Climate and fire are the key environmental factors that shape the distribution and demography of plant populations in Australia. Because of limited palaeoecological records in this arid continent, however, it is unclear as to which factor impacted vegetation more strongly, and what were the roles of fire regime changes owing to human activity and megafaunal extinction (since ca 50 kya). To addr...

Urban morphology, including buildings’ typology and their configuration, affects sky view factor and insolation, which are two of the most influential parameters in urban microclimate. These become even more important in extreme environmental conditions. In this research, challenge was to generate various rule based urban morphologies in a parametric environment. Then, to evaluate them based on...

[1] Dozens of large, low‐gradient alluvial fans are present within impact crater basins on the cratered highlands of Mars. The timescales and climate conditions that were required to generate such fans are unknown, but testable through our understanding of terrestrial hill slope erosion in the presence of precipitation. Previous estimates of fan formation time vary from years to millions of yea...

Understanding the variations of streamflow of rivers is an important prerequisite for designing hydraulic structures as well as managing surface water resources in basins. An overview of the impact of climate change on the streamflow in the Hablehroud River, the main river of a semi-arid basin in north-central Iran, is provided. Using the LARS-WG statistical downscaling model, the outputs of Ha...

[1] Twenty-first century projections of global rainfall and sea surface temperature in the current generation of climate models indicate a delay in the seasonal cycle in response to increasing greenhouse gases, with important implications for the regional monsoons. In particular, the rainy season of the semi-arid African Sahel is projected to start later and become shorter. The robust agreement...

Surface temperatures increase at a greater rate over land than ocean in simulations and observations of global warming. It has previously been proposed that this land–ocean warming contrast is related to different changes in lapse rates over land and ocean because of limitedmoisture availability over land. A simple theory of the land–oceanwarming contrast is developed here inwhich lapse rates a...

In semiarid climates, a significant component of recharge to basin aquifers occurs along the mountain front. Traditionally called “mountain-front recharge” (MFR), this process has been treated by modelers of basins as a boundary condition. In general, mountain-front recharge estimates are based on the general precipitation characteristics of the mountain (as estimated, e.g., by the chloride mas...

This research discusses some of the issues encountered while developing a set of WGEN parameters for Chile and advice for others interested in developing WGEN parameters for arid climates. The WGEN program is a commonly used and a valuable research tool; however, it has specific limitations in arid climates that need careful consideration. These limitations are analysed in the context of genera...

The arid region is spread over 38.7 million hectares mainly in the states of Rajasthan. Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh besides cold arid region situated in Leh, Laddakh and Himachal Pradesh. The region is marked by extreme environmental constraints due to which the cultivation of traditional crops is not economical. In a situation such as this, arid horticulture has ample s...