An Overview of Climate Change Induced Hydrological Variations in Canada for Irrigation Strategies
sustainability Review An Overview of Climate Change Induced Hydrological Variations in Canada for Irrigation Strategies Ahmad Zeeshan Bhatti 1,* , Aitazaz Ahsan Farooque 1,2, Nicholas Krouglicof 1, Qing Li 3, Wayne Peters 1, Farhat Abbas 2 and Bishnu Acharya 4 1 Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, PE C1A 4P3, Canada; afarooque@upei.ca (A.A.F.); nkrouglicof@upei.ca (N.K.); wpeters@upei.ca (W.P.) 2 School of Climate Change and Adaptation, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, PE C1A 4P3, Canada; fabbas@upei.ca 3 Department of Environment, Energy, and Climate Action, Government of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, PE C1A 7N8, Canada; qli@gov.pe.ca 4 Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A9, Canada; bsp874@mail.usask.ca * Correspondence: azbhatti@upei.ca; Tel.: +1-(902)-566-6084 Abstract: Climate change is impacting different parts of Canada in a diverse manner. Impacts on temperature, precipitation, and stream flows have been reviewed and discussed region and province- wise. The average warming in Canada was 1.6 ◦C during the 20th century, which is 0.6 ◦C above the global average. Spatially, southern and western parts got warmer than others, and temporally winters got warmer than summers. Explicit implications include loss of Arctic ice @ 12.8% per decade, retreat of British Columbian glaciers @ 40–70 giga-tons/year, and sea level rise of 32 cm/20th century Citation: Bhatti, A.Z.; Farooque, on the east coast, etc. The average precipitation increased since 1950s from under 500 to around A.A.; Krouglicof, N.; Li, Q.; Peters, W.; 600 mm/year, with up to a 10% reduction in Prairies and up to a 35% increase in northern and Abbas, F.; Acharya, B.
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