Serving Stakeholder Needs for Local and Regional Climate Change Information in the Southeastern USA
Abstract
The mission of the Southeast Climate Consortium (SECC) is to provide climate information and decision support tools to help stakeholders manage risks arising from climate variability. While the SECC has pursued this mission with a focus on seasonal climate since 1998, in response to stakeholder interest we began developing climate change information to support decision making in 2007. In this effort we face two principal challenges: 1) developing local and regional climate change information products; and 2) diverse stakeholder interests and needs. As an initial effort to develop regional climate change information we have developed a series of "fact sheets" that focus on agricultural stakeholders. The second step in developing climate change information is based on three sources: analysis of historical local data; dynamical downscaling of global circulation; and statistical downscaling. The SECC follows a participatory approach in developing information products, so the great diversity of stakeholders provides a particular challenge. Moreover some decision makers assume that global forecasts are locally relevant and seek only appropriate adaptation or mitigation, others seek locally or regionally downscaled information, others information on how best to benefit from changing policies related to climate change. This presentation will give an overview of SECC products and programs that address the climate change information needs for the southeast USA.
- Publication:
-
AGU Spring Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- May 2008
- Bibcode:
- 2008AGUSMGC54A..02I
- Keywords:
-
- 0402 Agricultural systems;
- 1616 Climate variability (1635;
- 3305;
- 3309;
- 4215;
- 4513);
- 1630 Impacts of global change (1225);
- 1631 Land/atmosphere interactions (1218;
- 1843;
- 3322);
- 1637 Regional climate change