[permaculture-oceania] FW: Think locally, act regionally, says water researcher

[Cameron Little]

please excuse cross postings ...

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From: australianlands at yahoogroups.com
[mailto:australianlands at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Stephen Selden
Sent: Saturday, 19 August 2006 7:44 AM
To: australianlands; water-use-australia
Subject: [australianlands] Think locally, act regionally, says water
researcher


Think locally, act regionally, says water researcher

Reference: 06/162
From,  <http://www.csiro.au/csiro/content/standard/ps24t,,.html>
http://www.csiro.au/csiro/content/standard/ps24t,,.html

A senior Australian climate scientist has called for more regionally-based
studies on how countries in the Australasian region can adapt to climate
change.

CSIRO Media Release 16th August 2006

"Projected climate change will exert considerable impacts on freshwater
resources and its management in our region," says the Director of CSIRO's
Climate Program, Dr Bryson Bates.

"There are water shortages right now in Australia and as authorities respond
with a range of mechanisms, the issue is already causing considerable
concern in areas vulnerable to projected climate change," Dr Bates says.

"As populations grow and shift in line with economic development there will
be an impact on the balance between water availability and demand and
ultimately water quality."

He says that water managers in both the south west and south east of
Australia are reviewing changes to rainfall in their regions and options for
adapting to the drier conditions - particularly in the Murray-Darling Basin
which produces 40 per cent of Australia's agricultural production.

Scientists have begun scrutinising the region's climate record in a
(Censored)7 million project - the South East Australia Climate Initiative.

Dr Bates was addressing the Water for Irrigated Agriculture and the
Environment: Finding a Flow for All the Crawford Fund's development
conference in Parliament House, Canberra, today.

He says climate change is likely to result in: an intensification of the
water cycle, with increased risk of floods and droughts; changes in the
seasonality of river flows in regions where winter precipitation falls as
snow; adverse changes to water quality and greater rates of soil erosion;
and, increases in sea level, which will impair the quality of fresh water
available from coastal aquifers and wetlands.

Projections of climate change are developed from an assessment of a range of
computer simulations by global climate models including those produced by
CSIRO.

Few studies have considered the feasibility and effectiveness of adaptation
measures for specific water supply systems.

In Australia, projections have been developed for most States and several
regions, including the Murray Darling Basin. Outside Australia, projections
have been developed for the Yellow and Yangtze River systems in China and
the Mekong River basin in Vietnam, as well as for many other regions.

Dr Bates said climate change research in the past decade had made
significant advances but required substantial refinement to generate
regional projections with a high level of confidence.



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