Precipitationshed data for the moisture recycling analysis within the article "On the social dynamics of moisture recycling"
Date
2018
Authors
Keys, Pat
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Abstract
The biophysical phenomenon of terrestrial moisture recycling connects distant regions via the atmospheric branch of the water cycle. This process, whereby the land surface mediates evaporation to the atmosphere and the precipitation that falls downwind, is increasingly well-understood. However, recent studies highlight a need to consider an important and often missing dimension – the social. Here, we explore the social dynamics of three case study countries with strong terrestrial moisture recycling: Mongolia, Niger, and Bolivia. We first use the WAM-2layers moisture tracking scheme and ERA-Interim climate reanalysis, to calculate the evaporation sources for each country's precipitation, a.k.a. the precipitationshed. Second, we examine the social aspects of source and sink regions, using economic, food security, and land-use data. Third, we perform a literature review of relevant economic links, land-use policies, and land-use change for each country and its evaporation sources. The moisture-recycling analysis reveals that Mongolia, Niger, and Bolivia recycle 13, 9, and 18 % of their own moisture, respectively. Our analysis of social aspects suggests considerable heterogeneity in the social characteristics within each country relative to the societies in its corresponding evaporation sources. We synthesize our case studies and develop a set of three system archetypes that capture the core features of the moisture-recycling social–ecological systems (MRSESs): isolated, regional, and tele-coupled systems. Our key results are as follows: (a) geophysical tele-connections of atmospheric moisture are complemented by social tele-couplings forming feedback loops, and consequently, complex adaptive systems; (b) the heterogeneity of the social dynamics among our case studies renders broad generalization difficult and highlights the need for nuanced individual analysis; and, (c) there does not appear to be a single desirable or undesirable MRSES, with each archetype associated with benefits and disadvantages. This exploration of the social dimensions of moisture recycling is part of an extension of the emerging discipline of socio-hydrology and a suggestion for further exploration of new disciplines such as socio-meteorology or socio-climatology, within which the Earth system is considered as a coevolutionary social–ecological system.
Description
These data are the output of a global moisture tracking model. There are output files for 3 countries from the original analysis. Each file contains a globally gridded dataset of evaporation that eventually falls as precipitation in each of the megacity regions, i.e. precipitationshed data. The data is in a Matlab matrix, with dimensions of [years, months, latitude, longitude]. For additional details on how the data were produces, please query the original publication.
School of Global Environmental Sustainability
School of Global Environmental Sustainability
Rights Access
Subject
precipitationshed
moisture recycling
water security
water resources
evaporation
precipitation
socio-hydrology
Citation
Associated Publications
On the social dynamics of moisture recycling, published in Earth System Dynamics (9) 1–18, 2018. https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-9-1-2018