A Graphical Representation of Climate Change Impacts with Associated Uncertainties

Recent decades have seen increased occurrence of extreme climatic events, which have had devastating consequences, both in terms of loss of life and property. Proper understanding of the possible variations in climatic extremes is important in developing mitigation and adaptation plans. Climate change impact prediction employs a series of numerical models, each with their own limitations that contribute towards the overall uncertainty. Climate change impact prediction results are often not intuitive to a decision maker and the added complexities from uncertainties can complicate the policy making exercise. A clear and concise representation of the possible risks of climate change and the associated uncertainties needs to be developed to bridge the gap between the climate scientist and the policy maker. Here, a framework for graphical representation of regional climate risks in terms of hazards and vulnerabilities is developed. The uncertainties are quantified in terms of level of confidence as the result of an ensemble exercise. To help regional stakeholders relate to the prediction results, analysis of extremes is performed with respect to historical hazards in the region. Risk factors for climate extremes that happened in the past in the region are studied and the future risk for an event of same return period is compared to the historical risk. The methodology is validated in the Bharathapuzha catchment in Kerala, India, a catchment which is identified to be climate change hotspot. In terms of flood events, the risk of low intensity flood events is seen to be increasing in the catchment with high confidence, while high intensity flood events are seen to be predicted at low levels of confidence. The catchment is seen to be drying up with high intensity drought events being predicted at high confidence.