Natural Hazards Analysis Team

GAMADepartment of Astronomy and MeteorologyFaculty of PhysicsUniversity of BarcelonaC/ Martí i Franquès 1 08028-BarcelonaSpainTel – 34 934021124http://gama.am.ub.es

The GAMA team (Grupo de Análisis de situaciones Meteorológicas Adversas, Natural Hazards Analysis), is composed by one engineer, one graduate in biology and environmental education, 3 doctors in Physics and 5 PhD students. Their main research topics are floods, hail storms, forest fires, droughts and climate variability. Aspects related with environmental education in relationship with natural hazards and sensibilization of the populations, as well as the overview of all the alert chains are also developed.

It is leaded by Dr. Maria-Carmen Llasat. She has participated in different multi-disciplinary groups related with Natural Hazards, and she has been chairperson of the Natural Hazards Section of European Geophysical Society; international coordinator of the topic “Heavy rainfalls” into the Alpine and Mediterranean Hydrology FRIEND project of UNESCO, and member of the steering committee of the World Climate Program-Water of WMO/UNESCO. She has been the chief editor of the journal Natural Hazards and Earth System Science, of European Geosciences Union. Nowadays, she is the present coordinator of the Working Group of Social Impacts Research of MEDEX. Her experience in the field of floods have started on 1983 and, since then, she has collaborated with Universities and Administrations from different parts of Europe and North-America. She has published more than 100 papers in refereed journals and books.

Who are we?

Our research lines

1.- Rate of rainfall, extreme rainfall events, floods and spates, applications of meteorological radar, classification of rainfall events (PRE)

2.- Climate change, analysis of meteorological series, trends and anomalies, paleoclimatology, impact of climatic fluctuations on water supply and flood events (VCC)

3.- Natural Hazards assessment, societal impact (NH)

4.- Severe weather in the Mediterranean: flash-floods, hail (SW)

5.- Agrometeorology, hydric balance, droughts, forest fires, meteorological networks, applications of remote sensing (FOR-AGRO)

VCCPRE FOR-AGRO

GAMA

NH SW

PRE: Rainfall classification

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Characterization of rainfall rate and convective precipitation

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Regionalization in basis to rainfall features

Llasat, M.C., M. Ceperuelo, T. Rigo, 2007. Rainfall regionalization on the basis of the precipitation convective features using a raingauge network and weather radar observations. Atmospheric Research, 83, 415-426.

Llasat, M.C., 2001: An objective classification of rainfall events on the basis of their convective features: application to rainfall intensity in the Northeast of Spain. International Journal of Climatology, 21, 1385-1400.

PRE: Meteorological radar

Analysis of 2-D and 3-D structures, convective systems, nowcasting, rainfall field

Ceperuelo, M., M.C. Llasat, T. Rigo, 2006. Rainfall events and Hailstorms Analysis Program (RHAP). Advances in Geosciences, 215-223.

Software for radar applications, including radiosounding data and mesoscale models

Rigo, T. y Llasat, M.C., 2007. Analysis of Mesoscale Convective Systems in Catalonia (NE of Spain) using radar for the period 1996-2000. Atmospheric Research, 458-472

MM5 Model: application to rainfall events diagnosis and forecasting

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PRE: Rainfall forecasting

Analogous method for quantitative rainfall forecasting

Gibergans-Báguena, J. and M.C. Llasat, in press. Improvement of the analogous method by using local thermodynamic data. Application to autumn precipitation in Catalonia. Atmospheric Research.

Altava-Ortiz, A. Barrera, M.C. Llasat, M.A. Prat, J. Gibergans-Báguena and M. Barnolas, 2006. Application of the mm5 and the analogous method to heavy rainfall events. the case of 16-18th October 2003 in Catalonia (NE Spain). Advances in Geosciences, 7, 313-319.

