Rainy day in Munich? Oh I wish, said Czechia

Every (summer semester) Erasmus student experienced unpredictable weather in Munich. You walk out of your apartment, it is raining cats and dogs, get out of the U-Bahn, and suddenly sweat in the sun at Marienplatz. It could be pretty annoying, but it makes this city so fresh and green. My parents are always jealous when I say it is raining again. They are trying to keep our garden pretty, plant some flowers, fill our swimming pool with water for the summer holidays… Any of that is possible. The Czech Republic is suffering from massive droughts.

The droughts in the Czech Republic started to be a problem in 2015, but it has been gradually evident for many years. Water is lacking mainly because the rainfall and water evaporation ratio has changed.

We usually divide drought into four stages, according to the dominant manifestations:

1. Meteorological – Negative deviation of precipitation from normal during a certain period of time.
2. Agricultural – Soil drought, lack of moisture for crops.
3. Hydrological – A significant reduction in water levels and underground reservoirs. Both quality and availability of water (including drinking water) are threatened.
4. Socio-economic – The effects of drought on quality of life. Lower crop yields, stopped shipping, and economic losses.

You might think the solution is easy – we need it to rain for a few days. But that would be robbing Peter to pay Paul. Dried soil cannot absorb extreme amounts of water. Water basically glides on the soil surface, which causes floods. That happened to us several times in the Czech Republic as well. First excitement that it is raining and then boom your house is a houseboat. Free upgrade.

Jokes aside, what is the solution? We will probably not see the ideal 20 days of persistent rain with a low intensity that would save us. But in a long term, we can:

• restore streams, wetlands, and ponds for natural water retention in the landscape
• construct dams for more massive water retention
• return the rivers to their original channels
• increase the share of trees and shrubs in the open landscape and design new forests
• save water ofc
• help as individuals!!!
  • collect and use rainwater
  • do not water the garden in the afternoon, when the water in the sun evaporates the fastest – the best time for watering is morning or evening
  • leave the trend of English-style lawn, do not mow the grass too low – taller grass leaves moisture in the soil and prevents evaporation
  • apply the trend of mosaic mowing: do not mow everything at once, but gradually. That would also provide a space for insects that can always move to some uncut area.
  • plant mixtures of species-diverse vegetation

Everything goes hand in hand

Rising maximum and minimum temperatures, heat waves, forest fires, drought, aggravate erosion, a decline in organic matter, salinization, soil biodiversity loss, landslides, desertification, thawing permafrost, loss of biodiversity, rising sea levels, an increase in heavy precipitation …all these problems are caused by climate change and go hand in hand. We should therefore look comprehensively at extreme drought and focus on climate change as a whole.

For a less depressing ending, I enclose a few snippets of our Czech humor:

elipol

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