Multi-sectoral impact assessment of an extreme African dust episode in the Eastern Mediterranean in March 2018

Alexandra Monteiro; Sara Basart; Stelios Kazadzis; Antonis Gkikas; Sophie Vandenbussche; Aurelio Tobias; Carla Gama; Carlos Pérez García-Pando; Enric Tarradellas; George Notas; Nick Middleton; Jonilda Kushta; Vassilis Amiridis; Kostas Lagouvardos; Panagiotis Kosmopoulos; Vasiliki Kotroni; Maria Kanakidou; Nikos Mihalopoulos; Nikos Kalivitis; Pavla Dagsson-Waldhauserová; Hesham El-Askary; Klaus Sievers; T. Giannaros; Lucia Mona; Marcus Hirtl; Paul Skomorowski; Slobodan Nickovic; Athanasios Votsis; Timo H. Virtanen; Theodoros Christoudias; Biagio Di Mauro; Serena Trippetta; Stanislav Kutuzov; Outi Meinander

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156861

Multi-sectoral impact assessment of an extreme African dust episode in the Eastern Mediterranean in March 2018

Alexandra Monteiro
, Sara Basart
, Stelios Kazadzis
, Antonis Gkikas
, Sophie Vandenbussche
, Aurelio Tobias
, Carla Gama
, Carlos Pérez García-Pando
, Enric Tarradellas
, George Notas
, Nick Middleton
, Jonilda Kushta
, Vassilis Amiridis
, Kostas Lagouvardos
, Panagiotis Kosmopoulos
, Vasiliki Kotroni
, Maria Kanakidou
, Nikos Mihalopoulos
, Nikos Kalivitis
, Pavla Dagsson-Waldhauserová

Hesham El-Askary, Klaus Sievers, T. Giannaros, Lucia Mona, Marcus Hirtl, Paul Skomorowski, Slobodan Nickovic, Athanasios Votsis, Timo H. Virtanen, Theodoros Christoudias, Biagio Di Mauro, Serena Trippetta, Stanislav Kutuzov, Outi Meinander

Landbúnaðarháskóli Íslands - Agricultural University of Iceland

Agricultural University of Iceland, Other Icelandic Research Institutions

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

In late March 2018, a large part of the Eastern Mediterranean experienced an extraordinary episode of African dust, one of the most intense in recent years, here referred to as the “Minoan Red” event. The episode mainly affected the Greek island of Crete, where the highest aerosol concentrations over the past 15 yeas were recorded, although impacts were also felt well beyond this core area. Our study fills a gap in dust research by assessing the multi-sectoral impacts of sand and dust storms and their socioeconomic implications. Specifically, we provide a multi-sectoral impact assessment of Crete during the occurrence of this exceptional African dust event. During the day of the occurrence of the maximum dust concentration in Crete, i.e. March 22nd, 2018, we identified impacts on meteorological conditions, agriculture, transport, energy, society (including closing of schools and cancellation of social events), and emergency response systems. As a result, the event led to a 3-fold increase in daily emergency responses compare to previous days associated with urban emergencies and wildfires, a 3.5-fold increase in hospital visits and admissions for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) exacerbations and dyspnoea, a reduction of visibility causing aircraft traffic disruptions (eleven cancellations and seven delays), and a reduction of solar energy production. We estimate the cost of direct and indirect effects of the dust episode, considering the most affected socio-economic sectors (e.g. civil protection, aviation, health and solar energy production), to be between 3.4 and 3.8 million EUR for Crete. Since such desert dust transport episodes are natural, meteorology-driven and thus to a large extent unavoidable, we argue that the efficiency of actions to mitigate dust impacts depends on the accuracy of operational dust forecasting and the implementation of relevant early warning systems for social awareness.

