Thesis (M.S.)--Naval Postgraduate School, 2002. / Thesis advisor(s): Kenneth L. Davidson, John McCarthy. Includes bibliographical references (p. 61-62). Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2004. Directed by Rong Fu. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 119-131).

published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

Climate in Hong Kong is very likely to be modified due to global climate change. In this study the output of General Circulation Models (GCMs) was statistically downscaled to produce future climate projections for the time periods 2046 –2065 and 2081 –2100 for Hong Kong. The future climate projections are based on two emission scenarios provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The emission scenarios, A1B (rapid economic growth with balanced energy technology) and B1 (global environmental sustainability), make assumptions on future human development, and the resulting emissions of greenhouse gases. This study established a method to evaluate GCMs for use in statistical downscaling and utilised six GCMs, selected from the 3rd phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP3). They were evaluated based upon their performance in simulating past climate in the southeast China region on three aspects: 1) monthly mean temperature; 2) sensitivity to greenhouse gases and 3) climate variability. Three GCMs were selected for statistical downscaling and climate projection in this study. Downscaling was undertaken by relating large scale climate variables, from NCEP/NCAR reanalysis, a gridded data set incorporating observations and climate models, to local scale observations. Temperature, specific humidity and wind speed were downscaled using multiple linear regressions methods. Rain occurrence was determined using logistic regression and rainfall volume from a generalised linear model. The resultant statistical models were subsequently applied to future climate projections. Overall, all three GCMs, via statistical downscaling, show that daily average, minimum and maximum temperatures, along with specific humidity, will increase under future climate scenarios. Comparing the model ensemble mean projections with current climate (1981 –2010), the annual average temperature in Hong Kong is projected to increase by 1.0 °C (B1) to 1.6 °C (A1B) in 2046 –2065, and by 1.4 °C (B1) to 2.2 °C (A1B) in 2081 –2100. Furthermore, the projections in this study show an increase of high temperature extremes (daily average temperature ≥ 29.6 °C), by three to four times in 2046 –2065 and four to five times in 2081 –2100. The projections of rainfall indicate that annual rainfall will increase in the future. Total annual rainfall is projected to increase by 4.9% (A1B) to 8% (B1) in 2046 –2065, and by 8.7% (B1) to 21.5% (A1B) in 2081 –2100. However, this change in rainfall is seasonally dependent; summer and autumn exhibit an increase in rainfall whilst spring and winter exhibit decreases. In order to test one possible impact of this change in climate, the downscaled climate variables were used to estimate how outdoor thermal comfort (using the Universal Thermal Comfort Index) might change under future climate scenarios in Hong Kong. Results showed that there will be a shift from 'No Thermal Stress' towards 'Moderate Heat Stress' and 'Strong Heat Stress' during the period 2046 –2065, becoming more severe for the later period (2081 –2100). The projections of future climate presented in this study will be important when assessing potential climate change impacts, along with adaptation and mitigation options, in Hong Kong. / published_or_final_version / Geography / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

No description available.

This thesis evaluates different sites for a weather measurement system and a suitable PV- simulation for University of Surabaya (UBAYA) in Indonesia/Java. The weather station is able to monitor all common weather phenomena including solar insolation. It is planned to use the data for scientific and educational purposes in the renewable energy studies. During evaluation and installation it falls into place that official specifications from global meteorological organizations could not be meet for some sensors caused by the conditions of UBAYA campus. After arranging the hardware the weather at the site was monitored for period of time. A comparison with different official sources from ground based and satellite bases measurements showed differences in wind and solar radiation. In some cases the monthly average solar insolation was deviating 42 % for satellite-based measurements. For the ground based it was less than 10 %. The average wind speed has a difference of 33 % compared to a source, which evaluated the wind power in Surabaya. The wind direction shows instabilities towards east compared with data from local weather station at the airport. PSET has the chance to get some investments to investigate photovoltaic on there own roof. With several simulations a suitable roof direction and the yearly and monthly outputs are shown. With a 7.7 kWpeak PV installation with the latest crystalline technology on the market 8.82 MWh/year could be achieved with weather data from 2012. Thin film technology could increase the value up to 9.13 MWh/year. However, the roofs have enough area to install PV. Finally the low price of electricity in Indonesia makes it not worth to feed in the energy into the public grid.

No description available.

This dissertation describes research designed to enhance hydrometeorological forecasts. The objective of the research is to deliver an optimal methodology to produce reliable, skillful and economically valuable probabilistic temperature and precipitation forecasts. Weather plays a dominant role for energy companies relying on forecasts of watershed precipitation and temperature to drive reservoir models, and forecasts of temperatures to meet energy demand requirements. Extraordinary precipitation events and temperature extremes involve consequential water- and power-management decisions. This research compared weighted-average, recursive, and model output statistics bias-correction methods and determined optimal window-length to calibrate temperature and precipitation forecasts. The research evaluated seven different methods for daily maximum and minimum temperature forecasts, and three different methods for daily quantitative precipitation forecasts, within a region of complex terrain in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. This research then examined ensemble prediction system design by assessing a three-model suite of multi-resolution limited area mesoscale models. The research employed two different economic models to investigate the ensemble design that produced the highest-quality, most valuable forecasts. The best post-processing methods for temperature forecasts included moving-weighted average methods and a Kalman filter method. The optimal window-length proved to be 14 days. The best post-processing methods for achieving mass balance in quantitative precipitation forecasts were a moving-average method and the best easy systematic estimator method. The optimal window-length for moving-average quantitative precipitation forecasts was 40 days. The best ensemble configuration incorporated all resolution members from all three models. A cost/loss model adapted specifically for the hydro-electric energy sector indicated that operators managing rainfall-dominated, high-head reservoirs should lower their reservoir with relatively low probabilities of forecast precipitation. A reservoir-operation model based on decision theory and variable energy pricing showed that applying an ensemble-average or full-ensemble precipitation forecast provided a much greater profit than using only a single deterministic high-resolution forecast. Finally, a bias-corrected super-ensemble prediction system was designed to produce probabilistic temperature forecasts for ten cities in western North America. The system exhibited skill and value nine days into the future when using the ensemble average, and 12 days into the future when employing the full ensemble forecast.

Generally urban drainage systems are built to protect urban property and control runoff. Moreover, these systems collect the runoff for storage purposes to serve society through sufficient water supply to meet the needs of demand, irrigation, and drainage. Urban environments are exposed to risks of extreme hydrological events. Therefore, urban water systems and their management are critical. Precipitation data are crucial, but may be prone to errors due to the lack of information e.g., short length of records. In this thesis, a Monte Carlo simulation and regional frequency analysis based on L-moments approach were utilized during the research in order to estimate the uncertainty in the Intensity Duration Frequency (IDF) curves by using historical precipitation data from Environment Canada (EC) weather stations and simulating a new series of data through a weather generator (WG) model. The simulations were then disaggregated from daily into hourly data for extraction of the annual maximum precipitation for different durations in hours (1, 2, 6, 10, 12, and 24). Regional frequency analysis was used to form the sites into groups based on homogeneity test results, and the quantile values were computed for various sites and durations with the return periods (T) in years (2, 10, 20, and 100). As a result, the regional frequency analysis was used to estimate the regional quantile values based on L-moment approach. Moreover, the box and whisker plots were utilized to display the results. When the return periods and durations increased, the uncertainty slightly increased. The historical IDF curves of London site falls within the regional simulated IDF curves. Furthermore, 1000 runs have been generated by using the weather generator.

No description available.