Abstract

Using GIS to Help Aquatic Scientists Plan for Climate Change
Track: Climate Change and Conservation
Authors: Brian Barr

Projected climate conditions are ominous. However, the scale at which future conditions have been presented does not help natural resource managers understand their risks or opportunities at the local level.

The Geos Institute presents spatially explicit climate change information from global models that have been scaled to local levels to engage aquatic resource scientists and managers in conversations about potential impacts, opportunities, and mechanisms of change in their local rivers. These impacts, opportunities, and mechanisms of change form the basis for strategies, projects, and partnerships that can be implemented to prepare unique, important, and valuable resources for the future.

This presentation will highlight some of the regional projections that have been developed by ClimateWiseŽ and describe common approaches that natural resources managers have identified to prepare aquatic resources for the coming conditions.