GIS and geostatistics: Applications to climatology and meteorology

The use of GIS and geostatistics in climatology/meteorology, at the Portuguese Sea and Atmosphere Institute – IPMA, is the main focus of the presentation. Several examples of applications have been selected to demonstrate the contribution of geospatial analysis and modelling to these sciences. A special emphasis is made on the procedures and capabilities for integrating data from various sources, on quality control, on presentation and cartography of climate data.

The main applications are related with spatial interpolation (geostatistical or other methods) of temperature, precipitation, humidity, climate indices. Subjects like validation or uncertainty analysis will also be discussed.

Spatial analysis and modelling of fire risk, climate monitoring, climate change scenarios, drought, geospatial data management, metadata and data interoperability are other interesting areas to be addressed. Further developments are foreseen on multi-hazard modelling and on climate-driven health applications.