The DHEFEUS project (ulisboa.pt) was recently accepted by the Portuguese national foundation for the next three years.
NordSTAR, a centre of research excellence, part of the OsloMet AI Lab under the Faculty of Technology, Art and Design at OsloMet, is a partner in the project.
DHEFEUS is coordinated by Instituto Dom Luiz at the University of Lisbon and has as partners the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere, I.P. (IPMA, Portugal) and the Environmental Physics Laboratory (EPhysLab) from the University of Vigo (Spain).
Wildfires, heatwaves, and droughts
The overarching goal of DHRFEUS is to enhance the knowledge of compound and cascading weather and climate events, such as droughts and heat waves.
Compound weather and climate events are linked to combinations of many weather and climate drivers or hazards that have major consequences. For example, droughts and heat waves, or coastal flooding combined with strong winds.
Cascading weather and climate events are extreme situations where the effects increase in progression over time and generate unexpected secondary events of strong impact.
By enhancing the knowledge of these events, they can also be compared with the occurrence of wildfires and air pollution in Europe.
‘We will particularly focus on wildfires, heatwaves, and droughts. These are phenomena that increasingly affect countries in the south of Europe, such as Portugal and Spain,’ says Professor Pedro G. Lind.
Lind is one of the founders of NordSTAR and will represent the centre in this research project on climate change.
Extreme weather has impact on air quality
The project will address the potential weather-air pollution interaction during wildfires and dust storms.
‘Concurrent droughts and extreme temperatures can increase the occurrence of wildfires and air pollution episodes.’
In addition to looking at weather and climate-driven events, DHEFEUS will also focus on wildfires, which is sensitive to weather, climate variations and weather extremes such as heatwaves and droughts. And lastly, the project will look at the pollutant emissions from wildfires.
Finding the best artificial intelligence approaches
DHEFEUS seeks to provide recommendations for evidence-based policies and facilitate the connection between research and practice in the field of extreme events and climate change.
NordSTAR will contribute to this goal, particularly through the identification of the best artificial intelligence approaches to analyse compound extreme events which will later be used to assist policymakers and researchers throughout the world.
‘Moreover, as studies on compound events are still a very recent line of research, we expect that a new field of research will open up on the national agenda,’ says Pedro G. Lind.
Finally, DHEFEUS aims to consolidate a vibrant and self-sustaining collaboration between IDL and OsloMet, contributing to boosting the partnership between Portugal and Norway.
