Climate Change Impact Assessments

Fast Facts

  • The Alliance is a partnership between the Queensland government, CSIRO, The University of Queensland and Griffith University, Brisbane
  • Additional research collaborators will include the QLD Environmental Protection Agency, the QLD Water Commission, the Moreton Bay Partnership, the eWater CRC, as well as the support of the Office of Urban Management, the Department of Mines and Energy, and the various offices of local government of the region.

Climate attribution and downscaling for hydrologic applications

Background
Mitigating Risk
The partners

Background

If most of the effects of climate change operate through water, then this is especially true for Australia, one of the driest inhabited continents.

Water is a pressure point for our economic, environmental and social development, and disturbance to water availability from climate variability and human-induced climate change create significant challenges, particularly in South East Queensland where future water resources have been fully allocated before impacts from future climate change and population growth are considered.

Climate change poses a potential risk to water supplies through:  

  • decreased and less frequent rainfall and/or increased rainfall variability,
  • warmer temperatures which increase evaporation from reservoirs and increase the demand for water during hot days.

Mitigating Risk

Levels of risk to our water supply will vary with location as well as time, and this project will draw upon world-leading capabilities in climate analysis for detection and attribution, and dynamical downscaling of past and future climate information.  

Building from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report (IPCC AR4), we will use modelling to observe how the climate has changed, what its key drivers are, and asses the regional implications for water resources.

With a better understanding of the impact of climate change on water supply at a regional level, and with an understanding of future inflows to water supply reservoirs, CSIRO, Griffith University and the Queensland State Government will be able to construct an Integrated Quality and Quantity Model (IQQM) for water resources planning and assessment and for development of basin-wide water resources management plans.

The partners

This project is a partnership between CSIRO, Griffith University and the Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Water and the Queensland Climate Change Centre of Excellence

Contact: Dr Wenju Cai
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
Aspendale VIC
Ph: +61 3 9239 4419
Email: Wenju Cai

Read about more of our research.