Com os significativos índices de desmatamento na região Amazônica, grande é a preocupação sobre os efeitos que essa mudança na cobertura vegetal pode ter sobre a dinâmica climática e pluviométrica dessa região, como também em outras localidades do Brasil. Dentro desse contexto, o presente trabalho teve como objetivo verificar se os atuais índices de desmatamento em Rondônia, ocorridos nos últimos 30 anos, são suficientes para contribuir para a modificação do regime hídrico e pluviométrico. Os dados utilizados no presente estudo foram obtidos juntos à Agência Nacional de Águas ANA e são provenientes de 29 postos pluviométricos instalados no estado de Rondônia. Essa é uma região de pequena disponibilidade de dados meteorológicos devido à colonização recente, sendo que as séries dificilmente passam de 30 anos de dados. Além disso, essas séries são comprometidas por falhas na coleta de dados, que em algumas localidades chegam a apresentar mais de um ano sem registro. Para que as análises fossem possíveis, foi realizado o preenchimento das falhas nas séries de dados através do gerador de dados CLIMGEN. Em seguida, os dados foram analisados pelo método de Duplas Massas para que eventuais falhas e inconsistências nas séries preenchidas pelo CLIMGEN fossem detectadas. Como passo seguinte, os dados foram submetidos ao ajuste de distribuição de probabilidade pela função Gama, para que fossem identificadas regiões homogêneas quanto à distribuição de probabilidade da chuva em Rondônia. Acompanhando essa análise foi utilizada a análise de agrupamento para que fossem identificas as localidades e os meses com precipitação semelhante. Finalmente, os dados de precipitação foram submetidos ao teste de tendência Mann- Kendall, assim como as variáveis do balanço hídrico seqüencial das localidades de Ouro Preto dOeste e Porto Velho. Os resultados mostram que o CLIMGEN é uma ferramenta que pode ser utilizada no preenchimento de falhas em séries de dados em Rondônia, porém o método de Duplas Massas identificou inconsistências em duas localidades, sendo que as mesmas foram descartadas nas análises seguintes. Quanto à função gama foi verificado um menor grau de assimetria na distribuição de probabilidade da precipitação nos meses mais chuvosos. Nos meses secos, junho, julho e agosto, a distribuição de probabilidade da precipitação é mais assimétrica, sendo semelhante entre todas as localidades. Acompanhando a distribuição gama, a análise de agrupamento mostrou uma heterogeneidade espacial na distribuição da precipitação. Finalmente, as análises de tendência não identificaram mudanças sistemáticas que indiquem que o estado de Rondônia esteja passando por mudanças no regime pluviométrico no período analisado, sendo as tendências observadas possivelmente decorrentes da variabilidade climática natural. As séries de temperatura máxima e mínima de Porto Velho e Ouro Preto dOeste apresentaram tendências, com indícios de aumento principalmente da temperatura mínima. Quanto às análises de tendência nas variáveis do balanço hídrico foram verificadas tendências de aumento principalmente da ETR e ETP. Os resultados permitiram concluir que apesar do significativo aumento da área desmatada em Rondônia, isso ainda não foi suficiente para que mudanças no clima fossem identificadas, sendo necessárias análises de séries mais longas. / Amazon deforestation rate has been significant, resulting in a great concern about the effect that the reduction of the forest can have on the climatic dynamics in this region, as well as in other brazilian locations. In such context, the present work aimed to verify if the current rate of deforestation in Rondônia, last 30 years has been contributed for changes in the rainfall and balance patterns. Data from 29 rainfall stations in Rondônia State which belongs to the National Water Agency ANA were used for this purpose. This is a region of small availability of weather data due to recent settling, with the data series hardly passing of 30 years. Moreover, those data series are compromised by imperfections in the collection of data, resulting in missing data. To have this study feasible, the through the weather missing data were filled out data generator CLIMGEN. After that, the data was analyzed by the method of Double Masses so that imperfections and inconsistencies in the series filled out with CLIMGEN were detected. As a next step, the data were submitted to the adjustment of the Gamma distribution of probability to identify homogeneous regions in relation to the rainfall distribution of probability in Rondônia. Sveh analysis was applied to identify the localities and months with similar rainfall pattern. Finally, the rainfall data was submitted to Mann-Kendall trend test, as well as the variables of the sequential water balance in Ouro Preto dOeste and Porto Velho locations. The results showed that the CLIMGEN is a tool that can be used to fill out missing data in series of Rondônia; however the method of Double Masses identified inconsistencies in two localities, which were not considered in the analyses. The Gamma distribution function presented a smaller degree of asymmetry in the distribution of rainfall probability in the rainy months. Dry months, like in June, July and August, the distribution of rainfall probability is more asymmetrical, being similar among all evaluated locations. Following Gamma the distribution, the cluster analysis showed spatial heterogeneity in the rainfall distribution. Finally, the tendency analyses did not identified systematic changes which indicated that Rondônia State is having changes in the rainfall pattern during the analyzed period, being verified only oscillations of natural order in the climate. The series of maximum and minimum temperature of Porto Velho and Ouro Preto dOeste presented positive tendency, mainly in the minimum temperature. For the variables of the water balance, positive tendencies were detected for ETR and ETP. The results allowed to conclude that although the significant increase of the deforested area in Rondônia, this was not enough yet to cause changes in the climate, being necessary analyses of longer series.

