Ongoing projects of the Weather and Climate Change Impact Research

Started in 2016-2017

CLIPS (CLImate services supporting Public activities and Safety CLIPS, 2016-2018) aims at setting up the proof of concept for extended range (0-46 day long) seamless weather and climate services by developing novel climate impact outlooks (e.g. early warnings)  for phenomena that pose risks and benefits to weather sensitive public activities in Finland. CLIPS focuses as much on urban, rural as sea areas in Finland. The data used in CLIPS are FMI gridded climate data, the PRONTO data (impacts reported by safety authorities to FMI), and reanalysis data and forecasts provided by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). Additionally, CLIPS will engage the public during the project through FMI webpages and Climateguide.fi to take part in the co-creation process of the services. Funding: Academy of Finland. Contact: Hilppa Gregow.

ERA4CS DustClim (DUST storms assessment for the development of user-oriented CLIMate services in Northern Africa, Middle East and Europe, 2017-2020) will provide high-resolution baseline and trend information on sand and dust storms over Europe, Northern Africa, and the Middle East, and will develop dust-related climate services tailored to key socioeconomic sectors. The project will produce, evaluate, and deliver an advanced dust regional model reanalysis, covering the satellite era of quantitative aerosol information, and will conduct impact assessment pilot studies for air quality, aviation, and solar energy. The project is a collaboration between BSC (Spain, coordinator), FMI, AEMET (Spain), CNR-DTA (Italy), and CNRS-LISA (France). Funding: European Commission through the JPI Climate ERA4CS initiative. Contact: Athanasios Votsis.

ERA4CS INDECIS (Integrated approach for the development across Europe of user oriented climate indicators for GFCS high-priority sectors: agriculture, disaster risk reduction, energy, health, water and tourism 2017-2010). INDECIS will e.g. develop an integrated approach to produce a set of relevant climate indices for the above mentioned sectors. It will catalog existing datasets of precipitation, temperature, wind speed and sunshine duration, search new data holdings and develop new methods and tools. Partners implementing the project are: URV/C3 (coordinator, Spain), UREAD (UK), FMI (Finland), BRGM/D3E (France), IRPI/CNR-DTA (Italy), UC/IHC (Spain), SMHI (Sweden), MET EIREANN (Ireland), AEMET (Spain), BSC (Spain), FFCUL (Portugal), GCRI (Czech Republic), KNMI (The Netherlands), RMI (Belgium), MeteoRo (Romania), IPE/CSIC (Spain). Funding: European Commission through the JPI Climate ERA4CS initiative. Contact: Andrea Vajda.

ERA4CS SERV_FORFIRE (Integrated services and approaches for Assessing effects of climate change and extreme events for fire and post fire risk prevention, 2017-2020) will: (i) provide integrated services for forest fire assessment and mitigation strategies, from seasonal up to climatic time scales , (ii) create a bridge between observations, model development, operational products, information translation and user uptake. Partners implementing the project are: CNR DTA (Italy), Finnish Meteorological Institute (Finland), BRGM (France), INRASTES NCSRD (Greece), KNMI (Netherlands) and GCRI (Czech Republic).Funding: European Commission through the JPI Climate ERA4CS initiative.Contact: Andrea Vajda

EAR4CS URCLIM (2017-2020) will combine high resolution urban climate modelling, with open source land use and urban morphology data, and with urban land use and morphology simulation modelling, so as to better explore alternative future urban climates in alternative future urban environments. The study also entails assessment of the effectiveness of climate adaptation measures in physical and economic terms, with case studies for Amsterdam, Brussels, Budapest, Helsinki and Toulouse. Focus impacts are heat stress, flooding risk, and snow clearing and slipperiness in winter. The project is a cooperation of MeteoFrance (coord.), CNRS, IGN (All France), RMI (Belgium), KNMI (Netherlands), FMI, and Meteo Romania. Funding: European Commission through the JPI Climate ERA4CS initiative. Contacts: Carl Fortelius (meteorology), Adriaan Perrels (socio-economics).

ERA4CS WINDSURFER (Wind and wave scenarios, uncertainty and climate risk assessment for forestry, energy and reinsurance, 2017-2020). Extreme winds pose major risks to life, property and forestry, while extreme ocean waves can impact on offshore infrastructures and coastal communities. WINDSURFER is a 3-year project that will bring together eight leading research institutions across Europe to co-develop new methods, tools and assessments of extreme wind and wave risk with a focus on Insurance, Forestry and Energy. The eight WINDSURFER partners are: University of Reading, (UK), Met Éireann (Ireland), Norwegian Meteorological Institute (Norway), CMCC (Italy), Finnish Meteorological Institute (Finland), IH Cantabria (Spain), NCSR Demokritos (Greece) and KNMI (Netherlands). Funding: European Commission through the JPI Climate ERA4CS initiative. Contact: Ari Venäläinen.

