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National Hydroclimatic Change and Infrastructure Adaptation Assessment: Region-Specific Adaptation Factors
Citation:
YANG, Y. J., S. Buchberger, R. Clark, W. Grayman, S. Tong, Z. Li, AND N. Chang. National Hydroclimatic Change and Infrastructure Adaptation Assessment: Region-Specific Adaptation Factors. Presented at EPA's 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:
Climate change, land use and socioeconomic developments are principal variables that define the need and scope of adaptive engineering and management to sustain water resource and infrastructure development. As described in IPCC (2007), hydroclimatic changes in the next 30-50 years in long-term master planning will become recognizable during the 21st century and can impact the service of nation’s water resources and infrastructure. In the EPA Water resources Adaptation Program (WRAP) on global changes, a national assessment has been conducted with a purpose to assess the hydroclimatic changes. The results serve as a basis to develop the adaptation strategies. The contiguous U.S. in the past century appears to have witnessed a marked difference in hydrologic changes to the non-stationary climate system. Each hydroclimatic province behaved differently. Changes in timing of snow melt and consequently the stream flow are well known by now in the Northwest. An increase of total and heavy precipitation is observed in the lower Mississippi basin – Ohio River valley – New England region. This change is not uniform throughout the hydroclimatic province, because of topographic effect and other local forcings. Other changes important to water resource and infrastructure adaptation are: 1) sea level rise and salt water intrusions to the potable productive aquifers along the coast, 2) drought and stressed water supplies in the southwest, southern California and Florida, and 3) short-term extreme meteorological events (e.g., hurricanes and storm surges) along the Gulf and Atlantic coast. On the other hand, expansion of biomass-based energy production is a driving factor for adaptive water resource management of water quantity and quality in the Midwest and the adjacent Great Plains areas to the west. In the presentation, a methodology is outlined to evaluate the need for adaptation actions. This evaluation considers three major factors in conceptual levels: the change and the rate of hydoclimatic changes, the uncertainties in the hydroclimatic change predictions, and the planning time horizon. When the rate of climate change is excessive within the time period of concern, the existing practices in hydrologic design and water resource management may be inadequate. This is particularly true for large uncertainties in projection-based design parameters. Adaptation can be more effective for the sustainability. Climate change vulnerability assessment may be a necessary pre-requisite.
URLs/Downloads:
Workshop:Water Infrastructure Sust/Adapt to Climate ChangeFOR_FURTHER_INFORMATION[1].PDF (PDF, NA pp, 5 KB, about PDF)