VULNERABILITIES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL WATER OUTCOMES IN A CHANGING CLIMATE

Grant number: LP170100598 | Funding period: 2018 - 2021

Completed

Abstract

This project aims to assess the vulnerability of freshwater ecosystems to extended droughts in a variable and changing climate. Governments around the world are investing in the restoration of regulated river systems with environmental water. However, the risks of climate change for environmental water management are seldom considered. This project will model the change in environmental and consumptive water use during extended dry periods, and couple this to models of ecological dynamics and failure thresholds. This will improve the success of Australia’s major environmental water programs in sustaining benefits through future multi-year droughts.

Related publications (9)

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Towards more realistic runoff projections by removing limits on simulated soil moisture deficit

Keirnan JA Fowler, Gemma Coxon, Jim E Freer, Wouter JM Knoben, Murray C Peel, Thorsten Wagener, Andrew W Western, Ross A Woods, Lu Zhang

2021-09-01

Rainfall-runoff models based on conceptual “buckets” are frequently used in climate change impact studies to provide runoff projec..

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CAMELS-AUS: hydrometeorological time series and landscape attributes for 222 catchments in Australia

Keirnan JA Fowler, Suwash Chandra Acharya, Nans Addor, Chihchung Chou, Murray C Peel

2021-08-06

This paper presents the Australian edition of the Catchment Attributes and Meteorology for Large-sample Studies (CAMELS) series of..

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Disaggregated monthly hydrological models can outperform daily models in providing daily flow statistics and extrapolate well to a drying climate

Andrew John, Keirnan Fowler, Rory Nathan, Avril Horne, Michael Stewardson

2021-07-01

Daily timescale hydrological information is important for many purposes such as flood estimation, predicting the consequences of c..

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Climate change and freshwater ecology: Hydrological and ecological methods of comparable complexity are needed to predict risk

Andrew John, Avril Horne, Rory Nathan, Michael Stewardson, J Angus Webb, Jun Wang, N LeRoy Poff

2020-11-18

Many freshwater ecosystems are in decline because of anthropogenic disturbance including climate change, yet our understanding of ..

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Does the topology of the river network influence the delivery of riverine ecosystem services?

Seema Karki, Michael J Stewardson, James Angus Webb, Keirnan Fowler, Giri Raj Kattel, David J Gilvear

2020-09-18

Riverine ecosystems provide important ecosystem services reflecting their unique forms and functions. While the effects of stresso..

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How to incorporate climate change into modelling environmental water outcomes: a review

Andrew John, Rory Nathan, Avril Horne, Michael Stewardson, J Angus Webb

2020-06-01

Environmental water represents a key resource in managing freshwater ecosystems against pervasive threats. The impacts of climate ..

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Many Commonly Used Rainfall‐Runoff Models Lack Long, Slow Dynamics: Implications for Runoff Projections

Keirnan Fowler, Wouter Knoben, Murray Peel, Tim Peterson, Dongryeol Ryu, Margarita Saft, Ki‐Weon Seo, Andrew Western

2020-05-01

Evidence suggests that catchment state variables such as groundwater can exhibit multiyear trends. This means that their state may..

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Modeling Flow-Ecology Responses in the Anthropocene: Challenges for Sustainable Riverine Management

Avril C Horne, Rory Nathan, N LeRoy Poff, Nick R Bond, J Angus Webb, Jun Wang, Andrew John

2019-10-01

Climate change will increase water stress in many regions placing greater pressures on rivers to meet human and ecological water n..

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Assessing the degree of hydrologic stress due to climate change

RJ Nathan, TA McMahon, MC Peel, A Horne

2019-09-01

Hydrologists are commonly involved in impact, adaption and vulnerability assessments for climate change projections. This paper pr..