Global Circulation Models of climate predict not only a change of annual precipitation amounts but also a shift in the daily distribution. To improve the understanding of the importance of daily rain pattern for annual plant communities, which represent a large portion of semi-natural vegetation in the Middle East, I used a detailed, spatially explicit model. The model explicitly considers water storage in the soil and has been parameterized and validated with data collected in field experiments in Israel and data from the literature. I manipulated daily rainfall variability by increasing the mean daily rain intensity on rainy days (MDI, rain volume/day) and decreasing intervals between rainy days while keeping the mean annual amount constant. In factorial combination, I also increased mean annual precipitation (MAP). I considered five climatic regions characterized by 100, 300, 450, 600, and 800 mm MAP. Increasing MDI decreased establishment when MAP was >250 mm but increased establishment at more arid sites. The negative effect of increasing MDI was compensated by increasing mortality with increasing MDI in dry and typical Mediterranean regions (c. 360–720 mm MAP). These effects were strongly tied to water availability in upper and lower soil layers and modified by competition among seedlings and adults. Increasing MAP generally increased water availability, establishment, and density. The order of magnitudes of MDI and MAP effects overlapped partially so that their combined effect is important for projections of climate change effects on annual vegetation. The effect size of MAP and MDI followed a sigmoid curve along the MAP gradient indicating that the semi-arid region (≈300 mm MAP) is the most sensitive to precipitation change with regard to annual communitie

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 123 pages. / Thesis (M.S.)--University of South Florida, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: Simulating the processes of rainfall and runoff are at the core of hydrologic modeling. Geomorphologic features, rainfall variability, soil types, and water table depths strongly influence hydrological process in Florida ecosystems. Topographic characteristics of the terrain define the stream paths and landscape. Alteration of these characteristics as a result of urban and/or agricultural developments, for example, can highly influence wetlands and river basin response. There are two predominant landforms in Florida: wetlands, where Variable Saturated Areas form near streams causing saturation excess runoff, and uplands where runoff is mainly generated by infiltration excess. The objective of this work is to analyze the impacts of geomorphologic and hydrologic characteristics on runoff mechanisms in humid environments such as Florida. In general, most research at the hillslope scale use hypothetical values of rainfall, sometimes non-realistic values, and single slope forms to explain the geomorphic and hydrologic process on Variable Saturated Areas. In this thesis, the complexity of hillslope processes on actual Florida topography is assessed by coupling a Digital Elevation Model with a two-dimensional variable saturated-unsaturated flow model called HYDRUS-2D. Actual rainfall records and soil parameters from the Characterization Data for Selected Florida Soils, Soil Survey were used to evaluate hydrologic impacts. A commerical software package, River Tools was used to display and extract topographic information from the Digital Elevation Models.Results show that when inflitration excess runoff is dominant, infiltration and runoff are very sensitive to time resolution, especially for convective storms. When saturation excess occurs, runoff is not affected by rainfall intensity. However, saturated hydraulic conductivity, depth to the water table, slope and curvature highly influence the extent of Variable Saturated Areas. Results indicate runoff in shallow water table environments is produced mainly by subsurface storm runoff, running below the surface, except in hillslopes with concave curvature and mild slopes. Additionally, concave hillslopes generate more saturation excess runoff than straight and convex hillslopes. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Submitted by Emanuel Varela Cardoso (emanuel.varela@ufcg.edu.br) on 2018-08-14T18:56:43Z No. of bitstreams: 1 CARMEM TEREZINHA BECKER – TESE (PPGMet) 2017.pdf: 9194940 bytes, checksum: cf8719dfce267520672b602612413ac2 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-14T18:56:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 CARMEM TEREZINHA BECKER – TESE (PPGMet) 2017.pdf: 9194940 bytes, checksum: cf8719dfce267520672b602612413ac2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-08-04 / Capes / Ao apresentar extensa área inclusa na delimitação semiárida do Brasil, mais de 86% do seu território, a Paraíba é um dos estados brasileiros onde a aridez apresenta maior severidade. A disponibilidade de água impera como um processo decisivo no que diz respeito ao seu efetivo desenvolvimento