Climate change in Australia
Australia is in the grip of its worst drought on record. Drastic water restrictions are in place and the 2006/2007 winter crop yields were the lowest for over 10 years. Is this a sign of climate change? Will this year bring an end to the drought?
To address the critical issue of climate change, the Government in the north eastern state of Queensland has formed a collaboration with the Walker Institute.
Our scientists are working with the Queensland Climate Change Centre of Excellence to improve climate forecasts - for anything from a month to many decades ahead - and to develop the ability to cope with the impacts on agriculture, water resources and business sectors like insurance.
See the press release >>
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Prof Gordon Marshall (left), Vice-Chancellor of the University of Reading and Mr Peter Beattie (right),
Premier of Queensland (at the time of signing), at the formal ceremony to agree research collaboration with the Walker Institute, March 2007. |
Managing the risks of climate change
Our expertise in climate and its effects on agriculture, land-use and water resources will be used to help manage the substantial risks of climate for society and businesses in Queensland.
We're improving climate models so they are more realistic in the tropics, from individual tropical rain clouds to the much larger scales of the Australian/Asian monsoon and El Niño. With improved models we can assess with more confidence whether man-made climate change is contributing to the current drought and improve the quality of climate forecasts for the coming season to many decades ahead.
Higher resolution climate models being developed at the Walker Institute will be used alongside high resolution observational data to improve seasonal forecasts of the likely location, frequency and severity of a range of hazardous weather events and to assess how such events might change over the coming decades.
With our expertise we can also assess flooding and drought risk under different climate conditions, and the impacts on water quality, water esources and agriculture.
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