Regional Climate Impacts

Projects within the Regional Climate Impacts theme respond to the needs of regional climate stakeholders seeking a greater understanding of the potential impacts of climate variability and change at the regional scale. This includes knowledge of current trends and estimates of scientific uncertainty as well as the significance of climate model output, statistical descriptions, and climate model diagnostics.

A significant portion of this work involves downscaling results generated by global climate models to determine regional and local impacts by applying corrections for local conditions such as topography. From these results, the physical consequences of climate variability and change can be estimated and used by stakeholders to evaluate the effects of these changes on socio-economic activity and community infrastructure.

Some recent accomplishments of the Regional Climate Impacts theme include:

• An analysis aimed at better understanding how future changes might affect climate extremes in the Columbia River basin. This project has been undertaken with the Columbia Basin Trust and is described in the Regional Analysis of Extremes for Columbia Basin Trust Communities Adapting to Climate Change project page.
• Two successful projects undertaken in collaboration with the BC Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure to assess the potential impacts of climate variability and change on the province's highway infrastructure. The first project is described in the Climate Change Adaptation for Engineering Applications on the Coquihalla Highway project page. The second is described in the Infrastructure and Climate Risk on the Yellowhead Highway project page.
• A collaborative effort with the Northern Climate Exchange at Yukon College to determine future climate projections in the Atlin-Taku area of northern British Columbia. This project is described in the Projected Climate Change in the Atlin-Taku Area of British Columbia project page.
• Estimates of the potential future impacts of climate variability and change on the severity of wildfires in southeastern BC. This Environment Canada collaborative project is described in the Future Projections of Fire Weather Severity in Southeast British Columbia project page.

Projects under this theme are defined in the Research Plan for Regional Climate Impacts and also draw on results from projects under the Hydrologic Impacts theme and the Climate Analysis and Monitoring theme.

Visit our Projects section for more information on PCIC projects related to the Regional Climate Impacts theme.

Key Personnel:

• Trevor Murdock, Lead, Regional Climate Impacts

• Gerd Bürger, Climate Scientist

• Hailey Eckstrand, GIS Analyst

• Stephen Sobie, RCI Analyst