Selected navigation routes and present climate conditions. ECCONET Deliverable 1.1

Description

In the first part of this report a general assessment of climate change effects on European inland waterways is carried out considering most recent research relevant to this topic. The most important waterways covered comprise the Rhine, the Danube, the Elbe and the Seine Nord Canal. The assessment contains a definition and description of climate change research projects relevant to inland waterway transport in Europe. For entire Europe in general as well as, in particular, the catchments of the inland waterways considered the impact of climate change on hydrometeorology (e.g. temperature), and hydrology (e.g. discharge), including a critical reflection on the uncertainty and methodology of climate change research.

The general assessment of climate change effects on European inland waterways shows that the uncertainties in the projections of the future climate and hydrological conditions of waterways are still high. Many results show contradictory trends for the same area of interest, and the large bandwidths of projected results with respect to temperature increase as well as change of precipitation and discharge may lead to conclusions that climate change has almost no impact or a severe impact on the hydrological conditions of the area of interest.

The hydro-meteorological data used by ECCONET for hydrological evaluations is derived from the ENSEMBLES database. The choice of the most suitable scenarios for application in ECCONET is based on results of the KLIWAS study, which uses also ENSEMBLES data amongst other ones.

In the second part of this report the geographical scope of ECCONET is defined, and the present climate and navigation conditions are presented. These conditions are supposed to serve as a basis for the calibration of the economic models in ECCONET. Further, they serve as a reference for the evaluation of the changes in navigation conditions due to climate change.

The hydrological domains were defined following a comprehensive description of the waterways to be considered. Relevant navigable rivers, including their relevant tributaries, and critical waterway sections were defined. The information collected on current navigation conditions included (1) water levels over large parts of the waterways, (2) stream speeds, (3) upper shipping limits, (4) bridge clearance, (5) locks, (6) ice.

Reference information