Original language	English
Article number	156861
Journal	Science of the Total Environment
Volume	843
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156861
Publication status	Published - 15 Oct 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information: The authors gratefully acknowledge the COST Association for funding the COST Action inDust (CA16202) as well as the WMO Sand and Dust Storm Warning Advisory and Assessment System (SDS-WAS) and the ERA4CS DustClim and the AXA Research Fund for funding the AXA Chair on Sand and Dust Storms (hosted by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center). We thank the scientific team of the PROTEAS CSP facility for the feedback provided and T. Bojic and R. Burbidge for facilitating the access to the EUROCONTROL archive. We thank the scientific team of the PROTEAS CSP facility for providing DNI data for this case study. Thanks are due to FCT/MCTES for the financial support to CESAM (UIDP/50017/2020+UIDB/50017/2020) through national funds, and also to the Icelandic Research Fund for the grant no. 207057-051. Authors S. Kazadzis and P. Kosmopoulos would like to acknowledge the European Commission project EuroGEO e-shape (grant agreement No 820852). Also, International Cooperative for Aerosol Prediction (ICAP) and NASA mission researchers are gratefully for providing aerosol data for this study. Aurelio Tobias was supported by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 (grant CEX2018-000794-S). S. Kutuzov acknowledges the Megagrant project (agreement No. 075-15-2021-599, 8.06.2021). Funding Information: The authors gratefully acknowledge the COST Association for funding the COST Action inDust ( CA16202 ) as well as the WMO Sand and Dust Storm Warning Advisory and Assessment System (SDS-WAS) and the ERA4CS DustClim and the AXA Research Fund for funding the AXA Chair on Sand and Dust Storms (hosted by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center). We thank the scientific team of the PROTEAS CSP facility for the feedback provided and T. Bojic and R. Burbidge for facilitating the access to the EUROCONTROL archive. We thank the scientific team of the PROTEAS CSP facility for providing DNI data for this case study. Thanks are due to FCT / MCTES for the financial support to CESAM ( UIDP/50017/2020+UIDB/50017/2020 ) through national funds, and also to the Icelandic Research Fund for the grant no. 207057-051. Authors S. Kazadzis and P. Kosmopoulos would like to acknowledge the European Commission project EuroGEO e-shape (grant agreement No 820852 ). Also, International Cooperative for Aerosol Prediction (ICAP) and NASA mission researchers are gratefully for providing aerosol data for this study. Aurelio Tobias was supported by MCIN /AEI/10.13039/501100011033 (grant CEX2018-000794-S ). S. Kutuzov acknowledges the Megagrant project (agreement No. 075-15-2021-599, 8.06.2021 ). Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors

Other keywords

Aviation
Dust episode
Health
Impacts
Modelling
Monitoring
Solar radiation

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10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156861

Cite this

Monteiro, A., Basart, S., Kazadzis, S., Gkikas, A., Vandenbussche, S., Tobias, A., Gama, C., García-Pando, C. P., Tarradellas, E., Notas, G., Middleton, N., Kushta, J., Amiridis, V., Lagouvardos, K., Kosmopoulos, P., Kotroni, V., Kanakidou, M., Mihalopoulos, N., Kalivitis, N., ... Meinander, O. (2022). Multi-sectoral impact assessment of an extreme African dust episode in the Eastern Mediterranean in March 2018. Science of the Total Environment, 843, Article 156861. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156861

@article{741f6391bcc244d48b70a77c223a4eae,

title = "Multi-sectoral impact assessment of an extreme African dust episode in the Eastern Mediterranean in March 2018",

abstract = "In late March 2018, a large part of the Eastern Mediterranean experienced an extraordinary episode of African dust, one of the most intense in recent years, here referred to as the “Minoan Red” event. The episode mainly affected the Greek island of Crete, where the highest aerosol concentrations over the past 15 yeas were recorded, although impacts were also felt well beyond this core area. Our study fills a gap in dust research by assessing the multi-sectoral impacts of sand and dust storms and their socioeconomic implications. Specifically, we provide a multi-sectoral impact assessment of Crete during the occurrence of this exceptional African dust event. During the day of the occurrence of the maximum dust concentration in Crete, i.e. March 22nd, 2018, we identified impacts on meteorological conditions, agriculture, transport, energy, society (including closing of schools and cancellation of social events), and emergency response systems. As a result, the event led to a 3-fold increase in daily emergency responses compare to previous days associated with urban emergencies and wildfires, a 3.5-fold increase in hospital visits and admissions for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) exacerbations and dyspnoea, a reduction of visibility causing aircraft traffic disruptions (eleven cancellations and seven delays), and a reduction of solar energy production. We estimate the cost of direct and indirect effects of the dust episode, considering the most affected socio-economic sectors (e.g. civil protection, aviation, health and solar energy production), to be between 3.4 and 3.8 million EUR for Crete. Since such desert dust transport episodes are natural, meteorology-driven and thus to a large extent unavoidable, we argue that the efficiency of actions to mitigate dust impacts depends on the accuracy of operational dust forecasting and the implementation of relevant early warning systems for social awareness.",

