CENTRAL SLOPES CLUSTER REPORT PROJECTIONS FOR AUSTRALIA´ S NRM REGIONS 14-00140 CENTRAL SLOPES CLUSTER REPORT PROJECTIONS FOR AUSTRALIA´ S NRM REGIONS © CSIRO 2015 CLIMATE CHANGE IN AUSTRALIA PROJECTIONS CLUSTER REPORT – CENTRAL SLOPES ISBN Print: 978-1-4863-0418-9 Online: 978-1-4863-0419-6 CITATION Ekström, M. et al. 2015, Central Slopes Cluster Report, Climate Change in Australia Projections for Australia’s Natural Resource Management Regions: Cluster Reports, eds. Ekström, M. et al., CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology, Australia. CONTACTS E: [email protected] T: 1300 363 400 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER Lead Author – Marie Ekström. © 2015 CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology. To the extent permitted by law, all rights are reserved and no part of this Contributing Authors – Debbie Abbs, Jonas Bhend, publication covered by copyright may be reproduced or Francis Chiew, Dewi Kirono, Chris Lucas, Kathleen McInnes, copied in any form or by any means except with the written Aurel Moise, Freddie Mpelasoka, Leanne Webb and permission of CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology. Penny Whetton. Editors – Marie Ekström, Penny Whetton, Chris Gerbing, IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER Michael Grose, Leanne Webb and James Risbey. CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology advise that the Additional acknowledgements – Janice Bathols, Tim Bedin, information contained in this publication comprises general John Clarke, Tim Erwin, Craig Heady, Peter Hoffman, statements based on scientific research. The reader is Jack Katzfey, Tony Rafter, Surendra Rauniyar, advised and needs to be aware that such information may Bertrand Timbal, Yang Wang and Louise Wilson. be incomplete or unable to be used in any specific situation. No reliance or actions must therefore be made on that Project coordinators – Kevin Hennessy, Paul Holper and information without seeking prior expert professional, Mandy Hopkins. scientific and technical advice. To the extent permitted Design and editorial support – Alicia Annable, by law, CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology (including Siobhan Duffy, Liz Butler, and Peter Van Der Merwe. their employees and consultants) exclude all liability to any person for any consequences, including but not limited We gratefully acknowledge the project funding provided to all losses, damages, costs, expenses and any other by the Department of the Environment through the compensation, arising directly or indirectly from using this Regional Natural Resource Management Planning for publication (in part or in whole) and any information or Climate Change Fund and thank all the participants in this material contained in it. project. We also thank Andrew Tait, Michael Hutchinson, David Karoly and reviewers from CSIRO, Bureau of Meteorology and the Department of the Environment for This report has been printed on ecoStar, a recycled paper their invaluable contributions. made from 100% post-consumer waste. We acknowledge the World Climate Research Programme’s Working Group on Coupled Modelling, which is responsible for CMIP, and we thank the climate modelling groups for producing and making available their model output. For CMIP the U.S. Department of Energy’s Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison provides coordinating support and led development of software infrastructure in partnership with the Global Organization for Earth System Science Portals. cluster report: CENTRAL SLOPES 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE . 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY . 4 1 THE CENTRAL SLOPES CLUSTER . 7 2 CLIMATE OF CENTRAL SLOPES . 8 3 SIMULATING REGIONAL CLIMATE . 10 4 THE CHANGING CLIMATE OF THE CENTRAL SLOPES . 13 4 1. Ranges of projected climate change and confidence in projections . 14 4 2 . Temperature . 15 4 2 .1 . Extremes . 19 4 3 . Rainfall . 21 4 .3 1. Heavy rainfall events . 23 4 3 . 2 . Drought . 24 4 .4 Winds, storms and weather systems . 25 4 .4 1. Mean winds . 25 4 .4 .2 Extreme winds . 26 4 .4 .3 Tropical and extra-tropical cyclones . 26 4 .5 Solar radiation . 27 4 6. Relative humidity . 27 4 7. Potential evapotranspiration . 27 4 .8 Soil moisture and runoff . 28 4 9. Fire weather . 29 4 10. Other projection material for the cluster . 30 5 APPLYING THE REGIONAL PROJECTIONS IN ADAPTATION PLANNING . 31 5 1. Identifying future climate scenarios . 31 5 .2 Developing climate scenarios using the Climate Futures tool . 32 REFERENCES . 35 APPENDIX . 38 ABBREVIATIONS . 41 NRM GLOSSARY OF TERMS . 