Strategies, Tools, and Methodologies for Effective Regional-scale Climate Adaptation
Katharine Hayhoe1,2,3
1 Climate Center, Texas Tech University, Lubbock TX 79409
2 Dept. of Political Science, Texas Tech University, Lubbock TX 79409
3 ATMOS Research & Consulting, Lubbock TX 79490
From managing ecosystems to allocating water, human planning is typically based on the assumption of stationarity: that the long-term average conditions and the highs and the lows observed in the past are reliable predictors of future conditions. Today, however, climate is no longer stationary; and as a result, we need to look to the future as well as the past to ensure we’re making robust decisions that prepare for and adapt to the changes we’re already seeing today as well as those anticipated in the future. Historical observations, global climate model output, future scenarios and high-resolution downscaled projections can all provide valuable insight into resilience planning. In this presentation, I will briefly introduce the various tools and methodologies available to understand future climate change and describe a helpful decision tree approach to identifying the most relevant and useful information for any given watershed, project, or goal.