Water and Climate Change: Adaptation, Uncertainty, Decision Scaling and the Implications for China

Speaker: Casey Brown

Casey BROWN, Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Sponsored by the China Project, Harvard Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Abstract:

The traditional dependence of hydrologic design on statistical analysis is compromised by nonstationary climate and pervasive change. Yet climate model projections are ill-suited and climate experiments poorly designed to provide a viable successor. An alternative approach based on bridging system analytics and process level analysis of hydrologic extremes and their future evolution under climate change is demonstrated with applications to adaptation planning for water infrastructure.