EU-C3S Clim4Energy  (A service providing climate change indicators tailored for the energy sector, 2016-2018). The project brings together the complementary expertise of 7 climate research and service centres and 10 energy practitioners to demonstrate, from case studies, the value chain from ECVs to actionable information in the energy sector. It will deliver 9 energy-relevant pan-European indicators of climate trends and variability with a cross-sectoral consistency, appropriate documentation and guidance, estimation of uncertainties, and a demonstration of use. It will contribute to other Copernicus services by sharing experience and tools on quality control, data access with distributed systems, visualization of complex multi-dimensional data and their uncertainties. Why climate matters for energy – read more here http://clim4energy.climate.copernicus.eu/discovery-space. Funding: EU/ECMWF. Contact: Andrea Vajda.

EU-C3S Data Evaluation for Climate Models (2016-2018). Activities in this project will address multi-model climate model products CMIP and CORDEX. Scientific robustness regarding climate model ensembles is in the heart of the project. Wide variety of current and potential new users of the multi-model climate data are surveyed and champion-users are invited to participate with tool development. With the support of users during we will be able to co-design the best recommendations for multi-model climate model products for the EQC framework. Funding: EU/ECMWF. Contact: Hilppa Gregow.

EU-iScape (Improving the Smart Control of Air Pollution in Europe, 2016-2019). The project aims to integrate and advance the control of air quality and carbon emissions in European cities in the context of climate change through the development of sustainable and passive air pollution remediation strategies, policy interventions and behavioural change initiatives. Improvements in air quality, microclimate and behavioural aspects of urban dwellers will be achieved in the selected cities assessed for future climate change scenarios and representative of different cultural and life styles in Europe. FMI cooperates in Finland with the city of Vantaa. Funding: EU H2020. Contact: Antti Mäkelä.

EU-MACS (EU MArket for Climate Services, 2016-2018). The project analyses the market structures and drivers, and obstacles and opportunities of climate services. Climate services cover the generation, provision, and contextualization of information and knowledge derived from climate research for decision-making. The analysis aims at understanding how climate service markets, with public and private features, can develop through better matching procedures and through innovations. This is approached from scientific, technical, legal, ethical, governance and socioeconomic vantage points. The study will engage a large diversity of stakeholders within the finance, tourism and urban planning sectors in various ways, especially through explorative market development exercises, employing different co-design approaches. Funding: EU H2020. Contact: Adriaan Perrels.

IHKU (The Air Pollution Cost Model for Finland, 2017-2018). The main goal of the IHKU project is to develop a national air pollution cost model for Finland to be used in strategic decision support. The model focuses on mortality, morbidity and health care costs related to air pollution. Other costs, such as ecosystem degradation and loss in the quality of life, are modeled on the basis of a meta-analysis of results from international research. These costs will be compared to the estimated health cost of air pollution. The project also includes a review of different approaches for pollution cost assessment and summarize them for decision-makers in accessible language. Partners: Finnish Environment Institute SYKE (coordinator), National Institute for Health and Welfare THL, and the FMI. Funding: Government's Analysis, Assessment and Research Activities. Contact: Väinö Nurmi.

MARCO (MArket Research for Climate services Observatory, 2016-2018). This sister project of EU-MACS gathers market research firms, climate scientists, CS practitioners and innovation actors, in dialogue with stakeholders, to provide an enriched European CS market assessment up to 2030 with case studies, forecast future user needs, unveil opportunities, and promote market growth. Feedback loops between several methodologies validate findings. Integrated market research draws on climate vulnerability analysis, potential market estimation, transactional market quantification, qualitative surveys, sectoral / regional case studies. Key output is the Climate Services Observatory. Funding: EU H2020 Contact: Adriaan Perrels.

SIETO (2017-2018) is a targeted assessment and development project. It will 1) prepare a national weather and climate vulnerability and change assessment based on literature and expert workshop output; 2) prepare a plan how vulnerability and risk assessments should be conducted in the future to support the Climate Act and other national and international policy needs; and 3) prepare a plan how to develop the production and collection of information and data for future vulnerability and risk assessments. Funding: Government's analysis, assessment and research activities. Contact: Heikki Tuomenvirta.

