External factors of eco-technological water management - influences of land use and climate change

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Christian Bernhofer
• Subject Area: Hydrogeology, Hydrology, Limnology, Urban Water Management, Water Chemistry, Integrated Water Resources Management
• Term: from 2007 to 2011
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 62891932

Evapotranspiration (ET) and precipitation are the governing factors for the renewal of surface waters. There exist various feed backs between ET, C, N budgets and land use that have to be taken into consideration to allow an eco-technological water management under the dynamic conditions of climate change. The objective of P8 is to investigate climate and landuse change in the target areas of the RU, and to explore land use as a potential tool of ecotechnology. Special emphasis will be put on influences of the frequency, duration and intensity of hydrological extremes in the past (e.g., flood of 2002 and drought of 2003) and differences in drought sensitivity of land uses with respect of ET, C and N fluxes. Research will be based on an existing extensive data bank of recent climate, as well as similar information on future climate derived by regional downscaling of global climate change. Experimental sites with long-term flux measurements cover major land uses like spruce and beech forests, grassland, and crop rotation as well as a catchment with almost 40 years of continuous data. Models applied will include ABL models like HIRVAC, SVAT schemes like PnET, and water budget models like BROOK90. Land use change between two remote sensing based surveys of 1992 and 2002 will serve as a test for the methods developed.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Major Instrumentation: Gasanalysator
• Instrumentation Group: 3060 Atemgas- und Blutgas-Analysatoren