University of Saskatchewan researchers with the Global Water Futures (GWF) program have provided the first detailed projections of major water challenges facing Western Arctic communities such as Inuvik and transportation corridors such as the Dempster Highway by the end of this century.
University of Saskatchewan researchers with the Global Water Futures (GWF) program have provided the first detailed projections of major water challenges facing Western Arctic communities such as Inuvik and transportation corridors such as the Dempster Highway by the end of this century.
“There will be a tipping point reached over the next few decades, putting at risk communities whose infrastructure was designed for 20th century climate and hydrology,” said Dr. John Pomeroy (PhD), senior author of a recent paper in the American Meteorological Society’s prestigious Journal of Hydrometeorology.
“Humanity has to act quickly and decisively to avert such a future, and that will involve reducing greenhouse gas concentrations and improving infrastructure to better withstand the extreme events that are coming,” said Pomeroy, director of the USask Centre for Hydrology and director of the USask-led GWF, the largest freshwater research program in the world.
Researchers investigated the resilience of northern infrastructure such as the Dempster Highway to climate change, and the results are disturbing, said Pomeroy. Their findings suggest infrastructure may have to be reinforced and redesigned for anticipated larger floods and more intense hydrological events in the decades ahead.
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Image via University of Saskatchewan.
