| Effective adaptation to climate change requires knowledge of how climate will change and how the changes will affect the environment. The objective of this research is to examine the impacts of climate change on water resources (streamflow and runoff). Daily future climate change scenarios at the watershed scale have been developed using ClimGEN, a stochastic weather generator, linked with CGCM2 outputs. The developed climate scenarios are then transformed into river flows of two study watersheds by CANWET, a hydrologic model specifically tailored to meet the needs of Ontario Environmental policies and regulations.;The climate change scenario evaluated suggests decreases of monthly runoff and streamflow for spring and summer, and a significant increase for winter. The predicted results suggest that earlier spring peak flows, and more even distribution of spring peaks can be expected under the future climate scenario although average annual streamflow and runoff are expected to decrease. The findings of this research can provide information for policy makers to identify and eliminate barriers and disincentives to adaptation. |
