Water and Climate - VUB

Excited to be back on the #Morteratsch #glacier complex for our annual fieldwork. Together with colleagues from the Geography department, the coming week we will measure how the glacier is changing. Stay tuned for some updates!
@vubrussel.bsky.social #GLAMOS

‘Revolutionary’ AI tools rescue old weather data to improve climate models Specialist machine-learning models are helping researchers to transcribe centuries-old handwritten records.

"Revolutionary AI tools rescue old weather data to improve climate models": News article @nature.com describing efforts of @hydr-vub.bsky.social Researcher @derrickmuheki.bsky.social to rescue weather records from DR Congo using the MeteoSaver software he developed:

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

‘Revolutionary’ AI tools rescue old weather data to improve climate models Specialist machine-learning models are helping researchers to transcribe centuries-old handwritten records.

Our ongoing climate data rescue work in DR Congo has been featured in the news articles of Nature Portfolio (www.nature.com/articles/d41...). As part of our project, Derrick Muheki (derrickmuheki.bsky.social) developed MeteoSaver, an open-source ML software for transcribing historical weather data.

"Het risico op hittesterfte stijgt sterk. We moeten ons aanpassen aan escalerende hitterisico's", zegt Wim Thiery (wimthiery.bsky.social). Lusiter naar het volledige interview op Radio 1:
www.vrt.be/vrtmax/luist...

Seppe Lampe (seppelampe.bsky.social), onderzoeker in onze groep, bespreekt de recente grote bosbranden in Europa en de rol van klimaatverandering bij grote bosbranden. Luister hier op Spotify:
open.spotify.com/episode/3FiQ...

The EGU Climate Hazard and Risk Task Force provide evidence for the EU’s proposed ‘European climate resilience and risk management initiative’. <p>The European Union’s proposed 'European climate resilience and risk management initiative' aims to set out a comprehensive framework and plan for action to support EU countries, notably on prepared...

Just in: A response to the European Commission Call for Evidence, on the needs for the upcoming EU climate adaptation plan (ECAP) from the new EGU Climate Hazard and Risk Task Force (including one of our members: Marie Cavitte) here: www.egu.eu/news/1470/th...

Global emergence of unprecedented lifetime exposure to climate extremes Millions of today’s children face unprecedented lifetime exposure to heatwaves, floods, droughts, and storms if global warming reaches 3.5 °C. Deep emission cuts to meet the Paris 1.5 °C goal could pr...

🌍🔥 Billions of children’s futures are at stake.

Kids born today face unprecedented heatwaves, floods & droughts if warming hits 3.5 °C.

Meeting the 1.5 °C Paris goal could protect millions. Urgent #ClimateAction is needed now!

Read our latest Research Showcase:
www.vscentrum.be/post/global-...

School's out for summer: What does extreme heat do to children? | Context by TRF What happens to a child's body when they sit in class during a heatwave and what does this mean for their long-term health?

School's out for summer: What does extreme heat do to children?
www.context.news/climate-risk...

In the absence of global climate mitigation, we project a regime shift to a world dominated by compound hazards or impacts. In our new paper by Gabriele Messori, we find that compound hazard occurrences will become the norm in many regions under RCP6.0 agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

🔥 Global mapping shows a 500%+ rise in compound climate hazards by 2100, especially heatwaves. Belgian research at Vrije Universiteit Brussel highlights the shift from isolated to concurrent events: agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...
#ClimateAction

MeteoSaver v1.0: a machine-learning based software for the transcription of historical weather data Abstract. Archives of observed weather data present unique opportunities for scientists to obtain long time series of the historical climate for many regions of the world. Unfortunately, most of these...

Paper in discussion at GMD on an AI/ML approach to data rescue of meteorological records from the Democratic Republic of the Congo: egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/20... really impressive stuff from PhD student Derrick Muheki out of @wimthiery.bsky.social group.

Wordt het een droge en hete zomer? ‘De kans is zeker groter dan vorig jaar’ Na de uitzonderlijk droge lengte is de angst voor een hete zomer groter dan ooit.

Over de verhoogde kans op een hete zomer volgend op een droge lente: www.knack.be/nieuws/milie...

Born into the Climate Crisis 2. An unprecedented life: Protecting children’s rights in a changing climate | Save the Children’s Resource Centre The climate crisis is not a distant threat; it is a pressing reality that children are facing today. Despite having contributed the least to the climate crisis, the inherent intergenerational injustic...

Will you live an unprecedented life?

In our new paper in @nature.com and accompanying @savethechildren.org report, we detect who will face unprecedented lifetime exposure to climate extremes (🧵) 1/n
Report: resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/document/bor...
Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

"What will climate change mean for today’s children, and their children?" - A talk by climate scientist @wimthiery.bsky.social, one of the Architects of Hope selected by House of Sustainable Transitions.
🗓 July 2, 2025 – Online
Register: www.house-of-sustainable-transitions.be/details-en-r...

This study was led by Luke Grant as part of his PhD in the bclimate group @hydr-vub.bsky.social and benefited from a wonderful collaboration with co-authors @innevanderkelen.bsky.social, @erichfischer.bsky.social, @soniaseneviratne.bsky.social and Lukas Gudmundsson (@usyseth.bsky.social). 19/n

Guest post: How to apportion ‘net-zero carbon debt’ if global warming overshoots 1.5C - Carbon Brief Our findings show that some regions, such as western Europe and North America, will accrue net-zero carbon debt as soon as 2030.

NEW – Guest post: How to apportion ‘net-zero carbon debt’ if global warming overshoots 1.5C | @setupelz.bsky.social @robinlamboll.bsky.social @wimthiery.bsky.social @gidden.bsky.social @cjsmith.be @shonali-p.bsky.social

Read here:

What an interesting week we had at the 2nd EUTOPIA Groundwater Workshop and Conference in Dresden.

We built groundwater models of managed aquifer recharge systems and reflected on interdisciplinary ways of measuring the success of MAR.

In our new paper in @pnas.org led by @setupelz.bsky.social, we coin and analyze the concept of net-zero carbon depth. We also highlight how net-zero carbon debt accrual and lifetime extreme event exposure compound towards a disproportionate climate change burden on current young generations

What's the fairest way to deal with the (inevitable) overshoot of 1.5°C?

New paper led by @setupelz.bsky.social explores the concept of "net zero carbon debt"

Here's the VUB press release: press.vub.ac.be/who-is-respo...

Neglecting future sporadic volcanic eruptions underestimates climate uncertainty - Communications Earth & Environment While volcanic forcing uncertainty is typically ignored in climate projections, it can represent up to 49% of the total climate uncertainty and systematically exceed internal variability uncertainty, ...

Future climate scenarios don't include actual potential future volcanic eruptions.

In a paper led by May Chim, we fixed that. The summary is that including volcanoes increases the uncertainty in climate projections in the near term (think a 4th colour in Hawkins & Sutton)

doi.org/10.1038/s432...

Good groundwater modellers should know the rocks they are modelling.

This week, researchers from the Groundwater Group from @hydr-vub.bsky.social are in Etretat in France to learn about geology and hydrogeology of Chalk aquifers and to observe variations of Chalk properties on spectacular outcrops.

Happy first-ever World Glacier Day! 🧊🌍 At bglacier, we study how #glaciers shape water resources and contribute to sea level rise in a changing climate.

AS3.15 | meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU25/sessio...

CL3.2.3 | meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU25/sessio...

ITS1.6 | meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU25/sessio...