, Department of Environmental Science, Wageningen University,
The Netherlands
Rutger Dankers Institute for Environment and Sustainability, Joint Research Centre,
European Commission, Ispra (VA), Italy
Steven J. de Jong Department of Physical Geography, Faculty of Geosciences,
Utrecht University, The Netherlands
A. H. (Han) Dolman Department of Hydrology and Geo-environmental Sciences,
Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Michael B. Ek National Center for Environmental Prediction, Environmental Modelling
Center, Suitland, Maryland, USA
Albert A. M. Holtslag Meteorology and Air Quality Group, Center for Water and
Climate, Department of Environmental Science, Wageningen University, The
Netherlands
Henk Kooi Department of Hydrology and Geo-environmental Sciences, Faculty of Earth
and Life Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Hans Middelkoop Department of Physical Geography, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht
University, The Netherlands
Eddy J. Moors Earth System Science and Climate Change Group, Department of
Environmental Science, Wageningen University and Research Centre, The
Netherlands
Z. (Bob) Su Department of Water Resources, International Institute for Geo-Information
Science and Earth Observation (ITC), Enschede, The Netherlands
Peter A. Troch Surface Water Hydrology Group, Department of Hydrology and Water
Resources, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA
Remko Uijlenhoet Hydrology and Quantitative Water Management Group, Center for
Water and Climate, Department of Environmental Science, Wageningen University,
The Netherlands
Bart J. J. M. van den Hurk Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute – KNMI,
De Bilt, The Netherlands
J. (Hans) van der Kwast Afdeling Teledetectie en Aardobervatieprocessen, VITO,
Mol, Belgium
Roderik van de Wal Institute of Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht (IMAU),
Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, The Netherlands