Climate Resilience

Our climate is changing and there is an increasing need to adapt to these conditions. Future predictions of rainfall and temperatures are expected to lead to changes in the seasonal distribution of rainfall with wetter, warmer winters and dryer, warmer summers. These conditions along with the predicted increased frequency of more extreme events will lead to more frequent flood and drought conditions.

Climate resilience involves ensuring that our existing infrastructure is able to adapt to these conditions (e.g. water supply during droughts) and that new development can withstand these conditions (e.g. designing for exceedance).

The restoration of natural processes can often provide improved resilience, especially where natural conditions have been altered over time. Such approaches including re-afforestation, peatland restoration, river restoration and re- naturalisation can be very effective, however the changes often have to be assessed in terms of wider potential impacts.

Key Services

Key services in this area that EnviroCentre can provide include:

Future climate change modelling scenarios (rainfall, river flows, sea levels, temperature)
Water resource assessment (flood, drought, land use change)
Flood risk assessment (surface water, rivers, coastal)
Restoration of physical habitat and natural processes (floodplain reconnection, habitat management)
Engineering and habitat design for extremes (water supply intakes, flood defences, erosion control, tree planting)

For further information and to discuss your upcoming projects, contact us today.