ambiental, social e econômico, o qual é intimamente dependente das condições climáticas reinantes. Neste contexto, emerge a necessidade da quantificação de índices que tenham como propósito, a caracterização climática de um determinado local, para com isto, haver uma melhor adequação às classes de clima predominantes. Assim, o presente estudo tem por objetivo, tecer cenários passados da variabilidade espacial e temporal de índices climáticos. Para tanto, são calculados índices climáticos a partir de dados normais climatológicos e seriais anuais para um período de cinquenta anos a vinte postos pluviométricos criteriosamente selecionados e distribuídos ao longo do estado da Paraíba. Leva-se em consideração a metodologia proposta por Thornthwaite (1948) e pelo índice de aridez aplicado pelo United Nations Environment Programme - UNEP (1992). Toma-se como subsídio, a aplicação conceitual de métodos espectrais com a subsequente aplicação da análise de ondaletas aos índices climáticos seriais. Resulta-se, que mesmo metodologias distintas venham a produzir classificações climáticas diferentes para um mesmo local e período de tempo, o desenvolvimento das variabilidades interanual e interdecenal são extremamente semelhantes, recomendando os mesmos agentes como causadores destas variabilidades. Mesmo assim, o índice de aridez do UNEP mostra-se menos criterioso para classificações climáticas do que na utilização dos índices de Thornthwaite, evidenciando quadros de menor aridez. Pela metodologia das ondaletas, a variabilidade interdecenal é significativamente mais aparente do que a interanual, com a marcante predominância na escala de 11 anos, interagindo com escalas menores, de 5, 3,5 e 2,5 anos, os quais tendem a seguir os principais comportamentos da variabilidade térmica nas bacias dos oceanos Atlântico e Pacífico. Correlações simples indicam conexões mais significativas entre modos do Pacífico e as regiões do Sertão e Alto Sertão, decrescendo em direção ao Litoral. Por outro lado, anomalias das águas no oceano Atlântico apresentam influência quase homogênea em grande parte do Estado da Paraíba, com maior sinal na faixa leste adjacente. Observa-se ainda, que classificações climáticas de forma seriada, com o processamento dos percentuais de cada tipo de clima e distribuição temporal, representa um método mais realista de análise do clima, haja vista que a partir de normais climatológicas, descreve-se uma condição média do clima local ou regional. / Due to the large area included in the semiarid delimitation of Brazil, more than 86% of its territory, Paraíba is one of the Brazilian states where aridity is more severe. The availability of water is a decisive process in terms of its effective environmental, social and economic development, which is closely dependent on the prevailing climatic conditions. In this context, the need for the quantification of indexes that have as purpose, the climatic characterization of a given location, in order to better suit the prevailing climate classes, emerges. Thus, the present study aims to weave past scenarios of spatial and temporal variability of climatic indexes. Therefore, climatic indexes are calculated from normal climatological and serial annual data for a period of fifty years to twenty pluviometric stations carefully selected and distributed throughout the state of Paraíba. The methodology proposed by Thornthwaite (1948) and the aridity index applied by the United Nations Environment Program - UNEP (1992) are taken into account. As a subsidy, the conceptual application of spectral methods with the subsequent application of the wavelet analysis to the serial climatic indexes is used. It turns out that even if different methodologies produce different climatic classifications for the same place and period of time, the development of interannual and interdecadal variabilities are extremely similar, recommending the same agents as cause of these variabilities. Even so, the UNEP aridity index is less critical for climate classifications than for the use of the Thornthwaite indices, showing less aridity. The interdecadal variability is significantly more apparent than the interannual variability, with a marked predominance in the 11-year scale, interacting with smaller scales of 5, 3.5 and 2.5 years, which tend to follow the main behaviors of the thermal variability in the basins of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Simple correlations indicate more significant connections between Pacific modes and the regions of Sertão and Alto Sertão, decreasing toward the coast. On the other hand, water anomalies in the Atlantic Ocean show almost homogeneous influence in much of the state of Paraíba, with a greater signal in the adjacent eastern range. It is also observed that climatic classifications in a serial way, with the processing of the percentages of each type of climate and temporal distribution, represents a more realistic method of climate analysis, given that, based on climatological normals, it describes an average local condition or regional climate.

