EGS XXVI General Assembly, Nice, France, March 2001

HSB2.03 River basin research and management: Climatic and anthropogenic effects on hydrological processes

Event Information

In the latter years the question has been raised about the possibility that the hydrogeological calamities that have recently occurred in Europe could be partially due to an increase of the natural hazards, rather than being considered the result of intrinsic variability of the hydrological processes. Such increase of the hydrological risk is in many cases alleged to be provoked by man-induced climate change, caused by the land anthropisation due to the increase of the human activities. While a remarkable research effort has been devoted in recent years to the development of techniques for the prediction and prevention of such extreme hydrogeological events, the above mentioned questions about their origins still remain open. At the same time, numerous questions have been raised about the possible effects that the non-stationarity of the regional land-use and climate can have induced in the recent past, or will be able to induce in the near future, on the availability and quality of water resources. In order to be able to answer to such questions one needs to analyse the several phenomena involved in the hydrological cycle, especially their dependency and sensitivity to climatic and geomorphologic factors. The focus of this session is to bring together recent results about climatic and anthropogenic effects on hydrological processes. Papers dealing with both statistical and physically-based approaches are welcome.

Preliminary List of Solicited Speakers

Co-Sponsorship