Climate Change DSS Case Study - Riverside Technology, inc.

Challenge

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Climate Change DSS Website

Water managers are increasingly recognizing the significant environmental impacts of climate change. They are often faced with conflicting information about climate change for their area of concern and no real basis for determining its impact on water resources. As a result, they are looking for detailed information about potential hydrologic impacts, to include in their planning.

Unfortunately, current, available studies tend to be academic in nature and are often incompatible with agency specific water management models or the streamflow period of interest. Another difficulty is the commission for system-focused studies is prohibitively expensive for most municipalities and agencies.

Solution

Riverside’s goal was to develop a web-based system with widespread and low-cost access to tools that could generate scenarios of future streamflow.

Riverside Goes to Work

Riverside developed a prototype, web-based, Climate Change Decision Support System (Climate Change DSS) enabling water managers, at various operational- and time-scales, to rapidly assess the impact of predicted climate change on natural flows at critical nodes along a river network.

The Climate Change Decision Support System is a project conceived by Riverside and funded by a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program award through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The system provides a tool for users to analyze climate change impacts on their localized area. Similar interactive tools are not available to organizations across the country because of the complexity and cost. This project uses current web-based technology and available global circulation and hydrologic models to create a simple yet complete tool for water managers.

Riverside developed the Climate Change DSS with the following two modes:

1. The Basic Viewer: With pre-selected combinations of models and plots, the Basic Viewer allows you to quickly generate graphical views for a sub-basin.
2. The Full Viewer: For more flexibility in configuring what models and emission scenarios to run, use the Full Viewer mode.

Results

Riverside’s Climate Change DSS was designed with the goal of providing water managers with information to assess the potential impact of climate change on water resources. The Climate Change DSS provides a mechanism to review, analyze, and explore the full range of potential outcomes to support adaptation planning. These outcomes allow users to develop an incremental approach to climate change impact mitigation, recognizing the uncertainty of the future climate.