Nyhavn, Denmark

CMWR XVI - Computational Methods in Water Resources
XVI International Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark, June 19-22 2006

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Global Climate Change and Hydrologic Processes

Organiser: David Ahlfeld, University of Massachusetts Amherst (ahlfeld@ecs.umass.edu).

Global Climate Models (GCM) and Regional Climate Models (RCM) predict climate behavior under different forcing scenarios at decadal and century time scales with horizontal grid spacing at mid-latitude of 10's to 100's of km. Atmospheric and ocean modelers have traditionally played lead roles in  the development of GCMs. In recent years, climate models have improved in their representation of physical processes, advanced with increased computational capabilities and proliferated as an increasing number of research groups develop models. These recent advances have brought anumber of research questions that have relevance to water resource modelers.

When GCM and RCM simulations of past climate are available, what are appropriate metrics for comparison between model results and hydrologic observations? How should hydrologic coupling between the atmosphere and land-surface be parameterized and associated scaling issues resolved? What role do deeper groundwater systems play in feedback to the atmosphere? It is apparent that human-induced climate change has begun and will continue, to some extent, regardless of mitigation measures that may be implemented.

At what spatial and temporal scale can current GCMs and RCMs provide predictions that are meaningful for assessing the impact of future climate change on regions? At what scales and with what level of certainty would predictions be needed for performing regional water resource planning? Papers are sought that address these and related questions.