The climatic conditions of the northern Sierra of Peru are marked by the interaction of different macro- to mesoscale climatic features such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) or Mesoscale Convective Complexes (MCCs) and the seasonally shifting Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), but also by local scale climatic features such as inhomogeneous topography and local wind fields. The region under investigation, located in the vicinity of the South America Continental Water Divide (CWD), provides the opportunity to study interactions of western and eastern disturbances in a high mountain environment and their effects on rainfall variability. In general, rainfall variability is related to diurnal convection patterns, enhanced by valley breeze systems and modulated by local scale wind anomalies. Spillover of low-level air masses of Pacific origin passing over the Andean ridges is frequent. Although direct effects of ENSO on high Andean rainfall variability are in debate, our findings show that the majority of rain gauges used in this study follow an El Niño/dry and a La Niña/wet signal. However, high elevation areas on the western escarpment of the Andes benefit from abundant nocturnal rainfall that partly offsets the rainfall deficits during El Niño. Our data suggest that the spatial extent of this easterly wet pulse is limited to areas located above 3000 m asl. ENSO cycles contribute to rainfall variability near the CWD in the northern Sierra of Peru by modulating the seasonal rainfall regime and causing a positive temperature anomaly. / Las condiciones climáticas de la sierra norte del Perú están marcadas por la interacción de diferentes rasgos climáticos a escalas macro y meso, tal como el fenómeno ENSO o los Complejos Convectivos a Meso-escala (MCC) y la estacionalmente móvil Zona de Interconvergencia Intertropical (ITCZ), pero también por rasgos climáticos a escala local tales como la heterogeneidad topográfica y los campos de vientos locales. La zona de estudio se ubica en las cercanías de la divisoria de aguas continentales de Sudamérica (CWD), provee la oportunidad de estudiar las interacciones de las disturbancias occidental y oriental en un ambiente de alta montaña y sus efectos en la variabilidad de las precipitaciones. En general la variabilidad de las precipitaciones se relaciona con patrones de convección diurna, reforzada por los sistemas de brisas de valle y modulada por anomalías de vientos a escala local. El desplazamiento de masas de aire a baja altura provenientes del Pacífico que remontan los Andes es frecuente. Aunque los efectos directos del ENSO en la variabilidad de las precipitaciones andinas está todavía en debate, nuestras investigaciones muestran que la mayoría de las mediciones hechas para este estudio siguen una señal El Niño/seco y La Niña/húmedo. Sin embargo, las zonas altas de lasescarpas occidentales de los Andes se benefician de abundante lluvia nocturna que parcialmente completa los déficits de precipitaciones durante El Niño. Nuestros datos sugieren que la cobertura espacial de este pulso húmedo del Este se limita a áreas que se ubican encima de los 3000 msnm. Los ciclos ENSO contribuyen a la variabilidad de las precipitaciones cerca del CWD en la sierra norte del Perú mediante la modulación del régimen estacional de lluvias que causa una anomalía de temperatura positiva.

