Netzel et al. (2025) Standardized Climatic Water Balance for Poland (1951–2023) Supporting Forestry and Drought Monitoring

Identification

• Journal: Scientific Data
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-12-05
• Authors: Paweł Netzel, Dominika Cywicka
• DOI: 10.1038/s41597-025-06178-z

Research Groups

• Department of Forest Resources Management, Faculty of Forestry, University of Agriculture in Krakow, Poland
• Faculty of Computer Science and Mathematics, Cracow University of Technology, Poland
• Interdisciplinary Center for Circular Economy, Cracow University of Technology, Poland

Short Summary

This study presents a high-resolution (100 m) gridded dataset of the Standardized Climatic Water Balance (SCWB) for Poland, spanning 72 years (1951–2023), developed to assess long-term water availability and drought conditions. The publicly available dataset, derived from over 2,000 meteorological stations, provides crucial data for environmental monitoring, drought risk assessment, and climate adaptation planning.

Objective

• To develop a high-resolution (100 m × 100 m), long-term (1951–2023), gridded dataset of the Standardized Climatic Water Balance (SCWB) for Poland, along with interpolated air temperature and precipitation, to support forestry and drought monitoring.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Poland, covering the entire territory with a grid resolution of 100 meters × 100 meters. Geographic extent from 13°48’6.33″E to 25°18’23.12″E longitude and 49°33’41.14″N to 54°9’49.11″N latitude, projected in LAEA Europe (EPSG:3035).
• Temporal Scale: 72 years, from 1951 to 2023, with monthly resolution.

Methodology and Data

• Models used:
  • Hybrid regression-spline model for spatial interpolation of meteorological variables (combining multiple linear regression with third-degree spline correction functions, using spatial coordinates and elevation as predictors).
  • Thornthwaite method for calculating potential evapotranspiration (ET0).
  • Statistical standardization (subtracting long-term mean and dividing by standard deviation) for the Climatic Water Balance (CWB) to produce SCWB values.
• Data sources:
  • Monthly temperature and precipitation records from 102 to 208 meteorological stations (for temperature) and 1203 to 2013 precipitation stations, operated by the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management (IMGW) in Poland.
  • Elevation data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) at 30 meters resolution.

Main Results

• A comprehensive, high-resolution (100 m × 100 m) gridded dataset of monthly Standardized Climatic Water Balance (SCWB) for Poland, covering the period 1951–2023, is publicly available.
• The dataset comprises 4,380 geospatial layers in GeoTIFF format, including monthly SCWB, interpolated mean, minimum, and maximum air temperatures, and total monthly precipitation.
• Interpolation model accuracy for the test dataset:
  • Mean Absolute Error (MAE): 0.37 °C for mean air temperature (Tavg), 0.64 °C for minimum temperature (Tmin), 0.40 °C for maximum temperature (Tmax), and 9.2 mm for total monthly precipitation (Rsum).
  • Coefficient of determination (R²): 0.85 for Tavg, 0.61 for Tmin, 0.86 for Tmax, and 0.71 for Rsum.
• Drought conditions are classified based on SCWB values: Extremely dry (≤−2.00), Very dry (−1.99 to −1.50), Moderately dry (−1.49 to −0.50), Normal (−0.49 to 0.49), and Wet (≥0.5).
• The dataset is available via ZENODO (DOIs: 10.5281/zenodo.16786121 for SCWB and 10.5281/zenodo.16793822 for input climatological layers).

Contributions

• Provides a unique, national-scale, high-resolution (100 m) and long-term (1951–2023) Standardized Climatic Water Balance (SCWB) dataset for Poland, directly derived from a dense network of ground-based observations.
• Bridges the gap between coarse-resolution global climate datasets and the need for precise local-scale information for environmental monitoring, drought risk assessment, and climate adaptation planning.
• Utilizes the SCWB index, which directly standardizes the full climatic water balance (precipitation minus potential evapotranspiration), offering a more integrated and ecologically meaningful assessment of water stress compared to indices based on individual components (e.g., SPI) or coarser-resolution combined indices (e.g., SPEI).
• Enhances interpolation accuracy by integrating high-resolution topographic data (SRTM elevation).
• Broadens utility by also providing interpolated monthly mean, minimum, and maximum air temperatures and total precipitation, supporting diverse ecological and climate impact studies, including forest mortality risk modeling.

Funding

• Project: “Mortality Risk Models for the Main Forest-Forming Tree Species of Poland”
• Funder: General Directorate of State Forests in Poland
• Agreement no.: EZ.271.3.19.2021

Citation

@article{Netzel2025Standardized,
  author = {Netzel, Paweł and Cywicka, Dominika},
  title = {Standardized Climatic Water Balance for Poland (1951–2023) Supporting Forestry and Drought Monitoring},
  journal = {Scientific Data},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1038/s41597-025-06178-z},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-06178-z}
}