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HyMeX (HYdrological cycle in the Mediterranean EXperiment) aims at a better understanding and quantification of the hydrological cycle and related processes in the Mediterranean, with emphasis on high-impact weather events, inter-annual to decadal variability of the Mediterranean coupled system, and associated trends in the context of global change.
The hydrological cycle in the Mediterranean is a key environmental and socio-economic question for a wide region encompassing southern Europe, northern Africa and the Middle East. The lack of readiness and mitigation strategies could result in critical situations, in particular in case of extreme events and inadequate evaluation of climate change impacts. To face environmental challenges, progress has to be made in the understanding of the Mediterranean climate.
The Mediterranean region features a nearly closed sea surrounded by urbanized littorals and mountains from which numerous rivers originate. This results in a lot of interactions and feedback between oceanic, atmospheric, and hydrological processes which are perturbed by anthropogenic activities and play a predominant role in the regional climate and ecosystems. The Mediterranean climate is also influenced by both sub-tropical and mid-latitude climate dynamics and is therefore very sensitive to global climate change. Extreme weather events (heavy precipitation and flash-flooding, strong winds and large swell, droughts, etc) regularly affect the Mediterranean region causing heavy damages and human loss. The ability to predict such dramatic events remains weak because of the contribution of very fine-scale processes and their non-linear interactions with the larger scale processes.
Launched by the French scientific community, the definition of HyMeX has started with the drafting of a White Book (WB), identifying the main scientific challenges for HyMeX regarding the Mediterranean water cycle, and making suggestions on how to address them. The final version of the White Book has been released in September 2007. HyMeX has since extended to the international community and is currently working at its International Science Plan (ISP) and International Implementation Plan (IIP).
The HyMeX programme aims to:
- improve our understanding of the water cycle, with emphasis on extreme events, by monitoring and modelling the Mediterranean atmosphere-land-ocean coupled system, its variability from the event to the seasonal and interannual scales, and its characteristics over one decade (2010-2020) in the context of global change,
- assess the social and economic vulnerability to extreme events and adaptation capacity.
The multidisciplinary research and the database developed within HyMeX should contribute to:
- improve observational and modelling systems, especially for coupled systems,
- better predict extreme events,
- simulate the long-term water-cycle more accurately,
- provide guidelines for adaptation measures, especially in the context of global change.
More about HyMex
In France, the HyMeX program is part of a cluster of research programs called MISTRALS (Mediterranean integrated studies at regional and local scales). MISTRALS coordinates multidisciplinary research programs in Mediterranean related to the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and lithosphere, with objectives to improve the prediction of the evolution of life conditions in this hot-spot for environmental and climate changes. MISTRALS is coordinated and funded by the National Institute for Earth Science and Astronomy (INSU) of CNRS on behalf of the Committee of research on environment organisations (INSU, Andra, BRGM, CEA, Cemagref, Cirad, CNES, CNRS, IFP, Ifremer, Ineris, INRA, IRD, IRSN, LCPC et Meteo-France).
HyMeX is endorsed by the WWRP-THORPEX program of WMO. Discussions are on-going about HyMeX becoming a Regional Hydrological Program (RHP) as part of the Coordinated Energy and Water Cycle Observations Project (CEOP) of the WCRP-GEWEX programof WMO.