Drought Situation

In Italian Only

Secondo i dati Copernicus, a livello globale, Maggio 2024 è stato il più caldo registrato, con un’anomalia di +1,52°C rispetto al periodo preindustriale 1850-1900. E’ risultato, inoltre, l’undicesimo mese consecutivo con un’anomalia pari o superiore a 1,5°C. A livello europeo buona parte dei Paesi ha fatto registrare anomalie positive, particolarmente alte nelle aree settentrionali. Le anomalie negative si sono concentrate lungo la fascia che va dalla penisola Iberica settentrionale alla Francia centro-meridionale e nord Italia, e sui Paesi più a Est, fino al lembo più orientale della Grecia. Le piogge sono state superiori alla media su buona parte dell’Europa, con deficit concentrati sulla penisola Iberica centro-meridionale, Scandinavia e Paesi dell’est. Rispetto agli ultimi 24 mesi, la siccità interessa piccole porzioni di territorio di diversi Paesi europei, ma l’estensione aumenta in Spagna, Grecia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldavia e Ucraina (vedi mappa).
  • Gli apporti di neve a metà Maggio, in termini di Equivalente Idrico Nivale, si sono attestati a valori superiori ai valori mediani del periodo 2011-2022, arrivando ad un surplus del 42%. Ma questo valore medio nazionale va ripartito fra le anomalie positive del settore alpino (in particolare delle quote al di sopra dei 2000m) e i forti deficit degli Appennini (CIMA Foundation).
  • grandi laghi del nord Italia, al 7 Giugno, mostrano quasi tutti valori al di sopra della media di riempimento rispetto al massimo valore d’invaso disponibile (volume è compreso tra il limite minimo e il limite massimo dell’attività di regolazione delle acque), eccetto Il lago di Como che è leggermente sotto media. Negli invasi di Puglia, Basilicata e Sicilia, invece, la situazione è ben diversa, con valori di riempimento fra il 40 e il 30% rispetto al volume utile di regolazione (vedi grafico).
  • La produzione di energia idroelettrica fra il 27 Maggio e il 2 Giugno in Sicilia continua a far registrare valori minimi dal 2016.
Previsioni per i prossimi mesi
Per quanto riguarda le temperature dell’aria del trimestre Luglio-Settembre, i dati d’insieme dei maggiori centri europei per le previsioni a medio termine indicano valori sopra la media su tutta Europa, in particolare con una probabilità del 70-100%  su Paesi che si affacciano sul Bacino del Mediterraneo e dell’est europeo. Le temperature superficiali del Mar Mediterraneo continuano a dare un segnale di valori superiori alla media per tutto il trimestre, con una probabilità dal 70 al 100%. Per quanto riguarda le piogge, si prevedono, con una probabilità del 40-50% valori inferiori alla media su buona parte dell’Europa, in particolare su diverse zone della penisola Iberica, dove la probabilità aumenta al 50-60% .
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Drought WebGIS

A WebGIS application based on open source solutions customized to integrate different datasets and share maps and graphs of drought indices with researchers, decision-makers and other stakeholders. Different functions allow to select sections of territory or visualize the trend of the indices in a specific pixel. Maps and graphs can also be downloaded in png format.

Please Note: Due to the size of the images, it is possible to download sections of the vegetation indices smaller than the whole geographic window.

Please Note: due to problems concerning the Terra MODIS satellite, the TCI and VHI indices are available until the 9th of November 2022. They will be replaced soon with new products.

Other Services

Open data

Through CKAN and GeoServer, a complete catalog to publish data and metadata in several formats and standard protocols. Spatial data can be integrated and reused by any third-party client applications.

API REstful

The service allows the integration of any client application data from the Drought Observatory Spatial Data Infrastructure. The RESTful APIs developed are available on the GitHub platform.​

The drought is a complex phenomenon

The complexity of the drought phenomenon requires the availability of a system as comprehensive and integrated as possible to respond to the different users requests.

The challenge
Increasing environmental resilience

Heat waves and droughts have important and increasing repercussions on physical, chemical and biological systems, and on some socio-economical aspects such as health, agriculture, natural ecosystems and tourism. One of the main challenge to cope with drought is to reduce the temporal gap between the onset and development of a dry period, and the response in managing drought-related emergencies.

A Scientific Proactive approach
Technical support and timely information

Although these extreme events require effective actions, policymakers and water users often show low preparedness because of the lack of a proactive approach consisting of monitoring and forecasting activities, mitigation measures and public education.

A frequent Phenomenon

After flooding, it is the second natural disaster that affects the population.

Long term impact

The impact on the environment and human activities can show up late and persist even after the end of the drought event.

HIGH VARIABILITY

Its intensity and spatial extent are extremely variable.

A CREEPING PHENOMENON

With respect to other natural extreme events, drought is characterised by a slow and often difficult to define onset and a long-lasting evolution.

Drought Observatory: the reason why

Drought monitoring supports a better resilience to reduce the impacts of drought events

Drought monitoring and forecasting system

Institute of BioEconomy of the National Research Council (IBE-CNR) created a system to provide a semi-automatic, detailed, timely and comprehensive operational service. This service, initially developed for Tuscany Region, supports decision makers, water authorities, researchers and general stakeholders.

Integration of ground-based and satellite data

Meteorological stations network, satellite images and models are integrated through an open source and interoperable SDI (Spatial Data Infrastructure) based on PostgreSQL/PostGIS to produce vegetation and precipitation indices to follow the occurrence and evolution of a drought event.

The Indices: Drought occurrences and trends

The system is based on a monitoring component and on a forecasting ones. It uses two type of indices:

  • direct climate-based indices.
  • indirect vegetation-based indices

A continuous Work-in-Progress

Spatial Data Infrastructure

New technical improvements in the ICT infrastructure, coupled with scientific advances, allow a timely, ready-to-use and users-specific upgrading of the early warning communication.

SOA | OGC | PostgreSQL

A Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) based on Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards. Database-centred architecture, with PostgreSQL DataBase Management System.

Innovative Approach

The geographic data flows (from the download of remote sensing and climatic data to the storage of final indices) and all the related geoprocessing functions are integrated in a single environment.

Advanced Statistical Procedures

The integration of the PL/R (R Procedural Language) wrapper into the procedural language of PostgreSQL (PL/pgSQL) allowed the creation of advanced statistical procedures using R engine.