Almost entire area of Baltics belongs to the same climate type, Dfb (according to the Köppen climate classification), which is characterized by humid continental climates with warm (sometimes hot) summers and cold winters. In the last decades whether conditions on the western part of Lithuania and Latvia more characterized by temperate maritime climates - there has been a transition (and...
Climate change research has been relevant on a global scale for several decades. In climatology, they are shown by various climate-related meteorological phenomena, and in phenology, they are shown by changes in living nature, that is, the reaction of plants and animals to changed conditions. In the last 30 years, warm winters have been more frequent in Lithuania. The increase in the average...
The Curonian Lagoon is a shallow freshwater lagoon located southeast of the Baltic Sea. It is also the largest lagoon of the Baltic Sea, with an area of 1,584 km2 (of which 381.6 km2 belong to Lithuania). Due to its unique biodiversity, it is protected internationally and included in the Ramsar List, the Bonn Convention and the World Heritage List. However, like other bodies of water, this...
Ecological flow determines the water quantity needed to sustain river functions and healthy fluvial ecosystems. This measure is important when managing rivers and aiming to meet WFD requirements of good ecological status. In Lithuania, only the definition of environmental flow is defined and this value is quantified as either an 80% or 95% probability of low flow (Q30) during the warm period....
Surging global increase of water demand as well as decrease in water quality put forward planning of the forthcoming water resource availability in much longer term with climate change included in this algorithm. The climate is already changing, and changes are predicted to be more accelerating in the future (IPCC, 2022). In the latest UN report the projected changes in annual mean...
Groundwater level time series are crucial for various groundwater-related studies and can be used to link patterns in groundwater levels to environmental factors. However, historical datasets often contain gaps and errors, leading to false results or large uncertainty if not properly treated. In this study, we present a comprehensive work on error treatment and gap imputation in the long-term...
The lack of adequate and reliable gauge observations has long been a major obstacle for hydrological modeling. This study focuses on a comprehensive evaluation of hydrological applicability of satellite and reanalysis-based precipitation products (IMERG, ERA5, PERSIANN-CDR, SM2RASC, and CMORPH-CRT) in Porijõgi catchment, Estonia. The evaluations were carried out in two parts: 1) evaluating the...
Analyzing the dynamics of hydraulic heads is of great importance for both environmental protection purposes as well as for characterizing the consequences of anthropogenic activities (Glazer and Likens 2012). Long-term time series of hydraulic heads are commonly used for such purposes. These historic monitoring data usually however contains various errors and missing entries (e.g., Retiķe et...
Climate change is becoming more and more visible, and the consequences are getting worse. Therefore, it is critical to quickly identify the threat and respond to it. Climate change is causing hydrological droughts, which have become very noticeable in recent years. In fact, in 2022, the runoff of many rivers in Europe reached minimum values. Most commonly used indices to identify hydrological...
Climatic data on municipality level is essential for a range of applications, from agriculture and forestry to urban planning and disaster management. In Latvia, more than 25 LEGMC (Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Centre) observation stations provide climatic data, but these are widely spaced and unevenly distributed. Interpolating climatic data is therefore necessary to provide a...
Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies has been responsible for implementation of the Agricultural Runoff Monitoring Programme in Latvia since 1995 until present. Water quality and quantity monitoring activities are carried out continuously in the catchment areas with high share of agricultural land at multiple spatial scales including groundwater (20 wells), experimental plots (1...
Maintenance and renovation of the drainage network is carried out to ensure the functionality of the drainage system – to preserve high-quality forest stands, as well as provide safe access to forest resources. Nevertheless, the water quality of related waterbodies may be affected because of erosion during drainage network maintenance (DNM) operations. Therefore, water protection structures...
Soil water regime along with nutrient supply is controlling the forest type and its productivity. Generally, increased water supply leads to prolonged periods of soil water logging and poor soil aeration that in turn inhibit successful development of most temperate tree species.
In this study we configurated a Hydrus-1D soil water model for each of three specific wet forest plots in...
Monitoring activities are essential to access long-term patterns in the quantity and quality of the agricultural runoff. The monitoring data on runoff in the Berze, Mellupite, and Vienziemite monitoring sites, were obtained within the Agricultural Runoff Monitoring Programme, which is determined by The Environmental Protection Strategy and carried out by the Department of Environmental...