keywords = "Aviation, Dust episode, Health, Impacts, Modelling, Monitoring, Solar radiation",

author = "Alexandra Monteiro and Sara Basart and Stelios Kazadzis and Antonis Gkikas and Sophie Vandenbussche and Aurelio Tobias and Carla Gama and Garc{\'i}a-Pando, \{Carlos P{\'e}rez\} and Enric Tarradellas and George Notas and Nick Middleton and Jonilda Kushta and Vassilis Amiridis and Kostas Lagouvardos and Panagiotis Kosmopoulos and Vasiliki Kotroni and Maria Kanakidou and Nikos Mihalopoulos and Nikos Kalivitis and Pavla Dagsson-Waldhauserov{\'a} and Hesham El-Askary and Klaus Sievers and T. Giannaros and Lucia Mona and Marcus Hirtl and Paul Skomorowski and Slobodan Nickovic and Athanasios Votsis and Virtanen, \{Timo H.\} and Theodoros Christoudias and \{Di Mauro\}, Biagio and Serena Trippetta and Stanislav Kutuzov and Outi Meinander",

note = "Funding Information: The authors gratefully acknowledge the COST Association for funding the COST Action inDust (CA16202) as well as the WMO Sand and Dust Storm Warning Advisory and Assessment System (SDS-WAS) and the ERA4CS DustClim and the AXA Research Fund for funding the AXA Chair on Sand and Dust Storms (hosted by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center). We thank the scientific team of the PROTEAS CSP facility for the feedback provided and T. Bojic and R. Burbidge for facilitating the access to the EUROCONTROL archive. We thank the scientific team of the PROTEAS CSP facility for providing DNI data for this case study. Thanks are due to FCT/MCTES for the financial support to CESAM (UIDP/50017/2020+UIDB/50017/2020) through national funds, and also to the Icelandic Research Fund for the grant no. 207057-051. Authors S. Kazadzis and P. Kosmopoulos would like to acknowledge the European Commission project EuroGEO e-shape (grant agreement No 820852). Also, International Cooperative for Aerosol Prediction (ICAP) and NASA mission researchers are gratefully for providing aerosol data for this study. Aurelio Tobias was supported by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 (grant CEX2018-000794-S). S. Kutuzov acknowledges the Megagrant project (agreement No. 075-15-2021-599, 8.06.2021). Funding Information: The authors gratefully acknowledge the COST Association for funding the COST Action inDust ( CA16202 ) as well as the WMO Sand and Dust Storm Warning Advisory and Assessment System (SDS-WAS) and the ERA4CS DustClim and the AXA Research Fund for funding the AXA Chair on Sand and Dust Storms (hosted by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center). We thank the scientific team of the PROTEAS CSP facility for the feedback provided and T. Bojic and R. Burbidge for facilitating the access to the EUROCONTROL archive. We thank the scientific team of the PROTEAS CSP facility for providing DNI data for this case study. Thanks are due to FCT / MCTES for the financial support to CESAM ( UIDP/50017/2020+UIDB/50017/2020 ) through national funds, and also to the Icelandic Research Fund for the grant no. 207057-051. Authors S. Kazadzis and P. Kosmopoulos would like to acknowledge the European Commission project EuroGEO e-shape (grant agreement No 820852 ). Also, International Cooperative for Aerosol Prediction (ICAP) and NASA mission researchers are gratefully for providing aerosol data for this study. Aurelio Tobias was supported by MCIN /AEI/10.13039/501100011033 (grant CEX2018-000794-S ). S. Kutuzov acknowledges the Megagrant project (agreement No. 075-15-2021-599, 8.06.2021 ). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 The Authors",