Most of Eastern Africa has arid and semi-arid climate with high space-time variability in rainfall. The droughts are very common in this region, and often persist for several years, preceded or followed by extreme floods. Most of the livelihoods and socio-economic activities however remain rain-dependent leading to severe negative impacts during the periods of occurrence of climate extremes. It has been noted that one extreme event was capable of reversing national economic growth made over a period of several years. Thus no sustainable development can be attained in eastern Africa without effective mainstreaming of climate information in the development policies, plans and programmes. Many past studies in the region have focused on rainfall variability at seasonal, annual and decadal scales. Very little work has been done at intraseasonal timescale that is paramount to most agricultural applications. This study aims at filling this research gap, by investigating the structure of rainfall season in terms of the distribution of wet and dry spells and how this distribution varies in space and time at interannual time scale over Equatorial Eastern Africa. Prediction models for use in the early warning systems aimed at climate risk reduction were finally developed. The specific objectives of the study include, delineate and diagnose the some aspects of the distribution of the wet and dry spells at interannual timescale; investigate the linkages between the aspects of the distribution of wet and dry spells identified and dominant large scale climate fields that drive the global climate; and assess the predictability of the various aspects of wet and dry spells for the improvement of the use in the early warning systems of the region.Several datasets spanning a period of 40 years (1961 - 2000) were used. The data included gauged daily rainfall amount for the three Eastern Africa countries namely Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania; Hadley Centre Sea Surface Temperature (SST); re-analysis data and radiosonde observations from Nairobi (Kenya) and Bangui (Central Africa Republic) upper air stations. The indices of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Indian Ocean Dipole and SST gradients which constituted the predefined predictors were also used [...]

This study was aimed at analysing communal land use management practices and policies towards sustainability and climate resilience. The objectives of this study were to assess rainfall variability, climate change impact, adaptation practices and impediment factors for adaptation on the one hand and, on the other, analysing the pressure, scrutinising the sustainability of institutional practices, and assessing policy setting and its application status in managing communal lands. To conduct the study, a household survey, key informant interviews and group discussions were used. It employed both quantitative and qualitative methods. For analysis, rainfall variability trend analysis, different empirical formulas, Principal Component Analysis and analysis of variance were used. In addition, Qualitative Content Analysis technique and descriptive statistical tools were also used. The study found that there was spatiotemporal rainfall variability. About 18 extreme wet and 8 extreme dry events were depicted out of 194 frequencies of events. The most outstanding manifestations of climate change/variability impacts identified were: water scarcity, migration, severe erosion and feed scarcity. Applying biophysical measures on communal lands, practicing area enclosure and constraction of feeder road were moderately excersised adaptation and mitigation practices while, low level community awareness was the most outstanding barrier for community adaptation. Besides, feed source and fuel biomass energy did not satisfy community demand. Government recognition to support community user groups, the existence of community labour contribution and congruence between government legislation and community by-laws were found moderately strong. Besides, communal land administration and use of legislative setting and instruments to govern land administration were adequately in place to implement communal land use and management. However, workability of by-laws in applying them at the ground was a major weakness. In conclusion, the study revealed that there exist generally a weak communal land use management practices and policy implementation towards enhancing sustainability and climate resilience. Hence, the following recommendations were forwarded: enhancing community awareness, encouraging communities to establish their own private woodlots and grazing areas to reduce the pressure on communal land, applying proper communal land resource use and management plans and certifying communal lands with demarcation and maps should be given due emphasis to enhance sustainability. Moreover, policy and legislation evaluation and revision to improve its application at the ground is fundamental. On top of this, further research endeavour is still paramount important to scrutinize the integral effects of the biophysical, social, cultural and legislative dimensions for better sustainable and climate resilient communal land use management practices and policy implementation / College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences / Ph. D. (Environmental Management)

