Project II.4.1: Climate change
Project Title: II.4.1 Climate change
Project Lead: Modeling Team
Project Description
This project leverages the climate change work carried out by the IPCC and others, which provide forcing scenarios that enable our modeling system to evaluate the process-level impacts climate change on the Columbia River.
Fit in program
This scenario directly addresses one of CMOP’s grand challenges.
Outcomes
The following predicted conditions have been defined and incorporated into the simulation run, using db14 weeks 16 through 36 of 2004 as a baseline:
| Environmental Variable | Data Source | Short descriptor |
| Sealevel Rise | IPCC Report | This scenario imposes a sea level rise of 30 cm to the ocean boundary of the domain – an aggregate level of increase predicted by the IPCC for the PNW in 2100. |
| 2100 Columbia River flows | Nohara, et al. 2006 | The baseline flows are transformed to deliver an earlier, and more extended freshet, as described by climate change models |
Several aspects of these scenarios have been evaluated, including the physical characteristics of the plume, the maximum distances of salinity intrusion, and the relative availability of juvenile salmonid habitat (as defined by velocity, depth, temperature, and salinity).
Last updated May 2009
