Reno, Nev. (September 4, 2024) – Climate change is intensifying storms, floods, droughts, and fires, presenting new challenges for communities worldwide. To aid emergency managers in preparing for these future weather extremes, DRI scientists have collaborated with the U.S. Geological Survey to produce a guidance document. This report leverages publicly available data on historical and projected extreme weather events to enhance emergency planning exercises.
The California Department of Water Resources funded the report, which is accessible on DRI’s website. It targets two primary audiences: emergency management practitioners and data developers. For practitioners, it provides current climate science projections and increased risk assessments for use in exercises. Data developers receive techniques for building scenarios and presenting information effectively to emergency managers.
“Emergency response planners, critical infrastructure owners and operators, and natural resource managers in our region face impacts from increasingly frequent and severe atmospheric river (AR) storm events due to global warming,” said Maureen McCarthy, research professor of environmental science at DRI and a lead author of the report. “Damage from these extreme storms cost millions of dollars in response and long-duration recovery funding and put Tribal and underserved communities at particularly high risk.”
The report emphasizes using climate data—such as temperature, precipitation, and wind—to create simulations that visualize potential impacts' timing and locations. These visualizations help emergency managers prepare or respond more effectively by extending their understanding beyond past events.
“There’s been a lot of work into incorporating climate change into adaptation planning in California and Nevada,” noted Christine Albano, ecohydrologist at DRI and lead author of the report. “In many cases, emergency managers will use a historical storm for their exercise scenario but make it qualitatively more severe to address climate change.” The new approach advocates for creating quantitative scenarios that provide maps, visuals, and data to help people conceptualize potential future events vividly.
Albano highlighted that different emergencies require varying amounts of data work. For instance, landslides or wildfires need minute-by-minute data over small areas while drought responses might only need daily data but cover larger regions.
Lessons from previous projects like Water for the Seasons (focused on drought scenarios) informed this guidance document's creation. The ARkStorm@SierraFront Project continues efforts to prepare communities in California and Nevada for extreme atmospheric river events.
“Discussions with community members combined with the tabletop exercise provided insights about the effectiveness of federal, tribal, state, local and private sector emergency response plans,” McCarthy added.
Albano emphasized that integrating climate change into emergency planning has been an ongoing effort: “The data and tools now available are incredible.” The report offers an updated list of resources aimed at aiding emergency managers.
– @driscience –
More information: The report can be found at: https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/webfiles.dri.edu/Projects/ARkStormTahoe2/Albanoetal2024_DRITechReport41303v2.pdf
Authors include Christine Albano (DRI), Maureen McCarthy (DRI), Stephanie McAfee (USGS), Anne Wein (USGS), Michael Dettinger (DRI).
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Founded in 1959 as Nevada’s non-profit research institute focused on addressing pressing scientific questions globally.