Invitamos a la Charla del Dr. Koen Verbist, Hydrological Systems & Global Change Section, Division of Water Sciences. Natural Sciences Sector. El viernes 23 de agosto a las 12:00 hrs en la Sala de Seminarios del 5to Piso, Departamento de Geofísica (Blanco Encalada 2002. FCFM)
Climate risk management is an important challenge in the drylands of Chile, which are characterized by frequent droughts that pose great stress on water resources for agriculture and human consumption. UNESCO-IHP, in cooperation with the Water Centre for Arid and semi-arid Zones of Latin and the Caribbean (CAZALAC) and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), is developing a set of decision support tools for the Chilean Ministry of Agriculture that support an active management of climate risk by monitoring current conditions, provide seasonal outlooks on the short term and project water availability into the upcoming decades (near-term climate change).
A first product that is made available is the Chilean Drought Atlas, which presents drought frequency, intensity and duration of drought events in the region. This tool visualizes drought risk throughout the region and reduces uncertainties on drought vulnerability.
A second aspect focuses on current droughts, and constitutes a drought observatory for the region. This observatory presents (remote sensing) information on actual precipitation deficits, available surface water resources and vegetation stress, through a combined drought severity index. Third, uncertainty on upcoming drought events is reduced through a seasonal drought forecasting system, that is currently in place for selected pilot areas. With this system, droughts are predicted with up to four months lead time, which allows visualizing the impact of upcoming droughts on the different surface and subsurface water resources that are available in dryland watersheds. As such, the vulnerability to drought can be visualized in a spatially distributed manner, and permits advance drought planning and early response to specifically affected sectors. Finally, work is on-going to incorporate near-term climate change projections of water availability as an integral part of the decision support system.