Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (RISA)

RISAs are comprised of physical, natural, engineering and social scientists who partner with stakeholders to determine how climate impacts key resources and how climate information could aid in decision-making.

http://www.climate.noaa.gov

RISAs as R&D intermediaries to stakeholders

County Executives;

Governors’ Offices;

Extension Agents Example Users

State & Local Water/Forestry/

Fisheries Managers

Integratedclimate-fisheriesmodeling

Climate-forest fire-economicresearch

Institutionalanalysis

Urban & regionalplanninganalysis

climate-hydrology-water

management modeling

Climate-crop

economicmodeling

Socioeconomic impacts,

responses, & planning

White Papers

Small Meetings

Newsletters

User Conferences

Seasonal OutlookMeetings

Website Tools

Surveys & Studies

Vulnerability Analysis

Collaborative Projects

Drought Task Forces

RISA Web-based Climate-Agriculture Tool

•Funded by NOAA and USDA•Based on years of research, work with extension personnel, and stakeholder evaluations•Developed for southeast US•Now being tested for application in southwest US

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• Run by the Southwest RISA (CLIMAS) and sponsored by NOAA, DOI, USDA, DHS, FEMA, National Association of State Foresters;

• Tools for proactive fire management;

• Bring together climatologists, predictive service units, and fire managers from across the nation; and

• Improve information available to fire management decision makers by incorporating the best science and collaboration between fire and climate experts.

National Fire Assessment Workshops

Coastal Climate Extension Specialist Pilot Program

• NOAA’s RISA and Sea Grant programs co-sponsor a pilot: Coastal Climate Extension Specialist located in the Carolinas that:– explores the benefits of connecting

RISA’s climate adaptation knowledge with Sea Grant’s coastal knowledge and extension network;

– extends science-based information to coastal communities, resource managers and interest groups in North and South Carolina;

– contributes to coastal climate research motivated by community needs; and

– provides hands-on operational and technical support for coastal climate issues.

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Cross-RISA Colorado River project: CAP, CIG, CLIMAS, WWA RISAs

• Provide a comparable range of credible projections of future Colorado River stream flow based on the best available climate information.

• Examine the responses of the hydrology models to GCM model output using a new downscaling technique which preserves precipitation changes from the GCM.

• Diagnose the role of high elevation feedback on future sensitivities, potential transitions to more arid landscapes, and investigations of which GCMs perform the best over the Colorado River.

• On November 14, 2008, the team held a stakeholder meeting at the Southern Nevada Water Authority attended by over 50 key stakeholders. The year-2 effort will be modified as necessary to include the concerns of these attendees.

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Tree-ring reconstructions of streamflow and climate for the Rio Grande basin and adjacent basins

Tree-ring reconstructions of annual streamflow

Rio Grande Basin• Saguache Creek (SAG) • Alamosa River (ALA) • Rio Grande, Del Norte CO (RGD) • Conejos River (CON) • Rio Grande, Otowi, NM (RGO)

• Otowi NRCS gage • Otowi naturalized flow

Canadian Basin• Canadian River (CAN)

Rio Grande TreeFlow• Reconstruction data access

• Web-based tools for analysis

• Applications to drought planning and water management

• Links to stakeholder workshops

• Ongoing collaborations with New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission and Taos Pueblo

• Support for field work from USGShttp://wwa.colorado.edu/treeflow/riogrande/index.html RISA Program/U. Arizona/U. Colorado

NOAA’s Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (RISA) program