An Integrated Assessment of Hydroclimate Risks for Prince Edward Island

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There is now overwhelming evidence that climate change and extreme weather events are on the rise in Canada, which can bring ever-increasing costs to governments, businesses, and ultimately all Canadians. This is particularly true for Prince Edward Island (PEI) as every day we see the evidence in more extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and coastal flooding. While we are doing our part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,we really need to think about how to adapt to the changing climate in the coming years. This requires us to make informed adaptative decisions which relies on a full understanding of the potential impacts of future climate change on our communities, infrastructures, watersheds, and ecosystems. Therefore, the main objective of this project is to carry out a comprehensive assessment of short-term and long-term climate and hydrologic risks across PEI through a partnership between UPEI Climate Research Lab and PEI Department of Environment, Water and Climate Change. In particular, high-resolution climate scenarios with a spatial resolution of 1km will be developed for the entire island of PEI; flooding risks under heavy rainfalls across PEI will be evaluated through the development of a new flood prediction model; and impacts of future climate change on water resources, water quality, and soil erosion for all PEI watersheds will be assessed through the development of an hydroclimate ensemble modeling framework. The results from this project will be eventually shared with the public through the development of a GIS- and web-based hydroclimate data portal. The outcomes from this project will provide a scientific basis for implementing the PEI Climate Change Action Plan.