Revisiting the global hydrological cycle: is it intensifying?

Koutsoyiannis, Demetris

doi:10.5194/hess-24-3899-2020

Cited by 116 publications

(84 citation statements)

References 95 publications

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“…They are consistent with each other (and correlated, r = 0.8), yet the CRUTEM4 series shows a larger increasing trend than the UAH series. The differences are explainable by three reasons: (a) the UAH series includes both land and sea, while the chosen CRUTEM4 series is for land only, in which the increasing trend is substantially higher than in sea; (b) the UAH series refers to some high altitude in the troposphere (see details in Koutsoyiannis [33]), while the CRUTEM4 series refers to the ground level; and (c) the ground-based CRUTEM4 series is affected by urbanization (a lot of ground stations are located in urban areas). In any case, the difference in the increasing trends is irrelevant for the current study, as the timing, rather than the magnitude, of changes is the determinant of causality.…”

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Atmospheric Temperature and CO2: Hen-or-Egg Causality?

Koutsoyiannis¹,

Kundzewicz²

2020

Sci

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It is common knowledge that increasing CO2 concentration plays a major role in enhancement of the greenhouse effect and contributes to global warming. The purpose of this study is to complement the conventional and established theory that increased CO2 concentration due to human emissions causes an increase of temperature, by considering the reverse causality. Since increased temperature causes an increase in CO2 concentration, the relationship of atmospheric CO2 and temperature may qualify as belonging to the category of “hen-or-egg” problems, where it is not always clear which of two interrelated events is the cause and which the effect. We examine the relationship of global temperature and atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration at the monthly time step, covering the time interval 1980–2019, in which reliable instrumental measurements are available. While both causality directions exist, the results of our study support the hypothesis that the dominant direction is T → CO2. Changes in CO2 follow changes in T by about six months on a monthly scale, or about one year on an annual scale. We attempt to interpret this mechanism by involving biochemical reactions, as at higher temperatures soil respiration, and hence CO2 emission, are increasing.

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Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Atmospheric Temperature and CO2: Hen-or-Egg Causality?

Koutsoyiannis¹,

Kundzewicz²

2020

Sci

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“…The rivers, which already show extreme spatial variations in flows are expected to have increased flows in winter causing floods. Koutsoyiannis [105] suggested the phenomena can be termed as 'climate fluctuations' under the global hydrological cycle instead of climate change. However, either way, the dry winter season is expected to have more localized drought conditions, especially in urban areas [7,27,69,106].…”

Section: Climate Variationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Critical Review of Water Resources and Their Management in Bhutan

2021

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Bhutan is a small yet water-abundant country. The country suffers from frequent flooding and is lately experiencing a growing risk of localized droughts due to inappropriate water resource management and climate change. Such a situation calls for much more efficient use and management of water in Bhutan. This paper undertakes an extensive analysis of the country’s water resources for better planning and management of the available water resources. Bhutan can be divided into three zones, the Southern Foothills, the Central Inner Himalayas, and the Higher Himalayas. The top four leading industries of Bhutan are related to water, either directly or indirectly. The country at present is at a very early stage of development. The government has prioritized water resources management over recent years. Water for hydropower in Bhutan has been in focus as compared to that allocated for irrigation, industries, and environmental demand. The demand for water in Bhutan has also increased in the last decade due to population increase, changes in lifestyle, and economic advancements through tourism and hydropower projects. Climate variation, deteriorating water quality, frequent floods, and increasing urbanization threaten the sustainability of water resources. Water accessibility issues for settlements due to the country’s harsh geographical landscape is leading towards localized water scarcity. Serious attention to rainwater harvesting and groundwater recharge is required to address localized water scarcity issues.

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“…For water is the most crucial element determining climate (e.g. [35,36]), or as put by Poyet [37], "Water is the main player". We list epigrammatically some of the reasons justifying it:…”

Section: Climate and Watermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Combined with the fact that water abounds on Earth in all three phases, these high values of phase change energy make water the thermodynamic regulator of climate. In particular, the heat exchange by evaporation (and hence the latent heat transfer from the Earth's surface to the atmosphere) is the Earth's natural locomotive, with the total energy involved in the hydrological cycle being 1290 ZJ/year, corresponding to an energy flux density of 80 W/m 2 [36]. Compared to the human energy production (0.612 ZJ/year for 2014), the total energy of the natural locomotive is 2100 times higher than that of the human locomotive [36].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Human interventions on water bodies may have much more substantial effects on the entire Earth than the infamous fossil fuel burning and the resulting CO2 emissions. For example, considering the sea level rise, the most prominent anthropogenic signal is the increased (and unsustainable) exploitation of groundwater, which transfers to the sea huge masses of water earlier stored in land [36].…”

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confidence: 99%

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Rethinking Climate, Climate Change, and Their Relationship With Water

Koutsoyiannis¹

2021

Preprint

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We revisit the notion of climate, along with its historical evolution, tracing the origin of the modern concerns about climate. The notion (and the scientific term) of climate has been established during the Greek antiquity in a geographical context and it acquired its statistical content (average weather) in modern times, after meteorological measurements had become common. Yet the modern definitions of climate are seriously affected by the wrong perception of the previous two centuries that climate should regularly be constant, unless an external agent acted. Therefore, we attempt to give a more rigorous definition of climate, consistent with the modern body of stochastics. We illustrate the definition by real-world data, which also exemplify the large climatic variability. Given this variability, the term “climate change” turns out to be scientifically unjustified. Specifically, it is a pleonasm as climate, like weather, has been ever changing. Indeed, a historical investigation reveals that the aim in using that term is not scientific but political. Within the political aims, water issues have been greatly promoted by projecting future catastrophes while reversing the true roles and causality directions. For this reason, we provide arguments that water is the main element that drives climate and not the opposite.

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Revisiting the global hydrological cycle: is it intensifying?

Cited by 116 publications

References 95 publications

Atmospheric Temperature and CO2: Hen-or-Egg Causality?

Atmospheric Temperature and CO2: Hen-or-Egg Causality?

A Critical Review of Water Resources and Their Management in Bhutan

Rethinking Climate, Climate Change, and Their Relationship With Water

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