The COMPASS project recently prepared a “Report on dataset on best-available methods and climate datasets“.
There are currently many well-established climate attribution methodologies for single driver extremes, however, there is very little literature on more complex extremes such as compound, sequences and cascading hazard events. The main goal of COMPASS is to develop a harmonized methodological framework for climate and impact attribution of such complex extremes. This report D2.1, presents a critical overview of well-established attribution methodologies and datasets used, including their potential to be adapted to more complex extremes. This lays the foundation and contributes to the work package 2 Objective to ‘Develop, test and compare attribution methods for compound extreme weather-related events’. This report also complements deliverable D1.1 from Work Package 1, that reports on workflows for the characterization of compound extremes and an inventory of currently available datasets.
In the report we discuss the value of different attribution approaches and the complementary information each one provides. The established methodologies for each approach are examined in detail, including both the suitability and challenges involved in adapting them for more complex extremes. The final part lists the attribution methods that are being considered for each of our complex extremes Use Cases.
Complex extremes require analysis of multiple variables and hence are reliant on a methodology that can be adapted to take more than one variable into account and are able to integrate sufficiently large datasets to robustly capture enough of the multi-variate extremes. We identify several methods that have potential to meet both requirements and give guidance on the methodologies that we think are likely to be easiest to adapt for complex extremes. However, given the wide range of complex extremes being covered, it is likely that the best available method will have to be determined on a case-by-case basis.
More information can be found in the following COMPASS project Deliverable:
Cotterill et al., 2024: Report on dataset on best-available methods and climate datasets. Horizon Europe project COMPASS. Deliverable D2.1.
