Project PO ACORES 2020-2015-PROAAcXXIs

Development and application to the RAA of new methodologies with a view to an integrated conceptual model of a hydrological nature that, through a sequential water balance, allows the distributed monitoring of water conditions (current and future), both in natural ecosystems and in agricultural and forestry ecosystems. Increase Scientific Production of Quality and Oriented to Intelligent Specialization.

The PROAAcXXIs project aims to address the lack of knowledge of hydro-climatic processes on small islands in a climate change context and, at the same time, generate and provide decision support information to a compatible scale with the activity of the main sectors that depend on it (agriculture and environment). Particular emphasis will be given to the study of rainfall regimes and associated phenomena (droughts and runoff). In addition to the methodologies already developed and successfully tested in insular environments with regard to the ability to generate climatic variables on a scale compatible with the characteristics of the small islands, new methodologies will be designed for an integrated conceptual model of a hydrological nature that, through of a sequential water balance, allows the distributed monitoring (across the entire surface of the islands) of the water conditions, both in natural ecosystems and in those occupied by agricultural and forestry activities.

The project aims to achieve the following generic results: (i) differentiation of normal climate variability from climate change; (ii) projection of the future climate for the three groups of Azores Islands with the adoption of a Representative Concentration Pathway (RCPs)(7); (iii) design and implementation of an integrated water balance physical model with higher spatial resolution based on a deeper scientific knowledge of natural (natural ecosystems) and artificial (agroforestry ecosystems) processes; (iii) creation of an online GIS platform dedicated to the public dissemination of relevant information, namely the monitoring of drought indices (SPIs)(8), soil water, infiltration, runoff. Based on the basic information generated, it is expected that it will also be possible to provide sequentially and in an updated form other indicators of a climatic nature, namely; comfort indexes, cold temperatures and hours, photosynthetic rates, etc.