year = "2022",

month = oct,

day = "15",

doi = "10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156861",

language = "English",

volume = "843",

journal = "Science of the Total Environment",

issn = "0048-9697",

publisher = "Elsevier B.V.",

}

Monteiro, A, Basart, S, Kazadzis, S, Gkikas, A, Vandenbussche, S, Tobias, A, Gama, C, García-Pando, CP, Tarradellas, E, Notas, G, Middleton, N, Kushta, J, Amiridis, V, Lagouvardos, K, Kosmopoulos, P, Kotroni, V, Kanakidou, M, Mihalopoulos, N, Kalivitis, N, Dagsson-Waldhauserová, P, El-Askary, H, Sievers, K, Giannaros, T, Mona, L, Hirtl, M, Skomorowski, P, Nickovic, S, Votsis, A, Virtanen, TH, Christoudias, T, Di Mauro, B, Trippetta, S, Kutuzov, S & Meinander, O 2022, 'Multi-sectoral impact assessment of an extreme African dust episode in the Eastern Mediterranean in March 2018', Science of the Total Environment, vol. 843, 156861. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156861

TY - JOUR

T1 - Multi-sectoral impact assessment of an extreme African dust episode in the Eastern Mediterranean in March 2018

AU - Monteiro, Alexandra

AU - Basart, Sara

AU - Kazadzis, Stelios

AU - Gkikas, Antonis

AU - Vandenbussche, Sophie

AU - Tobias, Aurelio

AU - Gama, Carla

AU - García-Pando, Carlos Pérez

AU - Tarradellas, Enric

AU - Notas, George

AU - Middleton, Nick

AU - Kushta, Jonilda

AU - Amiridis, Vassilis

AU - Lagouvardos, Kostas

AU - Kosmopoulos, Panagiotis

AU - Kotroni, Vasiliki

AU - Kanakidou, Maria

AU - Mihalopoulos, Nikos

AU - Kalivitis, Nikos

AU - Dagsson-Waldhauserová, Pavla

AU - El-Askary, Hesham

AU - Sievers, Klaus

AU - Giannaros, T.

AU - Mona, Lucia

AU - Hirtl, Marcus

AU - Skomorowski, Paul

AU - Nickovic, Slobodan

AU - Votsis, Athanasios

AU - Virtanen, Timo H.

AU - Christoudias, Theodoros

AU - Di Mauro, Biagio

AU - Trippetta, Serena

AU - Kutuzov, Stanislav

AU - Meinander, Outi

N1 - Funding Information: The authors gratefully acknowledge the COST Association for funding the COST Action inDust (CA16202) as well as the WMO Sand and Dust Storm Warning Advisory and Assessment System (SDS-WAS) and the ERA4CS DustClim and the AXA Research Fund for funding the AXA Chair on Sand and Dust Storms (hosted by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center). We thank the scientific team of the PROTEAS CSP facility for the feedback provided and T. Bojic and R. Burbidge for facilitating the access to the EUROCONTROL archive. We thank the scientific team of the PROTEAS CSP facility for providing DNI data for this case study. Thanks are due to FCT/MCTES for the financial support to CESAM (UIDP/50017/2020+UIDB/50017/2020) through national funds, and also to the Icelandic Research Fund for the grant no. 207057-051. Authors S. Kazadzis and P. Kosmopoulos would like to acknowledge the European Commission project EuroGEO e-shape (grant agreement No 820852). Also, International Cooperative for Aerosol Prediction (ICAP) and NASA mission researchers are gratefully for providing aerosol data for this study. Aurelio Tobias was supported by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 (grant CEX2018-000794-S). S. Kutuzov acknowledges the Megagrant project (agreement No. 075-15-2021-599, 8.06.2021). Funding Information: The authors gratefully acknowledge the COST Association for funding the COST Action inDust ( CA16202 ) as well as the WMO Sand and Dust Storm Warning Advisory and Assessment System (SDS-WAS) and the ERA4CS DustClim and the AXA Research Fund for funding the AXA Chair on Sand and Dust Storms (hosted by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center). We thank the scientific team of the PROTEAS CSP facility for the feedback provided and T. Bojic and R. Burbidge for facilitating the access to the EUROCONTROL archive. We thank the scientific team of the PROTEAS CSP facility for providing DNI data for this case study. Thanks are due to FCT / MCTES for the financial support to CESAM ( UIDP/50017/2020+UIDB/50017/2020 ) through national funds, and also to the Icelandic Research Fund for the grant no. 207057-051. Authors S. Kazadzis and P. Kosmopoulos would like to acknowledge the European Commission project EuroGEO e-shape (grant agreement No 820852 ). Also, International Cooperative for Aerosol Prediction (ICAP) and NASA mission researchers are gratefully for providing aerosol data for this study. Aurelio Tobias was supported by MCIN /AEI/10.13039/501100011033 (grant CEX2018-000794-S ). S. Kutuzov acknowledges the Megagrant project (agreement No. 075-15-2021-599, 8.06.2021 ). Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors

PY - 2022/10/15

Y1 - 2022/10/15

N2 - In late March 2018, a large part of the Eastern Mediterranean experienced an extraordinary episode of African dust, one of the most intense in recent years, here referred to as the “Minoan Red” event. The episode mainly affected the Greek island of Crete, where the highest aerosol concentrations over the past 15 yeas were recorded, although impacts were also felt well beyond this core area. Our study fills a gap in dust research by assessing the multi-sectoral impacts of sand and dust storms and their socioeconomic implications. Specifically, we provide a multi-sectoral impact assessment of Crete during the occurrence of this exceptional African dust event. During the day of the occurrence of the maximum dust concentration in Crete, i.e. March 22nd, 2018, we identified impacts on meteorological conditions, agriculture, transport, energy, society (including closing of schools and cancellation of social events), and emergency response systems. As a result, the event led to a 3-fold increase in daily emergency responses compare to previous days associated with urban emergencies and wildfires, a 3.5-fold increase in hospital visits and admissions for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) exacerbations and dyspnoea, a reduction of visibility causing aircraft traffic disruptions (eleven cancellations and seven delays), and a reduction of solar energy production. We estimate the cost of direct and indirect effects of the dust episode, considering the most affected socio-economic sectors (e.g. civil protection, aviation, health and solar energy production), to be between 3.4 and 3.8 million EUR for Crete. Since such desert dust transport episodes are natural, meteorology-driven and thus to a large extent unavoidable, we argue that the efficiency of actions to mitigate dust impacts depends on the accuracy of operational dust forecasting and the implementation of relevant early warning systems for social awareness.

AB - In late March 2018, a large part of the Eastern Mediterranean experienced an extraordinary episode of African dust, one of the most intense in recent years, here referred to as the “Minoan Red” event. The episode mainly affected the Greek island of Crete, where the highest aerosol concentrations over the past 15 yeas were recorded, although impacts were also felt well beyond this core area. Our study fills a gap in dust research by assessing the multi-sectoral impacts of sand and dust storms and their socioeconomic implications. Specifically, we provide a multi-sectoral impact assessment of Crete during the occurrence of this exceptional African dust event. During the day of the occurrence of the maximum dust concentration in Crete, i.e. March 22nd, 2018, we identified impacts on meteorological conditions, agriculture, transport, energy, society (including closing of schools and cancellation of social events), and emergency response systems. As a result, the event led to a 3-fold increase in daily emergency responses compare to previous days associated with urban emergencies and wildfires, a 3.5-fold increase in hospital visits and admissions for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) exacerbations and dyspnoea, a reduction of visibility causing aircraft traffic disruptions (eleven cancellations and seven delays), and a reduction of solar energy production. We estimate the cost of direct and indirect effects of the dust episode, considering the most affected socio-economic sectors (e.g. civil protection, aviation, health and solar energy production), to be between 3.4 and 3.8 million EUR for Crete. Since such desert dust transport episodes are natural, meteorology-driven and thus to a large extent unavoidable, we argue that the efficiency of actions to mitigate dust impacts depends on the accuracy of operational dust forecasting and the implementation of relevant early warning systems for social awareness.

KW - Aviation

KW - Dust episode

KW - Health

KW - Impacts

KW - Modelling

KW - Monitoring

KW - Solar radiation

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85133237008

U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156861

DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156861

M3 - Article

C2 - 35750162

SN - 0048-9697

VL - 843

JO - Science of the Total Environment

JF - Science of the Total Environment

M1 - 156861

ER -

Multi-sectoral impact assessment of an extreme African dust episode in the Eastern Mediterranean in March 2018

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Other keywords

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