Assessing regional impacts and adaptation strategies for climate change: the Washington Climate Change Impacts Assessment

Miles, Edward L.; Elsner, Marketa M.; Littell, Jeremy S.; Binder, Lara Whitely; Lettenmaier, Dennis P.

doi:10.1007/s10584-010-9853-2

Cited by 21 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…To support ecosystem research and impacts assessment, CIG extended the project to include specific meteorological and hydrological variables needed to support ecological studies (see discussion in Section 3). These approaches were further developed and refined during the WACCIA in 2009 (Miles, Elsner, Littell, Binder, & Lettenmaier, 2010), which included assessments of aquatic and forest ecosystem impacts .…”

Section: Study Motivationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An Overview of the Columbia Basin Climate Change Scenarios Project: Approach, Methods, and Summary of Key Results

et al. 2013

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The Columbia Basin Climate Change Scenarios Project (CBCCSP) was conceived as a comprehensive hydrologic database to support climate change planning, impacts assessment, and adaptation in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) by a diverse user community with varying technical capacity over a wide range of spatial scales. The study has constructed a state-of-the-art, end-to-end data processing sequence from "raw" climate model output to a suite of hydrologic modelling products that are served to the user community from a web-accessible database. A calibrated 1/16 degree latitude-longitude resolution implementation of the VIC hydrologic model over the Columbia River basin was used to produce historical simulations and 77 future hydrologic projections associated with three different statistical downscaling methods and three future time periods (2020s, 2040s, and 2080s). Key products from the study include summary data for about 300 river locations in the PNW and monthly Geographic Information System products for 21 hydrologic variables over the entire study domain. Results from the study show profound changes in spring snowpack and fundamental shifts from snow and mixed-rain-and-snow to rain-dominant behaviour across most of the domain. Associated shifts in streamflow timing from spring and summer to winter are also evident in basins with significant snow accumulation in winter (for the current climate). Potential evapotranspiration increases over most of the PNW in summer because of rising temperatures; however, actual evapotranspiration is reduced in all but a few areas of the domain because evapotranspiration is mostly water limited in summer, and summer precipitation decreases in the simulations. Simulated widespread increases in soil moisture recharge in fall and winter in areas with significant snow accumulation in winter (for the current climate) support hypotheses of increased landslide risk and sediment transport in winter in the future. Simulations of floods and extreme low flows increase in intensity for most of the river sites included in the study. The largest increases in flooding are in mixed-rain-and-snow basins whose current mid-winter temperatures are within a few degrees of freezing. The CBCCSP database has been a valuable public resource that has dramatically reduced costs in a number of high-visibility studies in the PNW and western United States focused on technical coordination and planning. « neige ou pluie et neige mêlées » vers « principalement pluie » dans presque tout le domaine. Des déplacements correspondants des caractéristiques d'écoulement fluvial du printemps et de l'été vers l'hiver sont également évi-dents dans les bassins où l'accumulation de neige est importante en hiver (sous le climat actuel). L'évapotranspira-tion potentielle augmente dans la majeure partie de la région du Pacifique et du Nord-Ouest en été à cause des températures plus élevées; cependant, l'évaporation réelle est réduite dans presque tous les secteurs du domaine parce que l'évapotranspiration est principaleme...

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Section: Study Motivationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Primary support for the project was provided by WDOE, with additional major support provided by the BPA, NWPCC, BCME, OWRD, and CTED via the 2009 WACCIA (http:// cses.washington.edu/cig/res/ia/waccia.shtml) (Miles et al, 2010).…”

Section: Acknowledgementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Overview of the Columbia Basin Climate Change Scenarios Project: Approach, Methods, and Summary of Key Results

et al. 2013

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“…Unfortunately, risk, uncertainty, and vulnerability at the interfaces are minimally represented in the literature, and where they are represented they are usually specific to a particular inter-sectorial dynamic (e.g., Koutsoyiannis et al 2009;Falloon and Betts 2010;Miles et al 2010;Hunt and Watkiss 2011). Collectively, however, the literature is deep enough to describe the general character of risk, uncertainty, and vulnerability at the interfaces.…”

Section: Risk Uncertainty and Vulnerability At The Sector Interfacesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate and Energy-Water-Land System Interactions Technical Report to the U.S. Department of Energy in Support of the National Climate Assessment