L'objectif principal de cette thèse était de parvenir à un outil de gestion fiable des bassins de rétention d'eaux pluviales en utilisant les données radar en bande X. Il s’est avéré que cela nécessite plusieurs développements de recherche. Le cas d’étude considéré comprend un bassin de 10000 m3 situé en Val-de-Marne et construit en aval d'un bassin versant urbain de 2.15 km2. Il assure un double rôle de traitement des eaux pluviales et de prévention des inondations par stockage du volume. Opérationnellement les modes de gestion associés à chacun de ces objectifs sont antagonistes si bien qu’une gestion prédictive a été mise en place ; exploitation routinière en mode anti-pollution et basculement vers le mode anti-inondation en cas de besoin. Il doit se faire sur la base d’une connaissance sûre de la situation pluvieuse prévue à court terme. Une façon courante de répondre aux besoins opérationnels de la gestion prédictive est de mettre en place un système d’alerte basé sur l’utilisation des données radar. Le système CALAMAR par exemple, repose sur l’utilisation des données radar brutes à mono polarisation du réseau radar de Météo-France; traitées avec des méthodes de conversion classiques Z-R et une calibration avec des pluviomètres. Cependant, la fiabilité de ce système fait débat, notamment vis-à-vis de la qualité de la mesure radar obtenue. Une nouvelle méthodologie de comparaison de produits radar a été développée au cours de cette thèse. Elle repose sur le cadre théorique des multifractals et permet une comparaison de la structure et de la morphologie des champs de précipitations dans l'espace et le temps à travers les échelles. Cette méthode a d'abord été appliquée sur les produits CALAMR et Météo-France, puis, pour confirmer certains des résultats, sur les premières données d’un radar bande X, acquis par l’Ecole des Ponts ParisTech dans le cadre du projet Européen RainGain et fournissant des mesures de précipitations à des échelles plus fines (jusqu’à 100m en espace et 1 min en temps). Les résultats obtenus mettent en évidence non seulement l'influence cruciale des méthodes de traitement des données brutes sur la variabilité spatio-temporelle à travers les échelles, mais permettent également de prédéfinir les conditions dans lesquelles la calibration CALAMAR peut aggraver la qualité des mesures. Elles seraient très difficiles à détecter par les méthodes classiques largement répandues, n’impliquant qu’un nombre très limité de pixels radar (seulement ceux correspondants aux pluviomètres au sol). Des extensions de la méthodologie proposée ouvriront de nouveaux horizons pour la calibration des données de pluie. Alors que la littérature scientifique, notamment autour expériences TOMACS au Japon et CASA aux Etats-Unis, souligne l’importance opérationnelle d’une mesure de pluie plus détaillée grâce au radar en bande X, son impact sur les performances des modèles hydrologiques fait encore débat. Les recherches antérieures, basée pour la plupart sur des modèles conceptuels, ne sont pas concluantes. Ainsi pour dépasser ces limites, nous avons utilisé deux modèles impliquant des approches de modélisation différentes : CANOE (semi-distribué et conceptuel) et Multi-Hydro (distribué et à base physique ; développé à l’ENPC). Une version opérationnelle de CANOE et une nouvelle configuration plus fine améliorant considérablement la sensibilité du modèle à la variabilité de la pluie ont été utilisées. Plusieurs développements ont été apportés à Multi-Hydro, y compris une optimisation de sa résolution, ce qui améliore grandement l'ensemble de ses fonctionnalités. Il ressort de ce travail qu’en prenant en compte la variabilité spatio-temporelle des précipitations à petite échelle, la performance des modèles hydrologiques peut être augmentée jusqu'à 20%.Nous pensons que cette thèse a contribué à la mise au point de nouveaux outils opérationnels, fiables ayant la capacité de prendre en compte les données en bande X haute résolution / The main goal of this thesis was to achieve a reliable management tool of storm water storage basins using high resolution X-band radar. It turned out that it required several research developments. The analysed case study includes a retention basin of 10000 m3 located in Val de Marne county downstream of a 2.15 km2 urban catchment. It has a twofold goal: storm water decontamination and flood protection by volume storage. Operationally the management strategies associated with these two aims are conflicting; hence, a predictive management has been set up: a routine exploitation of the basin in the anti-pollution mode, and a switch to the flood protection mode when needed. It should be based a reliable knowledge of short-term rainfall forecasts. A common way to respond to operational needs of the predictive management is to set up a warning system based on the use of radar data. For example, the CALAMAR system relies on the use of single-polarization raw radar data, coming from Meteo-France radar network, being processed with the conventional Z-R conversion methods followed by a calibration with rain gauge. However, the reliability of such warning systems has been subject to debate, often due to a questionable