Water Resilience and Climate Uncertainty

Water resources managers around the world are facing growing uncertainty and risk from more intense and frequent extreme hydrologic events, changes in seasonality to precipitation patterns, increasing temperatures and sea-level rise. Coupled with increasing demands and competing uses, our world requires dynamic solutions to protect, maintain and manage our water resources sustainably into the future.

The RTI Center for Water Resources provides the essential information you need to understand how climate variability and change could impact your system’s reliability. Our state-of-the-art approaches and analysis tools help you to account for environmental uncertainty, assess risks and analyze vulnerabilities to make informed water resources planning and management decisions.

Our investigations explore impacts to water resources systems and aquatic ecosystems due to (1) changes in specific climate variables, such as temperature and precipitation, and (2) secondary effects like climate-induced wildfires, infrastructure failures, shifting populations and water use patterns. We develop solutions to help you better prepare for and manage the impacts of climate change in an increasingly unpredictable environment.

Our climate resilience services include the following:

• Interpretation and application of global climate model parameters
• Flood and drought risk assessment and mitigation
• Decision support for water resources systems under deep uncertainty
• Ecological impacts of climate change
• Economic analyses for mitigation and adaptation strategies
• Integrated water resources modeling and information systems
• Assessment of the impacts of hydrologic extremes on water supply
• Resiliency and adaptation planning, knowledge transfer, and training
• Comparative land use and climate change impact analyses

Learn more about the RTI Center for Water Resources