<Climate Change and Stormwater Management>

MCWD Climate Change Conference

"ADAPTING COMMUNITY INFRASTRUCTURE TO CLIMATE CHANGE:
Solutions for stormwater management and community forests"

Thursday, March 13, 2008, 8:30 - 4:00 pm

at MacMillan Auditorium, Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

Brought to you by

in partnership with

FEATURING:
Mark Seeley
University of Minnesota Climatologist and Meteorologist

Joel B. Smith*
IPCC Report Lead Author and International Climate Change Expert

Latham Stack*
Community Stormwater Infrastructure Adaptation Specialist

house surrounded by trees in minneapolis credit www.phototour.minneapolis.mn.us

The climate is changing, and the time to act is now. Observations and predictions point to a variety of impacts on water resources due to greater climate extremes. And in many cases, current engineering design specifications for culvert sizing and other infrastructure are inadequate to handle the rainfall intensities predicted under climate change.

This important conference addresses the current state of climate change knowledge, and the challenges, budgetary implications and anticipated impact on local natural resources associated with climate change. National and regional experts present emerging strategies, tools and policies aimed at managing resource vulnerabilities and risks. Additional sessions will showcase adaptation solutions for stormwater and water resource management (including Low Impact Development), and highlight urban forests as mitigation.

Who should attend? This conference is designed for local government officials and staff, professionals in public works, engineering, planning and design, community forestry leaders, and natural resource professionals.

Topical Overview

Local precipitation trends and predictions
Climate change science: what we know (and what we don’t know)
How climate change will affect water resources and urban forests
Assessing vulnerability of stormwater infrastructure to climate impacts
Planning and policies for resource management in an uncertain future
Low Impact Development as an adaptation strategy
Trees as mitigation for greenhouse gases and trees as stormwater management tools

Registration Fees:

$60.00 for Arboretum Members and MCWD Affiliates
(MCWD Affiliates are those who represent or do work in the cities in the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District)
$80.00 - Regular Registration

Conference flyer and registration form
Conference agenda

Endorsing Partners:

For More Information...
Contact Julie Westerlund, MCWD Communications and Education Manager via email or at 952.471.0590x209

*Speaker Biographies:

Joel B. Smith is vice president of Stratus Consulting. He has been analyzing climate change impacts and adaptation issues for over 20 years. He was a coordinating lead author for the synthesis chapter on climate change impacts for the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a lead author for the U.S. National Assessment on climate change impacts, technical coordinator on vulnerability and adaptation for the U.S. Country Studies Program, and is coordinator of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change series on environment. He has provided technical advice, guidance, and training on assessing climate change impacts and adaptation to people around the world and for clients such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the U.S. EPA, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the State of California. Mr. Smith worked for the U.S. EPA from 1984 to 1992, where he was the deputy director of Climate Change Division. He is a coeditor of EPA’s Report to Congress: The Potential Effects of Global Climate Change on the United States, published in 1989; As Climate Changes: International Impacts and Implications, published by Cambridge University Press in 1995; Adaptation to Climate Change: Assessments and Issues, published by Springer-Verlag in 1996; and Climate Change, Adaptive Capacity, and Development, published in 2003 by Imperial College Press. He joined Hagler Bailly in 1992 and Stratus Consulting in 1998. He has published more than 20 articles and chapters on climate change impacts and adaptation in peer-reviewed journals and books. Besides working on climate change issues at EPA, he also was a special assistant to the assistant administrator for the Office of Policy, Planning and Evaluation. Mr. Smith was a presidential management intern in the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 1982 to 1984. He has also worked in the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Latham Stack is the CEO and Managing Scientist of Syntectic International, a consulting firm helping communities prepare for climate change. Latham's involvement with climate change impacts and adaptation dates to 1998. With colleagues, he recently finished a two-year project developing a model for adapting community-scale infrastructures to climate change. This effort is a diagnostic subproject of the Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison (PCMDI), which supported the just-published International Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report. A paper describing this project is currently in peer review at the journal Climatic Change, and results have been well-received at a number of conferences. Previously, Latham was an entrepreneur, scientific consultant, and auditor. He holds a Masters degree in pollution prevention chemistry, and a Bachelor's degree in financial management and accounting.

Climate Change Impacts on Water Resources and Civil Infrastructure

Water Resources: (The following was excerpted from NextStep, the Minnesota Sustainable Communities Network's website and is a summary of a September 2007 article by Gary Oberts, a senior environmental analyst with Emmons and Olivier Resources Inc. in Oakdale, MN)

Climate trends and scenarios from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Union of Concerned Scientists and the Ecological Society of America point to a number of effects that are "in the pipeline" due to increased C02 in the atmosphere. (See also www.pca.state.mn.us/hot/globalwarming.html). These are occurring or are projected to occur in Minnesota, regardless of how fast and effective world-wide efforts are to decrease CO2 levels. Stormwater managers must evaluate future design in light of these:

Increased spring and winter precipitation; precipitation decreased in fall and by 15% in summer.
Higher, warmer, flashier (shorter, more intense) summer runoff resulting in greater water level fluctuations, erosion and pollutant loading. A doubling of intense storms this century is predicted.
Shorter, warmer winters with reduced ice cover and 15% - 40% increased rain/sleet runoff.
Hotter, longer growing season with longer, more intense droughts.
Decreased annual groundwater recharge and decreased stream baseflow.
See a comprehensive summary of climate change impacts on water resources from the Oberts article

Adaptation measures to consider include:
Use of low-impact building and site design to maximize water infiltration on-site.
Restoration of natural drainage systems (wetlands, floodplains, forest cover).
Increased water conservation measures.
Use of updated (every decade) precipitation frequency and IDF (intensity, duration, frequency) data.
Wiser road salt management and use of stormwater pollution prevention measures.
Reassess current flood and peak storage facilities, especially for winter rains/melting.

Civil Infrastructure: (excerpted from Syntectic International) We are at a critical juncture in history. Significant climate change impacts are now unavoidable and already manifesting. A "wait-and-see" strategy is no longer either prudent or economical. The long useful lives of civil, economic, and industrial infrastructures, combined with the lengthy interval between problem recognition and project completion, mandate that action begin today to accommodate climate change impacts. Failure to plan for the future will expose people, systems, and organizations to unnecessary hazard. Studies on specific problems are showing that preparation for (adaptation to) many climate change impacts can be practical and budgetable.

Climate Change and Stormwater Information and Articles on the Web

News and Magazine Articles

Reports and Guidance Documents

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - Link to the IPPC's web sites, containing reports and other information.
"Potential Impacts of Climate Change on U.S. Transportation" from Transportation Research Board/National National Academy of Sciences - A comprehensive look that addresses risk management and decision making framework
"Preparing for Climate Change" guidebook, King County, Washington
"When It Rains, It Pours: Global Warming and the Rising Frequency of Extreme Precipitation in the United States" from Environment America
New Zealand Ministry for the Environment: Local government guidance materials

Other Web Resources

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
US Global Change Research Program
Minnesota Climate Change Action (Minnesota Pollution Control Agency)
Low Impact Development Resources, Minnehaha Creek Watershed District
Syntectic International (conference speaker Latham Stack) "Climate Change Adaptation Services"
Boston's CLIMB Project (Climate's Long-Term Impacts on Metro Boston)
US Climate Change Science Program
Union of Concerned Scientists