Skaggs¹,

Hibbard²,

Frumhoff³

et al. 2012

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Executive SummaryThis technical input report on climate and energy-water-land (EWL) system interactions has been prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy in support of the U.S. National Climate Assessment (NCA). Prepared on an accelerated schedule to fit the NCA's timeline, it provides a summary of existing information and understanding of this broad topic.This report provides a framework to characterize and understand the important elements of climate and EWL system interactions. It identifies many of the important issues, discusses our understanding of those issues, and identifies the research needs to address the priority scientific challenges and gaps in our understanding. Much of the discussion is organized around two discrete case studies with the broad themes of (1) extreme events and (2) regional differences. These case studies help demonstrate unique ways in which energy-water-land interactions can occur and be influenced by climate. In addition, a series of "illustrations" portray representative decision-making considerations relevant to climate-EWL interfaces. Key findings from the report are summarized below, according to the report section in which they are found. Characterization of Climate and Energy-Water-Land System Interactions• Population growth and economic and social development are major drivers of the demand for energy, land, and water resources within the interdependent climate and EWL system. A major challenge will be to manage, and optimize where possible, competing economic and environmental objectives and priorities within resource budget constraints and impact risks of climate variability and change.• The interdependencies of climate and the EWL system can be characterized by the three bilateral interfaces of energy-water, energy-land, and land-water. Each bilateral interface consists of linkages representing the supplies, end-use demands, and associated functional relationships between the two.• Much of our current understanding of climate impacts on the complex interdependencies of the EWL system is derived from limited observations of bilateral interface responses to climate variability. The concept of EWL interfaces can help identify the relative degree of risks and vulnerabilities to the effects of climate variability and change. Energy-Water-Land Interfaces: Resource Interdependencies and Interactions with Climate• Focusing on sector-to-sector interfaces alone does not adequately capture the complexity and importance of the EWL system. The many bilateral interfaces form a dynamic set of interacting processes linked through a complex network of feedbacks.• Competition for water is the most straightforward conflict linking energy, water, and land (e.g., simultaneous demand for thermoelectric generation, irrigation, environmental flows).• Extreme climate events such as drought and associated heat waves have important impacts on the EWL interfaces. Impacts are seen as changes in cropping and grazing and accompanying wildfire damage. These changes tend to reinforce and intensify i...

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“…Implementing water conservation and efficiency improvements, however, would reduce this cost to less than $150 million (36). In the western United (37,38).…”

Section: Improving Institutional Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Roadmap for sustainable water resources in southwestern North America

Gleick¹

2010

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

156

102

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The management of water resources in arid and semiarid areas has long been a challenge, from ancient Mesopotamia to the modern southwestern United States. As our understanding of the hydrological and climatological cycles has improved, and our ability to manipulate the hydrologic cycle has increased, so too have the challenges associated with managing a limited natural resource for a growing population. Modern civilization has made remarkable progress in water management in the past few centuries. Burgeoning cities now survive in desert regions, relying on a mix of simple and complex technologies and management systems to bring adequate water and remove wastewater. These systems have permitted agricultural production and urban concentrations to expand in regions previously thought to have inadequate moisture. However, evidence is also mounting that our current management and use of water is unsustainable. Physical, economic, and ecological limits constrain the development of new supplies and additional water withdrawals, even in regions not previously thought vulnerable to water constraints. New kinds of limits are forcing water managers and policy makers to rethink previous assumptions about population, technology, regional planning, and forms of development. In addition, new threats, especially the challenges posed by climatic changes, are now apparent. Sustainably managing and using water in arid and semiarid regions such as the southwestern United States will require new thinking about water in an interdisciplinary and integrated way. The good news is that a wide range of options suggest a roadmap for sustainable water management and use in the coming decades.climate change | soft path | freshwater | sustainability | water management

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Assessing regional impacts and adaptation strategies for climate change: the Washington Climate Change Impacts Assessment

Cited by 21 publications

References 30 publications

An Overview of the Columbia Basin Climate Change Scenarios Project: Approach, Methods, and Summary of Key Results

An Overview of the Columbia Basin Climate Change Scenarios Project: Approach, Methods, and Summary of Key Results

Climate and Energy-Water-Land System Interactions Technical Report to the U.S. Department of Energy in Support of the National Climate Assessment

Roadmap for sustainable water resources in southwestern North America

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