In REKLIM eight research centres have joined together in order to find answers to the following questions:

Funding period 2009-2013:

Topic 1: Coupled modelling of regional earth systems
How does the climate evolution depend on the interaction between atmosphere, ocean, ice and land surfaces? Which influence do natural and anthropogenic processes have?

Topic 2: Sea-level changes and coastal protection
How large are the losses of the continental ice masses (in particular of Greenland) and how does the sea level react on melt water run-off and ocean warming?

Topic 3: Regional climate changes in the Arctic: Forcing and long-term effects at the land-ocean interface
Which specific changes of land, ocean, and atmosphere in the shelf sea and permafrost regions of the Arctic are due to climate change and which interactions exist?

Topic 4: The land surface in the climate system
What are the regional impacts of climate change on the ecosystem, water resources, agriculture, forestry and how do these in turn influence the climate?

Topic 5: Chemistry-climate interactions on global to regional scales
How is the regional climate affected by changes to the atmospheric composition?

Topic 6: Extrem weather events - storms, heavy precipitation, floods and droughts
How will the severity and frequency of extreme weather events change in a future climate?

Topic 7: Socio-economics and management for regional climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies
Integrated climate policies comprise the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions and adaptation to climate change. Is there an optimal  route to be taken?

Funding period 2011-2015:

Topic 8: Rapid climate change derived from proxy data
Which mechanisms, processes and regional climate patterns increase rapid climate changes within interglacials and at glacial-interglacial transitions? How different are these patterns compared to the last interglacial, the Eem, when average temperature was about 2°C higher than it is now?

Topic 9: Climate change and air quality
How is the air quality affected by climate change? What are the potential impacts of climate change and air quality changes on human health? How can these various interconnections and reactions be integrated in numerical climate and air quality models? What kind of measured data is required in order to make quantitative characterisations of these effects possible?

Topic 10: Risk analysis and risk management
What are the climate change-related risks and how can these risks be assessed from an economic point of view? While addressing these risks, how can policymakers and other decision makers be supported by science?

Overview Reklim Topics, Workpackages, Contact Persons (PDF)