Climate Change Impacts on NM Mountain Sources of Water
This IAS-supported effort will engage LANL in a large, multi-institutional effort to quantify the impact of anthropogenic climate change on the water resources of northern New Mexico. The snow-melt dominated watersheds of northern New Mexico, including those in the Sange de Cristo, San Juan, and Jemez Mountains, are considered to be especially vulnerable to anticipated climate change due to their latitudinal location in western North America. In order to comprehensively address both the scientific challenges and the socioeconomic implications of this work, the project will bring together people from more than twenty institutions, agencies, and laboratories from around the state, including climate scientists, economists, and policy makers. IAS participation in this proposal will significantly enhance the educational component of this effort through support for graduate summer schools, support for an annual workshop entitled "Bridging Disciplines, Bridging Scales," and support for developing and administering new curriculum that will be available to all the primary research institutions through IAS distance learning facilities.
Graduate Summer School in Regional Climate Modeling: These summer schools will bring together PhD students from NM institutions, along with other exceptional students from around the states, for an intensive study of regional climate modeling. Students will be exposed to the state-of-the-art in global climate modeling, regional climate downscaling, surface hydrological modeling, and economic modeling. The emphasis will be on how to connect these various modeling approaches in a physically realistic and computationally tractable manner.
"Bridging Disciplines, Bridging Scales" Workshop: The focus of these workshops will be on how we relate changes in the physical climate to socioeconomic impacts. The major themes will be how to institute connections across disciplines (e.g. climate change, surface hydrology, economic modeling) and how to bridge the tremendous gaps in spatial and temporal scales (e.g. from global climate change to economic impacts in New Mexico). Scientists from around NM will be joined by national and international leaders in these fields.
Graduate Seminar in Climate Change: This course will be hosted at the LANL Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS) and broadcasted to New Mexico universities through the IAS distance learning facilities. The seminar course will be offered annually and it will include EPSCoR scientists and recognized experts from within and outside the state that are engaged in climate, hydrology and socioeconomic studies related to climate change.
Contact: Todd Ringler, ringler@lanl.gov
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