Short course training: Introduction to the Climate Change Explorer

Submitted by Sukaina Bharwani | published 25th Mar 2011 | last updated 13th Jan 2020

Note: The Climate Change Explorer has now been superceded by the CSAG Climate Information Portal (CIP). The principles are the same and CIP builds on extensive user feedback from use of the Climate Change Explorer. For more information please see the Using Climate Information initiative.

In this session we started thinking about how the Climate Change Explorer can be used to explore a range of possible climate futures, and how we then might be able to use this information to explore the impact on the vulnerabilities identified in the Vulnerability-Exposure exercise.

Key Concepts

Change in precipitation at Jessore, Bangladesh

Adaptation is a largely local process, so we need information about climate change at a local scale. Statistical downscaling is a method that allows us to create station-level projections of climate change.
There are many climate models, and they all produce different results - there is a range of uncertainty in the projections, and it is important to explore this range as we can't be sure which scenario of future climate is 'the right one'.
If we don't look at multiple scenarios of climate change, then there is the potential that the intervention that we make actually increases vulnerability to climate change.
Looking at multiple scenarios allows us to develop more robust strategies.

Resources

Download the presentation here
Manual on the Climate Change Explorer: [1]
Requirements for observed data needed in order to carry out the downscaling procedure: [2]
Paper from Hewitson and Crane (2006) on the process of statistical downscaling used to create the downscaled station-level projections: [3]
Data quality and the downscaling process
Data availability and plans
Interpreting Output