quality of the resulting radar rainfall estimates, compared to local rain gauges. Therefore a new methodology for more meaningful comparison of radar rainfall field products was developed during this PhD project. Being rooted to the multifractal theory, it allows a comparison of the structure and the morphology of rainfall fields in both space and time through scales. It was initially tested on CALAMAR and Meteo-France rainfall products before being applied for results confirmation on initial data from a X band radar, acquired by Ecole des Ponts ParisTech in the framework of the European project RainGain and providing data at higher resolution (up to 100 m in space and 1 min in time). The obtained results not only highlight the crucial influence of raw data processing on the scaling behaviour, but also permit to pre-define the conditions when the CALAMAR optimization may worsen the quality of rainfall estimates. Such conditions would be very difficult to detect with widely used conventional methods, which rely on a very limited number of radar pixels (only those containing rain gauges). Further extensions of the proposed methodology open new horizons for the rainfall data merging. While the scientific literature, notably around the TOMACS experiment in Japan and CASA one in the United States, highlights the operational benefits of higher resolution rainfall measurements thanks to X-band radars, its impact on the performance of hydrological models still remains a subject of debate. Indeed previous research, mainly based on conceptual models remains inconclusive. To overcome these limitations, we used two models relying on two very distinct modelling approaches: CANOE (semi-distributed and conceptual) and Multi-Hydro (fully distributed and physically based research model developed at ENPC). An operational version of CANOE and a new much finer configuration, which increases the sensitivity of the model to spatio-temporal variability of small-scale rainfall, were used. Several extensions of the Multi-Hydro were developed, including an optimization of its resolution, which greatly improves its whole functionality. It appears from this work that by taking into account the spatial and temporal variability of small-scale rainfall, the performance of hydrologic models can be increased up to 20%.Overall, we believe that this dissertation contributes to the development of new, reliable, operational tools to use in their full extent the high-resolution X-band data

We study the space-time characteristics of global tropical rainfall. The data used is from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and spans the years 2000-2009. Using anomaly fields constructed by removing a single mean and by subtracting the climatology of the ten year dataset, we extract the dominant modes of variability of tropical rainfall from an Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) analysis. To our knowledge, this is the first attempt at applying the EOF formal-ism to high spatio-temporal resolution global tropical rainfall. Spatial patterns and temporal indices obtained from the EOF analysis with single annual mean removed show large scale patterns associated with the seasonal cycle. Even though the seasonal cycle is dominant, the principal component (PC) time series show fluctuations at subseasonal scales. When the climatological mean is removed, spatial patterns of the dominant modes resemble features associated with tropical intraseasonal variability (ISV). Correspondingly, the signature of a seasonal cycle is relatively suppressed, and the PCs have prominent fluctuations at subseasonal scales. The significance of the leading EOFs is demonstrated by means of a novel ratio plot of the variance captured by the leading EOFs to the variance in the data. This shows that, in regions of high variability (which go hand in hand with high rainfall), the EOF/PC pairs capture a fair amount of the variance (up to 20% for the first EOF/PC pair) in the data. We then pursue an EOF analysis of the finest data resolution available. In particular, we per-form a regional analysis (a global analysis is beyond our present computational resources) of the tropics with 0.25◦×0.25◦, 3-hourly data. The regions we focus on are the Indian region, the Maritime Continent and South America. The spatial patterns obtained reveal a rich hierarchical structure to the leading modes of variability in these regions. Similarly, the PCs associated with these leading spatial modes show variability all the way from 90 days to the diurnal scale. With the results from EOF analysis in hand, we quantify the multiscale spatio-temporal structures encountered in our study. In particular, we examine the power spectra of the PCs and EOFs. A robust feature of the space and time spectra is the distribution of energy or variance across a range of scales. On the temporal front, aside from a seasonal and diurnal peaks, the variance scales as a power-law from a few days to the 90 day period. Similarly, below the planetary scale, from approximately 5000 km to 200 km the spatial spectrum also follows a power-law. Therefore, when trying to understand the variability of tropical rainfall, all scales are important, and it is difficult to justify a focus on isolated space and time scales.

