Scope and Project Objectives

The main goal of the “Comparative study of changing climate extremes between China and Europe/Greece based  on homogenized daily observations” (CLIMEX) project is to assess the impact of climate change induce climate  extremes in temperature and precipitation, both in Greece and in China, by using high quality homogenized data.  There are three components to the project, the first component being updating the climate data basis and enhancing  data availability and accessibility of long-term and high-quality daily temperature and precipitation climate series  for China and Greece. The second component is to define the range of climate variability experienced, to examine  recent changes of extreme climate and to quantify the impact of climate change on fundamental meteorological  parameters, namely air temperature and precipitation. finally, the third component is to deliver a scientific synthesis  and visualization of modern climate conditions in Greece using homogeneous and spatially representative climatic  data and high-quality metadata. The objectives of this proposal will be achieved through the following actions: a)  collecting representative raw daily air temperature and precipitation data and metadata in both countries and  subjecting raw climate data to detailed quality control, b) applying state-of-the-art homogenization methods to all  available data of surface temperature and precipitation, c) calculating and updating the national climatological  normals based on homogenized data series d) applying spatial interpolation techniques, appropriate for  meteorological data, on homogenized temperature and precipitation series in order to correlate the meteorological  variables with various geospatial (geographic and topographic) factors such as terrain height, coastal effects,  orientation etc. and creating continuous surfaces from data points, e) cartographic representation of daily  temperature and precipitation using geographical information system (GIS) techniques, f)calculating appropriate  climate extreme indices so as to describe the state and the changes in the climate system from the past until now,  g) The expected result will be the development of a publicly available (free) gridded climate database for Greece and  China. This will allow the trend analysis of temperature and precipitation and their extremes up to present years for  the first time in Greece, resulting in findings concerning the climatic change impact in both countries up to now.

Implementation Methodology

CLIMEX has been designed as a 24-month collaborative project whose activities have been divided into a variety of  inter-disciplinary Work Packages. Each WP has its own objectives led by a partner within the consortium who is  responsible for the smooth WP execution and coordination. In order to define a sensible work plan for the project,  it has been decided to adopt an iterative model based on the more flexible agile methodologies, adopting two  major piloting phases within the design and development phase that would allow to detect in an early stage gaps  or improvements and to adapt quickly the final developed prototype to address them. The methodology process  is as follows: a) collection of temperature and precipitation daily raw data (mean, max and min) and of the  corresponding metadata and application of detailed quality control tests; b) application of cutting edge  homogenization methods on the data that passed the quality control tests; c) calculation and update of the national  climatic values, based on the homogenized data; d) application of cutting edge geostatistical spatial interpolation  methods on the homogenized temperature and precipitation data series, in order to correlate them with  geographical and topographic methods, like altitude, distance from the coastline, orientation, etc., e) mapping of  daily temperature and precipitation data, f) calculation of climate extreme indexes in order to describe the state and  the change of climate in both countries for the period covered by the available data, g) IT infrastructure  implementation in terms of software development for analyzing and presenting results, training users and open the  system to a wide audience through web and mobile apps. CLIMEX work plan consists of 6 work packages that deal  with the entire set of activities needed to support a close to market innovation activity. WP1 analyses user needs,  state-of-the-art, working methods and defines detailed scenarios and functional specifications in compliance to  legal, ethical, data protection and privacy issues. WP2 deals with collection of Raw data from both Greece and China  and a time series database setup from all available weather stations, as well as the definition and design of a High  quality time series database (after quality control and homogenization) for all available weather stations.WP3 deals  with Geostatistical methods aiming to contribute to the more detailed knowledge of the various meteorological parameters, which are measured at a finite number of locations over an area. WP4 deals with trends that will be  analyzed by processing the produced high-quality temperature and precipitation time series, with appropriate  statistical methods. WP5 comprises the core of the IT technology design and development work and will be provide  the proposed system integrated platform. Finally, WP6 will cover the needs for the project evaluation and  performance assessment in high-profile pilot settings and a concise business plan. We will adopt a user-centred and iterative methodology in order to guarantee the success of a project that aims to  provide a system for use by a wide and multi-cultural variety of end users (Greek and Chinese). This will produce two  major releases [beta and final] for most of the project deliverables. CLIMEX will adopt an even more iterative  methodology so as to minimize the overall risk by enabling the early integration preparation, the regular availability  of the system and the adaptation to difficulties or new needs. The 6 work packages of CLIMEX progress through 5  key phases of the project:

 ^■ The initial definition of the initial end-user requirements, scenarios and functional specifications;

^■ The design and implementation of the beta release, a first functional prototype;

 ^■ The evaluation of the beta release on pilots created by end-users with the assistance of technical teams;

^■ The revision of the requirements, specifications and design according to the evaluation results and the  implementation of the final release, an operational system made public;

 ^■ The evaluation of the final release on pilots created by end-users without assistance. Research and technology monitoring, legal and ethical aspects, quality assurance, communication activities and  exploitation preparation will be carried out as horizontal tasks during the entire project.