Natural Hazards Analysis Team

1. Natural Hazards Analysis Team GAMA Department of Astronomy and Meteorology Faculty of Physics University of Barcelona C/ Martí i Franquès 1 08028-Barcelona Spain Tel – 34 934021124 http://gama.am.ub.es

2. Who are we? • The GAMA team (Grupo de Análisis de situaciones Meteorológicas Adversas, Natural Hazards Analysis), is composed by one engineer, one graduate in biology and environmental education, 3 doctors in Physics and 5 PhD students. Their main research topics are floods, hail storms, forest fires, droughts and climate variability. Aspects related with environmental education in relationship with natural hazards and sensibilization of the populations, as well as the overview of all the alert chains are also developed. • It is leaded by Dr. Maria-Carmen Llasat. She has participated in different multi-disciplinary groups related with Natural Hazards, and she has been chairperson of the Natural Hazards Section of European Geophysical Society; international coordinator of the topic “Heavy rainfalls” into the Alpine and Mediterranean Hydrology FRIEND project of UNESCO, and member of the steering committee of the World Climate Program-Water of WMO/UNESCO. She has been the chief editor of the journal Natural Hazards and Earth System Science, of European Geosciences Union. Nowadays, she is the present coordinator of the Working Group of Social Impacts Research of MEDEX. Her experience in the field of floods have started on 1983 and, since then, she has collaborated with Universities and Administrations from different parts of Europe and North-America. She has published more than 100 papers in refereed journals and books.

3. GAMA PRE FOR-AGRO NH VCC SW Our research lines • 1.- Rate of rainfall, extreme rainfall events, floods and spates, applications of meteorological radar, classification of rainfall events (PRE) • 2.- Climate change, analysis of meteorological series, trends and anomalies, paleoclimatology, impact of climatic fluctuations on water supply and flood events (VCC) • 3.- Natural Hazards assessment, societal impact (NH) • 4.- Severe weather in the Mediterranean: flash-floods, hail (SW) • 5.- Agrometeorology, hydric balance, droughts, forest fires, meteorological networks, applications of remote sensing (FOR-AGRO)

4. 1 4 2 6 5 7 3 8 PRE: Rainfall classification Characterization of rainfall rate and convective precipitation Regionalization in basis to rainfall features Llasat, M.C., M. Ceperuelo, T. Rigo, 2007. Rainfall regionalization on the basis of the precipitation convective features using a raingauge network and weather radar observations. Atmospheric Research, 83, 415-426. Llasat, M.C., 2001: An objective classification of rainfall events on the basis of their convective features: application to rainfall intensity in the Northeast of Spain. International Journal of Climatology, 21, 1385-1400.

5. PRE: Meteorological radar Software for radar applications, including radiosounding data and mesoscale models Analysis of 2-D and 3-D structures, convective systems, nowcasting, rainfall field Rigo, T. y Llasat, M.C., 2007. Analysis of Mesoscale Convective Systems in Catalonia (NE of Spain) using radar for the period 1996-2000. Atmospheric Research, 458-472 Ceperuelo, M., M.C. Llasat, T. Rigo, 2006. Rainfall events and Hailstorms Analysis Program (RHAP). Advances in Geosciences, 215-223.

6. PRE: Rainfall forecasting MM5 Model: application to rainfall events diagnosis and forecasting Analogous method for quantitative rainfall forecasting Altava-Ortiz, A. Barrera, M.C. Llasat, M.A. Prat, J. Gibergans-Báguena and M. Barnolas, 2006. Application of the mm5 and the analogous method to heavy rainfall events. the case of 16-18th October 2003 in Catalonia (NE Spain). Advances in Geosciences, 7, 313-319. Gibergans-Báguena, J. and M.C. Llasat, in press. Improvement of the analogous method by using local thermodynamic data. Application to autumn precipitation in Catalonia. Atmospheric Research.

7. PRE: Meteorological factors associated to floods in Mediterranean Region Cold pools, COL’s and heavy rainfalls Diagnosis of the events using synoptic, mesoscale and satellite data Llasat, M.C., C. Ramis and L.Lanza, 1999: Storm tracking and monitoring using objective synoptic diagnosis and cluster identification from infrared Meteosat imagery: a case study. Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics, 71, 139-155. Llasat, M.C., F. Martín and A. Barrera, 2007. From the concept of ‘‘Kaltlufttropfen’’ (cold air pool) to the cut-off low. The case of September 1971 in Spain as an example of their role in heavy rainfalls. Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics. 96, 43-60.

8. SW: Flash floods and hail in Spain Hail detection and forecasting Analysis and forecasting of flash flood events Ceperuelo, M., M.C. Llasat, L. López, E. García, J.L. Sánchez, 2006. Study of 11 September 2004 hailstorm event using radar identification of 2D systems and 3D cells. Advances in Geosciences, 7, 205-213. SEVERUS, FLASH, projects Llasat, M.C., T. Rigo and M. Barriendos, 2003: the ‘Montserrat-2000’ flash-flood event: a comparison with the floods that have occurred in the Northeastern Iberian Peninsula since the 14th century. International Journal of Climatology, 23, 453-469.

9. NH: Natural hazards assessment Analysis of the social impact Application of GIS to floods mapping MEDEX, FLASH, projects Barnolas, M. and M.C. Llasat, 2007. A flood geodatabase and its climatological applications: the case of Catalonia for the last century. Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 7, 271–281. Llasat-Botija , M.C. Llasat and L. López, in press. Natural Hazards and the press in the western Mediterranean region. Advances in Geosciences.

10. NH: Education and sensibilization in front of natural hazards Development of tools for sensibilization EDRINA, FLASH projects Participation in the RINAMED project

11. VCC:Climatic change and climatic variability Floods and droughts evolution since the 14th century Reconstruction of synoptic maps since the 19th century Barrera, A., M. C. Llasat and M. Barriendos, 2006. Estimation of the extreme flash flood evolution in Barcelona County from 1351 to 2005. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (2006) 6: 505 – 518. Llasat, M.C., M. Barriendos, A. Barrera, T. Rigo, 2005. Floods in Catalonia (NE Spain) since the 14th century. Climatological and meteorological aspects from historical documentary sources and old instrumental records. Journal of Hydrology 313, 32–47

12. (a) Observed Z Barcelona Theoretical Z VCC:Climatic change and climatic variability Rainfall evolution in the Westeren and Central Mediterranean Basin Relationship between precipitation and circulation indices (NAOI) Barrera, A. M.C. Llasat, J. Álvarez, I. Bladé and T. Estrela, submitted. Regional precipitation in Spain and NAO influence during the period 1897–1998. International Journal of Climatology Altava-Ortiz, V., M.C. Llasat, E.Ferrari. (submitted) Monthly rainfall behaviour in Central and Western Mediterranean Basin, from 1850 to 2004. International Journal of Climatology.

13. AGRO:Agrometeorology and forest fires Bota-Moliner, L., V. Altava-Ortiz, M.C. Llasat, F.X. Castro, D. Montserrat, 2006. Probabilistic Forecast Method For Wildfires In Catalonia (1990-2005). V International Conference on Forest Fire Research D. X. Viegas (Ed.) Cunillera, J., Llasat, M.C., 1997. Application of remote sensing and multivariate analysis to the agroclimatic. Characterization of a Mediterranean region. Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 57, 197-208. (Ed. Springer-Verlag). ISSN: 0177-798X. Wien, Austria.

14. You can find more information in: http://gama.am.ub.es http://gama.am.ub.es/edrina http://gama.am.ub.es/flash Thanks for your interest in our team!