3rd HyMeX workshop 1-4 June 2009 Heraklion (Gournes), Crete-Greece
A survay of the meteorological and hydrological characteristics of the Adriatic sea catchment areaKsenija Cesarec (Meteorological and Hydrological service of Croatia); Dusan Trninic, Sc.D. Ksenija Cesarec, M.S.
The Hydrological Department of the Croatian Meteorological and Hydrological Service will be joining the HyMeX project in the following chapters: WG1: Water Budget of the Mediterranean Sea - Topic 1.1c: River Run-off and WG2: Hydrological Continental cycle -Topic 2.1, Processes studies and small catchment scale modelling of the water and energy balance. This paper presents the basic meteorological and hydrological characteristics of the Adriatic Sea catchment area, focusing on the magnitude of their main distinctive parameters.
The different catchments are mostly small to medium (medium referring to the 10530 km2 Neretva River basin). Their upstream parts run through mountainous terrain while downstream their flow is calmer. The watercourses flow through the Adriatic karstic massif and they often sink into karstic hollows, disappear underground and partly run dry. The uneven water regime of drying-out watercourses is expressed in higher variation and asymmetry coefficients. Flood waves form suddenly and are of short duration, which points at a regime with flash-flood characteristics. The current meteorological and hydrological station network should be further developed and spatially spread more evenly to provide a more accurate water balance calculation.
Key words: precipitation, air temperature, water level, discharge, water balance, runoff coefficient.
