By Kate Ravilious
Formation of the European Union altered climate across the region, according to a recent study. And without the advent of the EU and its accompanying changes in land-use, the 2003 heatwave may have been even more severe.
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Samuel Zipper from the University of Victoria in Canada and colleagues investigated the impact of this land-use change by simulating water and energy cycles across the region during the period of land-use change – 1990 to 2010. Around 8.5% of land in the region changed use during this time.
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Overall, the simulations suggest that the land-use change across Europe decreased peak air temperatures over much of the region, and may have helped lessen the impact of heatwaves, including the devastating heatwave in August 2003 thought to have caused more than 40,000 deaths and 13.1 billion euros in damages.
“Our results suggest that if this land use change had not occurred, the 2003 heatwave may have been more severe,” says Zipper, whose findings are published in Environmental Research Letters (ERL).
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