Indicators
To better understand the phenomenon of climate change and its impact on the Pyrenees, a set of indicators has to be defined.
Project results aim to establish a common set of climate indicators to make a global analysis of observed trends on both sides of the mountain range. Cooperation is therefore essential in the sense that existing knowledge is pooled together to gain a general overview of the range and thereby optimise information sources and instrument and method exchange.
The following stages have enabled the identification and stabilisation of climate change indicators to be evaluated in the Pyrenees:
1. Identification of existing indicators at the national and international level
o EEA, EU, UICN
o ONERC, SOeS, UK, FOEN, Basque Government, Catalan Government
o ARPE, ORBLR
2. Proposal of a set of 16 indicators linked to Observatory objectives. To compile a list of indicators ‘relevant’ to climate change in the Pyrenees, several rules have been defined:
• limited number, to provide easy access to information;
• allow for comparison between territories (existing, regular, and historic tracking data, of common or shared methodology);
• enough short or medium-term history to quantify climate change impact and its effects;
• relative (in terms of intensity and rhythm), especially for climate aspects, parameter variation is not identical for all territories;
• Selection: 2 main indicator types.
1. General indicators: that allow comparative study of climate change between the Pyrenees and other territories (of climatic origin => Tº, precipitation, snow…);
2. Indicators specific to the Pyrenees: direct and indirect impact.
In order to better assess and track climate change phenomenon and its impacts in the Pyrenees, members of the Pyrenees Cimate Change Observatory in cooperation with a group of scientific and socioeconomic collaborators have selected a first set of indicators (see following table), which has been validated by the Scientific Council.
3. Indicator data collection:
A series of actions (link to action page) established by the Observatory is set forth hereafter. These actions aim to establish the methodology and tools needed to collect data for some of these indicators.
Defined around major priorized themes, these indicators may increase in number as need be in order to best monitor, observe, and project trends in climate change for the Pyrenees Mountains.
