World Wetlands Day on 2 February: How Copernicus protects fragile ecosystems

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The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) provide a range of services to monitor multiple wetland indicators, forecast floods and track gas emissions

Wetlands are home to a wide varie­ty of fau­na and flo­ra and are in dire need of pro­tec­tion as the­se pre­cious eco­sy­stems are decli­ning due to the effec­ts of cli­ma­te chan­ge. For this rea­son, almo­st 90 per cent of UN mem­ber sta­tes signed the Con­ven­tion on Wetlands on 2 Februa­ry 1971 – and sin­ce 1997 the date is com­me­mo­ra­ted as World Wetlands Day. Again­st this bac­k­drop, the Coper­ni­cus Cli­ma­te Chan­ge Ser­vi­ce and the Coper­ni­cus Atmo­sphe­re Moni­to­ring Ser­vi­ce, imple­men­ted by ECMWF on behalf of the EU, pro­vi­de a ran­ge of dif­fe­rent infor­ma­tion and fore­ca­sting tools that can help pre­ser­ve wetlands and cha­rac­te­ri­se their role in the cli­ma­te system.

Ser­vi­ces for water mana­gers

C3S deve­lops ser­vi­ces tai­lo­red for spe­ci­fic indu­stry sec­tors to help them adapt to cli­ma­te chan­ge. The ope­ra­tio­nal ser­vi­ce for the water sec­tor inclu­des an inte­rac­ti­ve web appli­ca­tion and prac­ti­cal sho­w­ca­ses cove­ring seve­ral cli­ma­te impact indi­ca­tors such as river flow, tem­pe­ra­tu­re, pre­ci­pi­ta­tion, water qua­li­ty, and local air con­di­tions. Using this ser­vi­ce, water mana­gers and poli­cy makers can adapt their stra­te­gies to miti­ga­te the effec­ts of cli­ma­te chan­ge, par­ti­cu­lar­ly in the areas of water allo­ca­tion, flood mana­ge­ment and indu­strial water use.

“The ope­ra­tio­nal ser­vi­ce for the water sec­tor can be used to model chan­ges in wetlands cau­sed by wea­ther and cli­ma­te, and to pre­dict futu­re water avai­la­bi­li­ty at such sites,” says Car­lo Buon­tem­po, Sec­to­ral Infor­ma­tion System Mana­ger at the Coper­ni­cus Cli­ma­te Chan­ge Ser­vi­ce.

C3S Cli­ma­te Data Sto­re

All rele­vant cli­ma­te infor­ma­tion for wetlands can be found in the Cli­ma­te Data Sto­re (CDS), the C3S-deve­lo­ped one-stop shop for cli­ma­te data. The CDS will soon inclu­de cur­rent and histo­ri­cal infor­ma­tion about water levels and tem­pe­ra­tu­res in lakes, ena­bling users to detect unu­sual chan­ges and make pre­dic­tions for the futu­re.

CAMS data on gree­n­hou­se gases emis­sions from wetlands

As wetlands are also one of the lar­ge­st sto­res for car­bon on our pla­net, moni­to­ring the levels of gree­n­hou­se gases ema­na­ting from wetlands forms is impor­tant to bet­ter under­stand their role in the cli­ma­te system. The Coper­ni­cus Atmo­sphe­re Moni­to­ring Ser­vi­ce (CAMS) con­tri­bu­tes to wetland pro­tec­tion and mana­ge­ment with its data sets on car­bon, car­bon dio­xi­de and metha­ne emis­sions from wetlands and elsewhe­re. They help users under­stand the balan­ce of gases around wetlands as well as the bio­lo­gi­cal acti­vi­ties of flo­ra and fau­na in the­se regions. Col­la­ting and quan­ti­fy­ing this infor­ma­tion helps users under­stand the inte­rac­tion bet­ween wetlands and the cli­ma­te.

With this ran­ge of ser­vi­ces, Coper­ni­cus and ECMWF pro­vi­de exten­si­ve oppor­tu­ni­ties for bet­ter wetland mana­ge­ment by deli­ve­ring time­ly insight and accu­ra­te data. The­se also faci­li­ta­te com­plian­ce with the recom­men­da­tions of the Con­ven­tion on Wetlands.

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