After successfully completing this course, the student will:
- have an in-depth overview of the functioning of the hydrological cycle and the cryosphere as part of the climate system;
- have attained knowledge about the impact of climate change and climate variability on terrestrial hydrological fluxes such as precipitation, evaporation, glacier and snow melt and river runoff;
- have attained knowledge about the interaction between hydrological states and fluxes and the climate system, including feedbacks related to groundwater, soil moisture, ice and snow;
- appreciate the many sources of uncertainty in climate change projections that are caused from an incomplete description of terrestrial hydrological cycle and are acquainted with examples of running debates and controversies.
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Please note: It is not allowed to register for course GEO4-4423 and also for course GEO4-2327.
Traditionally, the terrestrial part of the hydrological cycle is mainly studied by hydrologists while the atmospheric part is left to atmospheric science and the cryospheric part to glaciology. As a consequence, apart from the study of evaporation, the three sciences have shown limited interaction. The last two decades however, have shown an increased interest in climate change and its impacts, not only by the atmospheric and cryospheric science community, but also by hydrologists. The first studies on hydrology and climate that were performed by hydrologists mainly focussed on the impact of climate change and variability on the water balance and river discharge. Recently, atmospheric scientist have turned more and more to hydrology to come up with better land-atmosphere parameterisations in order to improve climate models and weather prediction. The same holds for the cryosphere. There is an increasing number of cases where glacier dynamics and snow hydrology are integrated in basin scale hydrological studies. These developments together have led to an almost separate hydrological discipline called 'climate hydrology' where hydrological systems are viewed as part of the climate system being both influenced by climate change and variability and the cryosphere, 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 and the cryosphere has developed sufficiently to warrant a self-contained course on the subject.
The course consists of a set of lectures, in which a separate subject is treated by an expert. The course outline is divided in three main blocks: the climate system, fundamentals of the atmosphere, cryosphere and the hydrosphere and climate change impacts.
1.The climate system
- An overview of the global climate system
- The role of the hydrological cycle in the climate system
2.Fundamentals of atmosphere, cryosphere and the hydrosphere
- Measurements and physics of precipitation
- Measurements and physics of evaporation
- Principles of the atmospheric boundary layer
- Climate, soil moisture and groundwater feedbacks
- Mountain meteorology
- Snow hydrology
- Physics of glaciers
3.Climate change impacts
- Climate models
- Climate scenarios and downscaling
- Dynamics of glaciers, ice sheets and global sea-level rise
- The intensification of the hydrological cycle
- Climate change impacts on mountain hydrology
In addition, there will be hands-on exercises and case study work to get familiar with commonly used tools, methods and key concepts. There are four short hands-on exercises of half day each and a longer case study project on climate change impact modelling using a hydrological model. The topics of the hands-on exercises are:
- Land surface atmosphere feedbacks
- Mountain meteorology
- Snow cover mapping with satellite imagery
- Mass and energy balances of glaciers
- Climate model downscaling
- Glaciers and climate change
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