La substitució del clima mediterrani per climes àrids segons la classificació de Köppen

Abstract

Human beings, since the industrial revolution, are causing the climate of the Earth to vary, what is called climate change. This phenomenon, due mainly to the increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases, is making temperatures and precipitation regimes in many places on earth no longer the same as at the beginning of the last century, among other equally relevant changes, which affect a large number of populations and ecosystems. This study focuses specifically on the change that some territories with Mediterranean climate (Iberian Peninsula, Western Australia, California and West South Africa are experiencing. To determine whether this climate is being replaced by another climate, climographs have been calculated from the 1961-1990 and 1991-2020 periods, which combine temperature and precipitation data, and it has been proven that it is a Mediterranean climate, according to the K'ppen classification, or whether it already meets the characteristics of an arid climate. Then, only for some locations, the corresponding climograph of 2021-2050 and 2051-2080 has been calculated based on climate projections, extracted from the CORDEX project. The climographs have been compared and the results have shown us that for the vast majority of cities studied, the Mediterranean climate follows a trend towards desertification. The area of Australia is the most advanced in this process of substitution towards the arid climate, since some city are already in arid climate