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A Review of Quantitative Methods for Evaluating Impacts of Climate Change on Urban Water Infrastructure
Citation:
Grayman, W. M., S. G. Buchberger, Z. Li, R. M. Clark, AND Y. J. YANG. A Review of Quantitative Methods for Evaluating Impacts of Climate Change on Urban Water Infrastructure. Presented at First National Expert and Stakeholder Workshop on Water Infrastructure Sustainability and Adaptation to Climate Change, Washington, DC, January 06 - 07, 2009.
Impact/Purpose:
To inform the public.
Description:
It is widely accepted that global climate change will impact the regional and local climate and alter some aspects of the hydrologic cycle, which in turn can affect the performance of the urban water supply, wastewater and storm water infrastructur4e. How the urban water infrastructure will be affected and how these impacts may be mitigated by design or operational changes has been the subject of some study and much conjecture. In a qualitative assessment, potential impact pathways are identified and a general assessment of the relative significance of the pathways is made. A quantitative assessment extends this analysis to include mathematical modeling techniques to calculate numerical estimates of the impacts of global climate change on the hydrologic cycle, water quality, the ecosystem, land use/population development and ultimately on the actual performance of the urban water infrastructure. Various metrics such as cost, flow quality, population impacted, etc. can be used as measure is a quantitative analysis. As illustrated in the following figure, there are many direct and indirect impact pathways and feedback loops associated with these processes. An important component of this type of analysis is an assessment of the uncertainty associated with the quantitative estimates. The goal of this study is to develop a framework for evaluating the quantitative impacts of climate change on the urban water infrastructure.