| Session Details | |
| Section | HS - Hydrological Sciences |
| Session Title | Modeling and Analysis of Hydrologic Processes at the Catchment Scale in the Context of Climate Change |
| Main Convener | Prof. Van-Thanh-Van Nguyen (McGill University, Canada) |
| Co-convener(s) | Dr. Vincent Chu (McGill University, Canada) Prof. A.P.S. Selvadurai (McGill University, Canada) Dr. Sri Srikanthan (Bureau of Meteorology, Australia) |
| Session Description | There is now a broad scientific consensus that the global climate is changing in ways that are likely to have a profound impact on human society and the natural environment over the coming decades. Climate change and its impacts on a global scale are the focus of an intense, broad-based international research effort in the natural and social sciences. However, understanding the nature and potential consequences of climate change on hydrologic processes at regional scales, and in particular for catchment scales, is a challenge we have just begun to meet. Consequently, the effects of climate change and variations on water resources (water quantity and water quality) at the catchment scale represent a critical consideration among many others of non-climatic origins (e.g., land-used change, infrastructure construction, etc.) for planning, design, and management of various water systems and infrastructures. In this context, the main aims of the proposed session are to address the following key topics: 1. What are available tools (downscaling methods, climate models, hydrologic models, hydraulic models, water management models, etc.) for assessing accurately the impacts of climate variability and climate change on hydrologic processes at the catchment scale? 2. How could an improved understanding of climate variability and climate change improve our ability to manage our water resources at the catchment scale? 3. What are the pressures facing water resources and water management under changing climate conditions and how do we assess the relative importance of these pressures and the associated degree of uncertainty? 4. How to determine the best management strategies, adaptation measures, and vulnerability assessment procedures that can cope with climate change and other physical, socio-economic and institutional constraints for catchment-scale water management? |