SSWSS (Severe Weather Warning Services for Sri Lanka, 2016-2018). The project will develop tailored thunderstorm and heavy rainfall warning and prediction applications for Sri Lanka and verify them based on lightning location observations. Also, the Finnish industry partners in the project (Vaisala, Profium and Noviaria) will develop 1) tailored smart phone applications to be tested among the selected end users in Sri Lanka and 2) business models which would be usable in other developing economies as well. Funding: Tekes-BEAM (50% Tekes, 50% Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Contact: Antti Mäkelä.

Other ongoing projects

COST PROFOUND (2014-2018). The main objective of the Action is to evaluate and improve our ability to project the consequences of environmental change for European forests by addressing questions regarding data needs, scaling, parameterization, and predictive accuracy of forest models. Funding: EU. Contact: Ari Venäläinen.

ERMOND (Ecosystem resilience for mitigation of natural disasters) (2015-2017). The aims of the project are to (a) compile an overview of natural disasters in the Nordic region and how ecological restoration actions can be used to mitigate such hazards (b) conduct regional feasibility case studies of strategic build up of ecosystem resilience which will be ongoing throughout the project time and (c) recommend actions to enhance build up of ecosystem resilience in the Nordic region. . In the slipstream of this project IKE has initiated cooperation with LähiTapiola to create a high resolution (GIS) national natural hazard damage database. Funding: The Nordic Council of Ministers. Contact: Karoliina Pilli-Sihvola.

EXWE/SAFIR2018 (2015-2018). The primary objective of the research is to support the overall safety of nuclear power plants by enhancing scientific understanding of the environmental conditions of the plant's location and predicting how they can change. The project primarily focuses on extreme weather and sea level events that affect the design principles of the power plants and might pose external threats to the plants. In addition, the project aims to improve the estimates of potential solar storm effects and to provide a modern platform for atmospheric dispersion modelling of accidental releases. Contact: Kirsti Jylhä.

FORBIO (Sustainable, climate-neutral and resource-efficient forest-based bioeconomy, 2015-2020). The project aims to the renewal of the scientific knowledge base and provide for decision making smart means, solutions and tools needed to sustainably improve resource-efficiency and climate-neutrality of management and utilization of Finnish forests. The aim is also to facilitate the adaptation to the changing operational environment, which is affected by changing climate and demands of forest-based bioeconomy and society in different time spans and regions. This research project is implemented by the University of Eastern Finland, School of Forest Sciences (co-ordinator) and Department of Chemistry, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Natural Resources Institute Finland, European Forest Institute, and Finnish Environment institute. Funding: the Strategic Research Council (SRC) at the Academy of Finland. Contact: Ari Venäläinen.

NORDRESS (2015-2019) is a Centre of Excellence under the Social Security Programme of NordForsk. Its aim is to carry out multidisciplinary studies to enhance societal security and resilience to natural disasters. Partners from 15 institutions in all Nordic countries will join forces to increase the resilience of individuals, communities, infrastructure and institutions. The NordForsk Social Security Programme is funded by the Academy of Finland, The Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection (DSB), The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB), Icelandic Centre for Research (RANNIS) and NordForsk. The FMI is involved in the work packaged dealing with: Natural Hazard Management approaches, Participatory observation and early warning systems, and Risk perceptions. Contact: Adriaan Perrels

PLUMES (Pathways for linking uncertainties in climate model projections and effects) (2014-2018). The consortium project of SYKE, LUKE and FMI aims to improve the treatment of key uncertainties in climate change impact, adaptation and vulnerability analysis. In the project, FMI compiles and evaluates RCP-based climate model projections for Finland, constructs daily gridded datasets of a number of climatic variables, assesses climate change impacts on human health, provides guidance to end-users and exports up-to-date information to Climateguide.fi. Funding: Academy of Finland. Contact: Kirsti Jylhä.

TWASE (Towards better tailored weather and marine forecasts in the Arctic to serve sustainable economic activities and infrastructure, 2015-2018). The objectives of TWASE are to a) Identify, classify, prioritise and conceptualise the user needs of WMS for developing sustainable economic activities in the Arctic, b) improve the predictability of Arctic weather, marine and sea ice conditions and their consequences on navigation, aviation, and wind energy production, and c) evaluate and optimize, together with the end-users, the benefits of the improved WMS to enhance the development of sustainable economy and infrastructure in the Arctic. The Climate Service Centre is responsible for the objective c). Funding: Academy of Finland. Contact: Adriaan Perrels (Project leader: Timo Vihma).

Participation to international consulting

Water and Adaptation Interventions in Central and West Asia - our task is to provide climate data and climate scenarios for the Central Asian countries to be used in hydrological modelling

Strengthening the resilience of people living in urban and semi-urban areas to weather-related disasters in Malawi and Mozambique

Adaptation to climate change, A review of activities in Mozambique and Zambia

4.4.2018