Assessing trends in insured losses from floods in Spain 1971-2008

Economic impacts from floods have been increasing over recent decades, a fact often attributed to a changing climate. On the other hand, there is now a significant body of scientific scholarship all pointing towards increasing concentrations and values of assets as the principle cause of the increasing cost of natural disasters. This holds true for a variety of perils and across different jurisdictions. With this in mind, this paper examines the time history of insured losses from floods in Spain between 1971 and 2008. It as- sesses whether any discernible residual signal remains after adjusting the data for the increase in the number and value of insured assets over this period of time. Data on insured losses from floods were sourced from Consorcio de Com- pensacíon de Seguros (CCS). Although a public institution, CCS compensates homeowners for the damage produced by floods, and thus plays a role similar to that of a private insurance company. Insured losses were adjusted using two proxy measures: first, changes in the total amount of annual surcharges (premiums) paid by customers to CCS, and secondly, changes in the total value of dwellings per year. The adjusted data reveals no significant trend over the period 1971-2008 and serves again to confirm that at this juncture, societal in- fluences remain the prime factors driving insured and economic losses from natural disasters.

Daily precipitation concentration across Europe 1971-2010

Daily Precipitation Concentration Index (CI) was used in this paper to investigate the statistical structure of daily precipitation across Europe based on 530 daily rainfall series for the period 1971-2010. Annual CI shows a North- West to South-East gradient (excluding Turkey and Greece). The same gradient is also observed in winter, spring and autumn, while in summer the gradient is North-South. Highest annual and seasonal daily concentrations of rainfall were detected in the western Mediterranean basin, mainly along Spanish and French coastlands. Latitude and distance from the sea seems to play a major role on spatial CI distribution; at subregional scale also relief plays an important role. The Mann-Kendall test did not identify uniform significant pattern in temporal trend across Europe for 1971-2010 period. The only broad areas with increasing annual and seasonal CI values are located in northern and south-western France and northern coastlands of the Iberian Peninsula. This findings suggest that daily precipitation distribution has not significantly changed during the 1971-2010 over Europe.

Mudanças climáticas e a produçãode uva no vale do Rio do Peixe-SC

Foram avaliadas as tendências nas séries climáticas e nos índices agroclimáticos para a cultura da videira no Vale do Rio do Peixe-SC. Foram utilizados os dados diários da Estação Meteorológica de Videira do período de 1971 a 2010. As tendências nas séries foram avaliadas pelo teste de Mann-Kendall, e para estimar a magnitude da tendência utilizou-se a declividade mediana, determinada pelo teste de Theil - Sen. Os resultados mostraram tendência de aumento nas séries de temperatura mínima do ar, em escala anual, bem como nas estações do ano. Para a temperatura máxima do ar, houve tendência significativa de aumento na série de temperatura máxima anual e na temperatura máxima no verão e inverno. Também foi observado aumento da frequência de dias quentes e noites quentes. Com relação aos índices agrometeorológicos, foi observada tendência significativa de diminuição do número de geadas, antecipação das datas de brotação, florescimento e colheita, aumento significativo na soma térmica, no índice de Huglin e no índice de frio. Com relação à precipitação, houve tendência significativa de aumento da precipitação total anual e da precipitação no período de crescimento da cultura da videira e do número de dias com chuva igual ou superior a 20 mm.