CLARIS LPB

A Europe-South America Network for Climate ChangeAssessment and Impact Studies in La Plata Basin

Unibo Team Leader: Prof. Alberto Lamberti, Dip. di Ingegneria delle Strutture, dei trasporti, delle acque, del rilevamento, del territorio-DISTART

The CLARIS LPB Project aims at predicting the regional climate change impacts on La Plata Basin (LPB) in South America, and at designing adaptation strategies for land-use, agriculture, rural development,
hydropower production, river transportation, water resources and ecological systems in wetlands. In order to reach such a goal, the project has been built on the following four major thrusts. First,
improving the description and understanding of decadal climate variability is of prime importance for short term regional climate change projections (2010-2040). Second, a sound approach requires an ensemble of coordinated regional climate scenarios in order to quantify the amplitude and sources of uncertainties in LPB future climate at two time horizons: 2010-2040 for adaptation strategies and 2070-2100 for assessment of long-range impacts. Such coordination will allow to critically improve the prediction capacity of climate change and its impacts in the region. Third, adaptation strategies to regional scenarios of climate change impacts require a multi-disciplinary approach where all the regional components (climate, hydrology, land use, land cover, agriculture and deforestation) are addressed in a collaborative way. Feedbacks between the regional climate groups and the land use and hydrology groups will ensure to draw a first-order feedback of future land use and hydrology scenarios onto the future regional climate change. Fourth, stakeholders must be integrated in the design of adaptation strategies, ensuring their dissemination to public, private and governmental policy-makers.
Finally, in continuity with the FP6 CLARIS Project, our project will put a special emphasis in forming young scientists in European institutes and in strengthening the collaborations between European and South
American partners.
The project is coordinated with the objectives of LPB, an international project on La Plata Basin that has been endorsed by the CLIVAR and GEWEX Panels.


Coordinator
INSTITUT DE RECHERCHE POUR LE DEVELOPPEMENT (France)

 

Other participants
UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA (UK)
LEIBNIZ-ZENTRUM FUER AGRARLANDSCHAFTSFORSCHUNG (ZALF) e.V. (Germany)
MAX PLANCK GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN E.V. (Germany)
CENTRO EURO-MEDITERRANEO PER I CAMBIAMENTI CLIMATICI SCARL (Italy)
ALMA MATER STUDIORUM-UNIVERSITA DI BOLOGNA
- Dip. di Ingegneria delle Strutture, dei trasporti, delle acque, del rilevamento, del territorio-DISTART
- Resp. scientifico: Prof. Alberto Lamberti

UNIVERSIDAD DE CASTILLA - LA MANCHA (Spain)
SVERIGES METEOROLOGISKA OCH HYDROLOGISKA INSTITUT (Sweden)
INSTITUTO NACIONAL DE PESQUISAS ESPACIAIS (Brazil)
UNIVERSIDADE DE SAO PAULO (Brazil)
UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE SANTA CATARINA (Brazil)
UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO PARANA (Brazil)
CONSEJO NACIONAL DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS Y TECNICAS (Argentina)
UNIVERSIDAD DE BUENOS AIRES (Argentina)
INSTITUTO NACIONAL DE TECNOLOGIA AGROPECUARIA (Argentina)
Instituto nacional del agua (Argentina)
UNIVERSIDAD DE LA REPUBLICA (Uruguay)
CESI RICERCA SPA (Italy)
UNIVERSITE DE GENEVE (Switzerland)

 

Start date 01/10/2008

End date  30/09/2012

Duration 48 months

Project cost 4.243.982 Euro

Project Funding 3.358.995 Euro

Subprogramme Area Global Change and Ecosystems

Contract type Collaborative project for specific cooperation actions dedicated to international cooperation partner countries (SICA)