42 2 CLIMATE CHANGE IN AUSTRALIA PREFACE Australia’s changing climate represents a significant In recognition of the impact of climate change on the challenge to individuals, communities, governments, management of Australia’s natural resources, the Australian businesses and the environment. Australia has already Government developed the Regional Natural Resource experienced increasing temperatures, shifting rainfall Management Planning for Climate Change Fund. This fund patterns and rising oceans. has enabled significant research into the impact of the future climate on Australia’s natural resources, as well as The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) adaptation opportunities for protecting and managing our Fifth Assessment Report (IPCC 2013) rigorously assessed the land, soil, water, plants and animals. current state and future of the global climate system. The report concluded that: Australia has 54 natural resource management (NRM) regions, which are defined by catchments and bioregions. • greenhouse gas emissions have markedly increased as a Many activities of organisations and ecosystem services result of human activities within the NRM regions are vulnerable to impacts of • human influence has been detected in warming of the climate change. atmosphere and the ocean, in changes in the global For this report, these NRM regions are grouped into water cycle, in reductions in snow and ice, in global ‘clusters’, which largely correspond to the broad-scale mean sea level rise, and in changes in some climate climate and biophysical regions of Australia (Figure A). The extremes clusters are diverse in their history, population, resource • it is extremely likely that human influence has been the base, geography and climate. Therefore, each cluster has a dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid- unique set of priorities for responding to climate change. 20th century CSIRO and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology have • continued emissions of greenhouse gases will cause prepared tailored climate change projection reports for each further warming and changes in all components of the NRM cluster. These projections provide guidance on the climate system. changes in climate that need to be considered in planning. FIGURE A: THE EIGHT NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (NRM) CLUSTERS cluster report: CENTRAL SLOPES 3 This is the regional projections report for the Central The projections in this report are based on the outputs Slopes cluster. This document provides projections in a of sophisticated global climate models (GCMs). GCMs are straightforward and concise format with information about based on the laws of physics, and have been developed the cluster as a whole, as well as additional information at over many years in numerous centres around the world. finer scales where appropriate. These models are rigorously tested for their ability to reproduce past climate. The projections in this report This cluster report is part of a suite of products. These primarily use output from the ensemble of model include a brochure for each cluster that provides the key simulations brought together for the Coupled Model Inter- projection statements in a brief format. There is also the comparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5) (Taylor et al., 2012), Australian climate change projections Technical Report, where phase 5 is the most recent comparison of model which describes the underlying scientific basis for the climate simulations addressing, amongst other things, projections change projections. Box 1 describes all supporting products. of future climates. In this report, outputs from GCMs in This report provides the most up to date, comprehensive the CMIP5 archive are complemented by regional climate and robust information available for this part of Australia, modelling and statistical downscaling. and draws on both international and national data resources and published peer-reviewed literature. BOX 1: CLIMATE CHANGE IN AUSTRALIA – PRODUCTS This report is part of a suite of Climate Change in in other products. It contains an extensive set of figures Australia (CCIA) products prepared with support from and descriptions on recent Australian climate trends, the Australian Government’s Regional Natural Resource global climate change science, climate model evaluation Management Planning for Climate Change Fund. processes, modelling methodologies and downscaling These products provide information on climate change approaches. The report includes a chapter describing projections and their application. how to use climate change data in risk assessment and adaptation planning. CLUSTER BROCHURES Purpose: key regional messages for everyone WEB PORTAL URL: www.climatechangeinaustralia.gov.au A set of brochures that summarise key climate change Purpose: one stop shop for products, data and learning projections for each of the eight clusters. The brochures are a useful tool for community engagement. The CCIA website is for Australians to find comprehensive information about the future climate. This includes CLUSTER REPORTS some information on the impacts of climate change that communities, including the