Title: OUCE
1Applying probabilistic climate change
information to strategic resource assessment and
planning
- Funded by
- ENVIRONMENT AGENCY
- TYNDALL CENTRE
2Overall Objective
- To develop a risk-based framework for handling
probabilistic climate change information and for
estimating uncertainties inherent to impact
assessments performed by the Agency for strategic
planning (water resources and biodiversity in the
first instance).
3Specific Objectives
- To develop and compare methods for generating
regional/local scale climate change probabilities
from coarse resolution CP.net data. - To trial the application of probabilistic climate
change information to Agency-relevant case
studies (initially for water resources and
biodiversity management). - To explore the added-value of probabilistic
scenarios for strategic planning and practical
lessons learnt from the case studies. - To share the techniques and experience gained
from the exemplar projects with a wider community
of partner organisations and stakeholders.
4climateprediction.net aims to
- Sample uncertainty in climate models across
- Physics
- Initial conditions
- Climate forcing
- Provide better understanding of plausible future
climate changes that can be forecast with one GCM
species
5Experimental Strategy
- Distributed public computing port HadCM3 to
windows/linux/mac - Each participant runs a specific experiment
- Different model physics, initial conditions,
forcing - Currently 17 million model years
6Phase 1
- 2 x CO2 equilibrium experiments
- 15 years calibration at 1 x CO2
- 15 years control at 1 x CO2
- 15 years at 2 x CO2
7ClimatePrediction.net
8Data Available
- Global mean time series
- Eight year seasonal climatologies
- Surface air temperature
- Precipitation
- Cloudiness
- Surface heat budget
9Phase 2
- Transient simulations with HadCM3
- 1920-2000 hindcast
- 2001-2080 forecast
- Launched with BBC in February
10Data Available in Phase 2
- More variables
- Global mean monthly time series
- Regional monthly time series (Giorgi NAO MOC)
- UK grid-box monthly series
- Ten-year seasonal climatologies (1920-2080)
11First Results
- Use of CP.Net probabilistic climate change data
for water resource assessment in the Thames basin - CATCHMOD water balance model of River Thames
basin - CP.net data available from Experiment 1
- Results and discussion
12CATCHMOD water balance model of River Thames
basin.
13River Thames Basin upstream of Kingston gauge and
GCM grid-boxes
14CATCHMOD parameters
- Six key parameters controlling
- Direct runoff
- Soil WC at which evaporation is reduced
- Drying curve gradient
- Storage constant for unsaturated zone
- Storage constant for saturated zone
Wilby and Harris (2005)
15CATCHMOD
- Inputs daily time series of precipitation (PPT)
and potential evaporation (PET) - Output daily time series of river flow
- Parameters chosen as the ones that best
reproduce observed flows for the period 1960-1991
16CP.net Data
- Grand ensemble of 2578 simulations of the HadAM3
GCM - Explores 7 parameter perturbations and perturbed
initial conditions - 450 IC ensembles (model versions)
17CP.net variables and CATCHMOD Inputs
- 8-year seasonal means for
- total cloud amount in LW radiation
- surface (1.5m) air temperature
- total precipitation rate
- Use these to calculate change factors for PPT and
PET over Thames - Change factors used to perturb CATCHMOD daily
time series of PPT PET
18Results Change Factors
19Results Standard CATCHMOD
unperturbed HadAM3 present day
20Results CP.net and CATCHMOD
Q50
Q50
21Results CP.net and CATCHMOD
Q95
Q95
22Factors not Considered
- Full set of CP.net perturbations
- Emissions uncertainty
- Downscaling uncertainty
- Alternative model structures (GCM and
Hydrological) - Coupled transient climate response
23Are Probabilistic Approaches Useful?
- CP.net provides useful climate information
particularly joint probabilities of key variables - Enable more informed decision making
- Issues for Water Utility stakeholders
- Understanding the information
- Having time and resources to use information
- Regulatory constraints
- In many cases other (non-climate) factors are
more uncertain
24CP.net parameters
Parameter Description
VF1(m/s) Ice fall speed.
CT(1/s) Cloud droplet to rain conversion rate.
RHCRIT Threshold of relative humidity for cloud formation.
CW_sea (1/kgm3) CW_land Cloud droplet to rain conversion threshold.
EACF Empirically adjusted cloud fraction.
ENTCOEF Scales rate of mixing between environmental air and convective plume.
25Potential Evaporation
Penman PET is a function of mean air T, mean
vapour pressure (vp), sunshine and wind speed
Present calculate monthly Penman PET using
observed climate variables for London (monthly
long term means 1961-1990, UK national
grid) 2xCO2 calculate monthly Penman PET
assuming wind speed constant
relative humidity constant thus relative
change in vprelative change in svp relative
change in sunshine - relative change in cloud
amount T at 2xCO2 observed T deltaT vp at
2xCO2 observed vp x (1CF(svp)) sunshine at
2xCO2 observed sunshine x (1-CF(cloud)) CF
calculated using control and 2xCO2 phases for all
the variables.
26Smoothed frequency distributions and CDFs Q50
- Uncertainties
- Climate model parameterization
- Hydrological model parameterization
- No downscaling
- No hydrological model structure
27Smoothed frequency distributions and CDFs Q95
- Uncertainties
- Climate model parameterization
- Hydrological model parameterization
- No downscaling
- No hydrological model structure
28Smoothed frequency distributions and CDFs Q95
- Uncertainties
- Climate model parameterization
- Hydrological model parameterization
- No downscaling
- No hydrological model structure
29Frequency distribution of flows annual statistics
- Uncertainties
- CP.net parameter dependence
- No hydrological model
- No downscaling
- No hydrological model structure
30Frequency distribution of flows annual statistics
- Uncertainties
- CP.net parameter dependence
- No hydrological model
- No downscaling
- No hydrological model structure
31Frequency distribution of flows annual statistics
- Uncertainties
- CP.net parameter dependence
- No hydrological model
- No downscaling
- No hydrological model structure