Climate information for improved adaptation decision-making: NERC and Environment Agency Policy Placement Fellowship

人们普遍认识到有效的长期适应气候变化的必要性。英国气候变化风险评估(CCRA)列出了气候变化给英国带来的主要风险和适应的优先事项。到2012年，政府将制定国家适应方案，列出将采取的行动，以提高对气候变化的适应能力。其中一项行动是环境局向企业和公共部门组织提供建议和支持，帮助它们适应不断变化的气候。对于如何最好地表达气候变化信息，以便进行适应决策，还有更多的理解余地。因此，政策安排的目的将是通过环境署新的气候准备适应咨询服务，利用研究为气候信息的开发和提供提供信息。传统的环境规划方法隐含地假设气候稳定：最近几十年经历的天气被用来代表未来的气候条件。简单的方法允许调整历史气候以代表未来情况，同时有效地维持气候稳定的假设。然而，这些方法不适合用于瞬时气候预测，可能需要开发新的方法。这一政策定位旨在通过从环境署新的适应建议职责中提取的案例研究来进一步调查这一问题，这些建议职责涵盖关键部门，包括：建筑环境、林业和农业以及主要基础设施。它将审查使用瞬变气候序列是否改善了气候变化的长期规划的问题。这位研究员将在证据局的气候变化研究小组工作。这个团队在提供与政策相关的高质量研究方面有着良好的记录，并拥有令人印象深刻的同行评议出版物清单。这是一个极好的机会，可以开发对从业者产生真正影响的研究。

The need for effective long-term adaptation to climate change is widely recognised. The UK Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA) sets out the main risks to the UK from climate change and the priorities for adaptation. Through 2012, the Government will be developing the National Adaptation Programme to set out the actions that will be taken to improve resilience to climate change. One such action is for the Environment Agency to provide advice and support to businesses and public sector organisations to help them adapt to a changing climate. There is scope for greater understanding of how best to represent climate change information to enable adaptation decision-making. Therefore, the aim of the policy placement will be to use research to inform the development and delivery of climate information through the Environment Agency's new Climate Ready adaptation advice service.Traditional approaches to environmental planning make an implicit assumption of climate stationarity: the weather experienced in recent decades is used to represent the climatic conditions of the future. Simple methods allow adjustment of historic climate to represent future conditions, while effectively maintaining the assumption of climate stationarity. However, these methods are not suitable for use with transient climate projections, and new approaches may need to be developed.This policy placement is intended to investigate this problem further with case studies drawn from the Environment Agency's new adaptation advice duties, which cover key sectors including: built environment, forestry and agriculture, and major infrastructure. It will examine the question of whether the use of transient climate sequences improves long-term planning for climate change. The fellow will work in the climate change research team in the Evidence Directorate. This team has a strong track record of delivering high quality policy-relevant research, as well as an impressive list of peer-reviewed publications. This is an outstanding opportunity to develop research that has a genuine impact with practitioners.