Upcoming webinar series: Securing European water resources in a changing climate

An illustrated photo with a dam.

Do you work with water resources, e.g. hydropower, food agencies or in a water- or environmental authority? Would you like to know more about how the changing climate and socioeconomic conditions may influence water reservoirs and the services they provide to different economic sectors? Then join us in March for a 3-part webinar series where findings from the EU project DIRT-X will be presented!

The Webinars:

  1. Climate impact indicators and insights for hydropower from interconnected energy systems: A pan-European perspective (March 2nd, 14:00-15:00 CET)
  2. Hydrological climate services and ecological impacts: insights from a coastal use case (March 16th, 14:00-15:00 CET)
  3. Hydro-climatic change and sediment dynamics: Insight from two hydropower use cases (March 23rd, 14:00-15:30 CET)

Your key takeaways:

  • Learn more about how reservoirs are affected by sediment, now and in a future climate, and how this may affect your type of operations.
  • Discover the world of climate impact indicators, and how they can be useful for cross-sectoral assessments

Get in touch with the DIRT-X team during the Q&A, and support the future content and development of water- and climate services for your sector!

The webinars are held online in English and are free of charge.

REGISTER HERE and stay tuned for more information!

DIRT-X field excursion 2022

Before the GA in the end of June we participated in a field excursion.

Our first stop, after an amazing boat ride, was at NTNU’s Sletvik biological field station where we learned about their teaching/research in the bay of Hopavågen with special hydrological features due to its narrow inlet from the sea. Read more about Sletvik here.

The view behind a boat in Norway with the norwegian flag.
A photo from the boat ride.
The narrow inlet.
Narrow inlet from the sea.
The participants by the field station infront of a body of water and a mountain.
The eleven participants of the field excursions by NTNU’s biological field station

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our second stop was at Follsjoe Dam, operated by Statkraft. We learned about new construction work being carried out to bolster the dam according to new regulations. Dams in Norway are reviewed every 15 years and checked for compliance with current regulations. This dam is special due to the chosen method for bolstering the dam (riprap), which is human-placed rock material to protect the dam against erosional processes. Check out the cool pictures below!

Downstream of the dam, a hydraulic structure has been added to prevent wild salmon from entering the river, to control for parasitic infestation.

The participants at a lecture.
The group at the dam.
The dam bolstering method.
The bolstering method at Follsjoe Dam.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

People standing with orange vests and security helments.
The group at the Follsjoe Dam.
The bolstering method at Follsjoe Dam.
By the Follsjoe Dam.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our last stop was to see a sediment trapping basin, reducing sedimentation of the reservoir located further downstream. At the photos below you can see basin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stay tuned for a post from the GA!

DIRT-X Hybrid General Assembly

The Dirt-X General Assembly will be held June 29-30th, 2022 in Trondheim. It is a Hybrid meeting which means that there will also be participants joining the meeting online. All the work packages are represented in the agenda and there will be a number of topics presented and discussed.

The general focus of the meeting is to:
1. Improved understanding of catchment processes and their interactions with reservoir processes and economics/energy.
2. Climate impact indicators (CIIs) useful to our stakeholders as well as different sectors.
3. Reporting our achievements, coordination among WPs and planning future work.

The day before the General Assembly, on June 28th, there will be a field trip organized by  NTNU.

Stay tuned for an update from the meeting and some photos!

DIRT-X

Modelling Workshop

The modelling workshop was organized by the Leibniz Universität Hannover (LUH) and gathered around 11 research partners during one and a half day of joint work. It was held 28-29 September online via Zoom. 

The main purpose was to identify the interfaces among models that constitute the modelling chain of each study case: Banja, Gepatsch and Orust/Tjörn. Moreover, a special emphasis was given to the potential output variables produced by each model, which serve as input variables for the subsequent model in the chain.

This allowed us to understand the actions needed to study the propagation of uncertainties from selected model parameters (Task 2.2 ”Targeted model experiments”) through the modelling chain. Although the final uncertainty analysis will be carried out by LUH, the active participation of all involved modellers helped to understand uncertainties in the modelling chain. The final results will be published in D2.1 ” Report on uncertainty in climate impact models”.

Example of the Banja modelling chain and involved variables.

Online Dirt-X General Assembly

The DIRT-X General Assembly was held online, 17-18th June 2020.

The project partners gave an overview of the progress in different activities during the first project year, found synergies in the case studies, planned upcoming work in climate impact evaluations, and discussed new knowledge and scientific discoveries made in the project so far.

The highlights from the meeting were:

  • Research into hydrological modelling, sedimentation, bed load and coastal zone processes in the case studies has begun and the most suitable approach for each study depends strongly on the quality of the input data. The intensity of heavy rainfall events, which cause soil erosion to a high degree, cannot, but must be represented in precipitation data with accurate spatio-temporal resolution.
  • Bias adjustment of climate data to local conditions is mostly completed. The case studies should be able to test the impact of changing climate by the end of the year
  • E-HYPE, SMHI’s large scale hydrological model was linked to UU’s energy model. The model is being refined to better represent erosion and sediment transport processes at the continental scale. The calibration of the global sediment model was completed soon after the GA.
  • The European power system model has been set up and configured (based on an overview of basic socio-economic assumptions per SSP narrative at MS level, considered implication of future land use and sectoral water withdrawal &consumption at grid cell level).

This was also the first time the project partners met with the newly established DIRT-X project Advisory Board and received feedback from external experts represented on the Board.

Participants online at the Dirt-X General Assembly in June, 2020

A short quiz on the project case studies, and a virtual tour around Europe to visit various ‘favourite reservoirs’ of project members were held to enjoy some social time with everyone.

For more information on the DIRT-X project description, visit  https://dirtx-reservoirs4future.eu/project-description/

DIRT-X Kick-Off

Team photo

Across Europe, there are thousands of larger and smaller water reservoirs with an important role for drinking water supply, hydropower, environment, and recreation. In a new project lead by SMHI, researchers are going to look into the impact on the water reservoirs from climate change and changing socioeconomic conditions.

At the end of September (30 September – 1 October 2019) , 18 researchers from five countries met in SMHI in Norrköping to start and coordinate the project.

Read more in this article.