Water Stewardship Information Sources

Citation Rodenhuis, D, Bennett, K, Werner, A, Murdock, T and Bronaugh, D. 2009. Climate Overview 2007: Hydro-climatology and Future Climate Impacts in British Columbia. Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium.
Organization PCIC
URL http://www.pacificclimate.org/sites/default/files/publications/Rodenhuis.ClimateOverview.Mar2009.pdf
Abstract/Description or Keywords The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released their Fourth
Assessment Reports1,2. It is now unequivocal that the global climate system is warming, and the
expectations are that the global annual mean temperature will rise more than 3°C this century.
Continued warming and changing of precipitation patterns will have a large effect on hydrology
with significant implications for the economy, infrastructure, and ecosystems of British
Columbia. In order to adapt to climate change, it is important to understand historical trends and
future projections in Pacific North America, and in particular, British Columbia.
The foundation for understanding the consequences of changing climate (temperature and
precipitation) at a regional scale are water resources at the ground level; i.e. hydrology. This
requires knowledge of the hydrological regime (rain, snow, ice), hydrological resources
(snowpack, glaciers, reservoirs, lakes, wetlands, groundwater and soil moisture), and hydrological
processes (interception, evaporation, transpiration, and streamflow). Extremely important water
resources responses will result from climate change. Subsequently these responses will influence
important economic sectors: power generation, forestry, fisheries, agriculture, mining, and their
commercial derivatives.
The first half of this report presents an updated analysis of BC’s historical climate trends and
variability. An interpolated dataset describes the diversity of BC’s climate. Established methods
were applied to calculate trends for temperature and precipitation, snowpack, streamflow and lake
ice. Trends in glaciers were synthesized from contemporary studies. The response of temperature,
precipitation, snowpack and streamflow to climate variability, i.e. the El Niño Southern
Oscillation (ENSO)i
and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO)ii is also included in this report.
The second part of the report applies projections of future climate using the latest Global
Climate Model (GCM) results from the IPCC Fourth Assessment at a coarse scale. The Canadian
Regional Climate Model (CRCM) was also used to obtain climate projections on a regional scale,
and empirical methods were used for high-definition mapping in BC. Changes to future snowpack
were estimated using a new version of the CRCM. Future climate impacts on glaciers and
streamflow were synthesized from select research publications. Examples of future hydrologic
impacts, such as soil moisture, changes to growing-degree-days and the Mountain Pine Beetle
infestation, were identified.
Information Type report
Regional Watershed Province
Sub-watershed if known
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