Cold pools, COL’s and heavy rainfalls

PRE: Meteorological factors associated to floods in Mediterranean Region

Llasat, M.C., F. Martín and A. Barrera, 2007. From the concept of ‘‘Kaltlufttropfen’’ (cold air pool) to the cut-off low. The case of September 1971 in Spain as an example of their role in heavy rainfalls. Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics. 96, 43-60.

Diagnosis of the events using synoptic, mesoscale and satellite data

Llasat, M.C., C. Ramis and L.Lanza, 1999: Storm tracking and monitoring using objective synoptic diagnosis and cluster identification from infrared Meteosat imagery: a case study. Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics, 71, 139-155.

SW: Flash floods and hail in Spain

Llasat, M.C., T. Rigo and M. Barriendos, 2003: the ‘Montserrat-2000’ flash-flood event: a comparison with the floods that have occurred in the Northeastern Iberian Peninsula since the 14th century. International Journal of Climatology, 23, 453-469.

Analysis and forecasting of flash flood events

Hail detection and forecasting

Ceperuelo, M., M.C. Llasat, L. López, E. García, J.L. Sánchez, 2006. Study of 11 September 2004 hailstorm event using radar identification of 2D systems and 3D cells. Advances in Geosciences, 7, 205-213.

SEVERUS, FLASH, projects

NH: Natural hazards assessment

Barnolas, M. and M.C. Llasat, 2007. A flood geodatabase and its climatological applications: the case of Catalonia for the last century. Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 7, 271–281.

Application of GIS to floods mapping Analysis of the social impact

Llasat-Botija , M.C. Llasat and L. López, in press. Natural Hazards and the press in the western Mediterranean region. Advances in Geosciences.

MEDEX, FLASH, projects

RIESGOS NATURALES EN LA REGIÓN

MEDITERRÁNEA

Llasat, M.C. y Llasat Botija, M.

Barcelona, Marzo 2004

DAM/250999-11/0304

Contribución al Proyecto INTERREG IIIB RINAMEDProjecte Fundació Bosch i Gimpera (UB) nº 40333

NH: Education and sensibilization in front of natural hazards

Development of tools for sensibilization

Participation in the RINAMED project

EDRINA, FLASH projects

VCC: Climatic change and climatic variability

Barrera, A., M. C. Llasat and M. Barriendos, 2006. Estimation of the extreme flash flood evolution in Barcelona County from 1351 to 2005. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (2006) 6: 505 – 518.

Floods and droughts evolution since the 14th centuryReconstruction of synoptic

maps since the 19th century

Llasat, M.C., M. Barriendos, A. Barrera, T. Rigo, 2005. Floods in Catalonia (NE Spain) since the 14th century. Climatological and meteorological aspects from historical documentary sources and old instrumental records. Journal of Hydrology 313, 32–47

VCC: Climatic change and climatic variability

Barcelona

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Altava-Ortiz, V., M.C. Llasat, E.Ferrari. (submitted) Monthly rainfall behaviour in Central and Western Mediterranean Basin, from 1850 to 2004. International Journal of Climatology.

Rainfall evolution in the Westeren and Central Mediterranean Basin

Barrera, A. M.C. Llasat, J. Álvarez, I. Bladé and T. Estrela, submitted. Regional precipitation in Spain and NAO influence during the period 1897–1998. International Journal of Climatology

Relationship between precipitation and circulation indices (NAOI)

AGRO: Agrometeorology and forest fires

Bota-Moliner, L., V. Altava-Ortiz, M.C. Llasat, F.X. Castro, D. Montserrat, 2006. Probabilistic Forecast Method For Wildfires In Catalonia (1990-2005). V International Conference on Forest Fire Research D. X. Viegas (Ed.)

Cunillera, J., Llasat, M.C., 1997. Application of remote sensing and multivariate analysis to the agroclimatic. Characterization of a Mediterranean region. Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 57, 197-208. (Ed. Springer-Verlag). ISSN: 0177-798X. Wien, Austria.

You can find more information in:

http://gama.am.ub.es

http://gama.am.ub.es/edrina

http://gama.am.ub.es/flash

Thanks for your interest in our team!