La plus grande partie de l’Afrique orientale présente un climat aride à semi-aride, et une forte variabilité spatio-temporelle des pluies. Les sécheresses sont courantes dans cette région, et persistent souvent sur plusieurs années consécutives, précédées ou suivies par des inondations majeures. La plupart des modes de vie et des activités socio-économiques restent néanmoins dépendants des précipitations, avec des effets extrêmement dommageables en périodes d’extrêmes climatiques. Il a été montré qu’un seul événement extrême suffisait à inverser la croissance économique nationale plusieurs années d’affilée. Aucun développement durable ne peut donc être réalisé en Afrique de l’Est sans une prise en compte effective de l’information climatique dans les politiques, les plans et les programmes de développement. De nombreuses études antérieures sur la région ont été consacrées à la variabilité des pluies aux échelles saisonnière, annuelle et décadaire. Peu de recherches ont porté sur l’échelle intra-saisonnière, qui est déterminante pour la plupart des applications agricoles. Cette étude vise à combler cette lacune, en examinant la structure de la saison des pluies en termes de répartition des épisodes secs et pluvieux, et la façon dont cette répartition varie dans l’espace et le temps, à l’échelle interannuelle à travers l’Afrique est-équatoriale. Des modèles de prévision destinés à être utilisés dans des systèmes d’alerte précoce, en vue d’atténuer les risques liés au climat, sont en outre développés. Les objectifs spécifiques de l’étude incluent : un diagnostic des différents aspects de la répartition des épisodes secs et pluvieux, dans leur variation interannuelle ; une analyse des relations entre les aspects de cette répartition ainsi identifiés et les principaux champs climatiques d’échelle large qui gouvernent le climat global ; une évaluation de la prévisibilité des différents aspects des épisodes secs et pluvieux pour l’amélioration des systèmes d’alerte précoce de la région.Plusieurs bases de données couvrant une période de 40 ans (1961-2000) ont été utilisées. Elles comprennent des séries de précipitations journalières mesurées par pluviomètre dans les trois pays d’Afrique orientale (Kenya, Ouganda, Tanzanie) ; les températures de surface marine (SST) du Hadley Centre ; des données de réanalyses et des stations de radiosondages de Nairobi (Kenya) et de Bangui (République Centrafricaine). Des indices d’El Niño-Oscillation Australe (ENSO), du Dipôle de l’Océan Indien et de gradients de SST, constituant des prédicteurs SST prédéfinis, ont été également utilisés [...] / Most of Eastern Africa has arid and semi-arid climate with high space-time variability in rainfall. The droughts are very common in this region, and often persist for several years, preceded or followed by extreme floods. Most of the livelihoods and socio-economic activities however remain rain-dependent leading to severe negative impacts during the periods of occurrence of climate extremes. It has been noted that one extreme event was capable of reversing national economic growth made over a period of several years. Thus no sustainable development can be attained in eastern Africa without effective mainstreaming of climate information in the development policies, plans and programmes. Many past studies in the region have focused on rainfall variability at seasonal, annual and decadal scales. Very little work has been done at intraseasonal timescale that is paramount to most agricultural applications. This study aims at filling this research gap, by investigating the structure of rainfall season in terms of the distribution of wet and dry spells and how this distribution varies in space and time at interannual time scale over Equatorial Eastern Africa. Prediction models for use in the early warning systems aimed at climate risk reduction were finally developed. The specific objectives of the study include, delineate and diagnose the some aspects of the distribution of the wet and dry spells at interannual timescale; investigate the linkages between the aspects of the distribution of wet and dry spells identified and dominant large scale climate fields that drive the global climate; and assess the predictability of the various aspects of wet and dry spells for the improvement of the use in the early warning systems of the region.Several datasets spanning a period of 40 years (1961 – 2000) were used. The data included gauged daily rainfall amount for the three Eastern Africa countries namely Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania; Hadley Centre Sea Surface Temperature (SST); re-analysis data and radiosonde observations from Nairobi (Kenya) and Bangui (Central Africa Republic) upper air stations. The indices of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Indian Ocean Dipole and SST gradients which constituted the predefined predictors were also used [...]