HESS Opinions: "Climate, hydrology, energy, water: recognizing uncertainty and seeking sustainability"
Since 1990 extensive funds have been spent on research in climate change. Although Earth Sciences, including climatology and hydrology, have benefited significantly, progress has proved incommensurate with the effort and funds, perhaps because these disciplines were perceived as “tools” subserv...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
| Published: |
European Geosciences Union / Copernicus
2011
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/65645 |
| _version_ | 1826208769227358208 |
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| author | Koutsoyiannis, D. Makropoulos, C. Langousis, Andreas Baki, S. Efstratiadis, A. Christofides, A. Karavokiros, G. Mamassis, N. |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Koutsoyiannis, D. Makropoulos, C. Langousis, Andreas Baki, S. Efstratiadis, A. Christofides, A. Karavokiros, G. Mamassis, N. |
| author_sort | Koutsoyiannis, D. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Since 1990 extensive funds have been spent on
research in climate change. Although Earth Sciences, including
climatology and hydrology, have benefited significantly,
progress has proved incommensurate with the effort
and funds, perhaps because these disciplines were perceived
as “tools” subservient to the needs of the climate change enterprise
rather than autonomous sciences. At the same time,
research was misleadingly focused more on the “symptom”,
i.e. the emission of greenhouse gases, than on the “illness”,
i.e. the unsustainability of fossil fuel-based energy production.
Unless energy saving and use of renewable resources
become the norm, there is a real risk of severe socioeconomic
crisis in the not-too-distant future. A framework for drastic
paradigm change is needed, in which water plays a central
role, due to its unique link to all forms of renewable energy,
from production (hydro and wave power) to storage (for
time-varying wind and solar sources), to biofuel production
(irrigation). The extended role of water should be considered
in parallel to its other uses, domestic, agricultural and
industrial. Hydrology, the science of water on Earth, must
move towards this new paradigm by radically rethinking its
fundamentals, which are unjustifiably trapped in the 19thcentury
myths of deterministic theories and the zeal to eliminate
uncertainty. Guidance is offered by modern statistical
and quantum physics, which reveal the intrinsic character of
uncertainty/entropy in nature, thus advancing towards a new
understanding and modelling of physical processes, which is
central to the effective use of renewable energy and water
resources. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:11:34Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/65645 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:11:34Z |
| publishDate | 2011 |
| publisher | European Geosciences Union / Copernicus |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/656452022-09-28T19:07:50Z HESS Opinions: "Climate, hydrology, energy, water: recognizing uncertainty and seeking sustainability" Koutsoyiannis, D. Makropoulos, C. Langousis, Andreas Baki, S. Efstratiadis, A. Christofides, A. Karavokiros, G. Mamassis, N. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Langousis, Andreas Langousis, Andreas Since 1990 extensive funds have been spent on research in climate change. Although Earth Sciences, including climatology and hydrology, have benefited significantly, progress has proved incommensurate with the effort and funds, perhaps because these disciplines were perceived as “tools” subservient to the needs of the climate change enterprise rather than autonomous sciences. At the same time, research was misleadingly focused more on the “symptom”, i.e. the emission of greenhouse gases, than on the “illness”, i.e. the unsustainability of fossil fuel-based energy production. Unless energy saving and use of renewable resources become the norm, there is a real risk of severe socioeconomic crisis in the not-too-distant future. A framework for drastic paradigm change is needed, in which water plays a central role, due to its unique link to all forms of renewable energy, from production (hydro and wave power) to storage (for time-varying wind and solar sources), to biofuel production (irrigation). The extended role of water should be considered in parallel to its other uses, domestic, agricultural and industrial. Hydrology, the science of water on Earth, must move towards this new paradigm by radically rethinking its fundamentals, which are unjustifiably trapped in the 19thcentury myths of deterministic theories and the zeal to eliminate uncertainty. Guidance is offered by modern statistical and quantum physics, which reveal the intrinsic character of uncertainty/entropy in nature, thus advancing towards a new understanding and modelling of physical processes, which is central to the effective use of renewable energy and water resources. 2011-09-12T15:50:47Z 2011-09-12T15:50:47Z 2009-02 2009-02 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1607-7938 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/65645 Koutsoyiannis, D. et al. “HESS Opinions: ‘Climate, Hydrology, Energy, Water: Recognizing Uncertainty and Seeking Sustainability’.” Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 13.2 (2009) : 247-257. © Author(s) 2009. en_US www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/13/247/2009/ Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 application/pdf European Geosciences Union / Copernicus Copernicus |
| spellingShingle | Koutsoyiannis, D. Makropoulos, C. Langousis, Andreas Baki, S. Efstratiadis, A. Christofides, A. Karavokiros, G. Mamassis, N. HESS Opinions: "Climate, hydrology, energy, water: recognizing uncertainty and seeking sustainability" |
| title | HESS Opinions: "Climate, hydrology, energy, water: recognizing uncertainty and seeking sustainability" |
| title_full | HESS Opinions: "Climate, hydrology, energy, water: recognizing uncertainty and seeking sustainability" |
| title_fullStr | HESS Opinions: "Climate, hydrology, energy, water: recognizing uncertainty and seeking sustainability" |
| title_full_unstemmed | HESS Opinions: "Climate, hydrology, energy, water: recognizing uncertainty and seeking sustainability" |
| title_short | HESS Opinions: "Climate, hydrology, energy, water: recognizing uncertainty and seeking sustainability" |
| title_sort | hess opinions climate hydrology energy water recognizing uncertainty and seeking sustainability |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/65645 |
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