Report

Open Seminar for Global COE Program "Global Center of Excellence in Dryland Sciences"

[ Special Seminar]

Date: 1 August 2011 (Mon)
Time: 15:00-17:00
Place: Meeting Room, Arid Land Research Center, Tottori University
Speaker: Dr. Donald A. WILHITE (University of Nebraska, USA)
Topic: Breaking the Hydro-illogical Cycle: Progress or Status Quo for Drought
　　　Monitoring, Assessment, and Preparedness?

Chaired by Masato SHINODA (ALRC, Japan)


Abstract

[ International Workshop on Drought Dynamics in an Arid, Cold Region ]

Date: 2 August 2011 (Tue)
Place: Meeting Room, Arid Land Research Center, Tottori University
Organized by Arid Land Research Center

Arid regions in the world have repeatedly suffered adverse impacts of drought due to the large climate variability and/or large vulnerability of their ecosystems and societies. These regions are extended worldwide from the tropics to temperate zones with a cold winter. The drought dynamics in an arid, cold climate are unique in that the large amplitude of seasonal cycle in climate/vegetation and the soil freezing/snowpack during a cold winter profoundly affect the persistence of drought.

The workshop aims at bringing leading researchers to identify issues in understanding drought processes in an arid, cold climate such as seen in central Asia and North America. A series of drought processes (from meteorological to agricultural and hydrological processes) of how a drought starts, continues with a varying spatial pattern, and terminates have been intensively investigated for tropical arid regions without a cold winter, while little systematic research on this topic has been done for the coupled cold and arid climate. This issue deserves particular attention, because regions with such climate form extreme environmental conditions (in aridity and coldness) for lives and societies, neighboring upon “An?kumene”. These regions reveal dramatic seasonal and interannual changes in climate and land-surface conditions, influencing drought dynamics. Human activities, such as animal husbandry or cultivation, also may lead to land degradation and enhanced vulnerability to drought, if they are excessive. In this workshop, focus is placed on an interseasonal drought memory mechanism mediated by the land surface that is manifested in the temperature zones of central Asia and North America.

In this workshop, we summarize the understanding of drought processes in an arid, cold climate and identify the uncertainties and research needs. The topics include (1) recognizing drought in an arid, cold climate as a series of processes that climate anomalies are transferred to and maintained as land-surface anomalies (identified as agricultural and hydrological aspects), (2) a deeper understanding of uniqueness of the drought processes compared with those in tropical arid regions, (3) proposing an early warning system of drought and its related disasters (such as dzud and dust storms), which can be used as a tool for the strategic disaster management, and (4) assessing future drought processes based on most updated climate predictions.


Program

NOTE: Abbreviations for Institutes
ALRC: Arid Land Research Center, Tottori University, Japan IMH: Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology JAMSTEC: Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology RIHN: Research Institute for Humanity and Nature

Abstract
 

Your attendance would be greatly appreciated.