Climate Impacts

Improving Societal Welfare in the Context of Changing Weather and Climate. RAL carries out interdisciplinary research on social, economic, and health activities related to climate and weather at local, regional and global scales. Our research areas include natural resource governance, dynamics of urban systems, weather climate and health, GIS and regional climate for adaptation.   RAL scientists address adaptation to climate change by generating scenarios of projected climate change, developing scientific tools and methods for analyzing current and future vulnerability, and conducting integrated analyses of climate change impacts and adaptation.  An important component of this program is the integration of decision-makers and users of climate information into our societal research activities.

Benefits and Impacts

photo credit Jeff Cutler, waves crashing on Nantasket Beach, Hurricane Sandy - creative commons license

Photo credit Jeff Cutler, waves crashing on Nantasket Beach, Hurricane Sandy - creative commons license

Evaluating and Translating Climate Risk

CRMe is being used within the Climate Science Applications Program’s Regional Climate Science for Adaptation group to link into other national laboratory-level projects, such as the Department of Interior North Central Climate Science Center at Colorado State University, projects for the USDA, World Bank Climate Knowledge Portal and the World Bank International Finance Corp.

SIMMER quantified the importance of characterizing urban properties in urban meteorological simulations and highlighted the role of adaptive capacity in understanding vulnerability to extreme heat.

Evaluating Urban Heat Risk

Public health officials are now using this framework to reduce vulnerabilities.

The ability to predict when and where outbreaks will occur would help allocate limited public health resources. This research is leading to better placement of care givers and medicines to reduce illness and fatalities.

Predicting Outbreak of Vector-Borne Diseases

The ability to predict when and where outbreaks will occur would help allocate limited public health resources. This research is leading to better placement of care givers and medicines to reduce illness and fatalities.

Contact

Please direct questions/comments about this page to:

Olga Wilhelmi

Head of GIS Program

email

Sue Ellen Haupt

Senior Scientist, Deputy Director Research Applications Laboratory

email