UF Water Institute

Working Groups

The Florida Water and Climate Alliance is a collaborative effort focused on increasing the relevance of climate change and variability data and tools to the planning and operations of Florida’s public water supply utilities. The partners are interested in how climate variability/change and sea level rise may impact planning and operations of Florida’s public water supply utilities. The collaborative working group promotes shared knowledge, data, models and decision-making tools among public water suppliers, water resource managers, climate scientists and hydrologic scientists.

FloridaWCA is the focus of “Collaboration tackles climate impacts on water supply” by Wendy Graham. Click here!

TampaBay Water’s innovative use of climate science in utility operations decision-making is highlighted in the feature article of NOAA’s ClimateWatch magazine: Florida's Fragile Oasis. http://www.climatewatch.noaa.gov/article/2012/floridas-fragile-oasis, and brings out the value of the Florida Water and Climate Alliance, coordinated by the UF Water Institute. Click on the videos to hear Alison Adams view of why a group like this is helpful and how the research is helping, and Vasu Misra explain the challenges, risks, and rewards of including climate forecasts in the process of making water management decisions.

Reference to the working group activities also appeared as a spotlight feature of NOAA's Oceanic and Atmospheric research http://www.oar.noaa.gov/spotlite/archive/2012/articles/fragile_oasis/fragile_oasis.html

"Collaborative Development of Public Water Supply Utility Relevant Climate Information for Improved Operations and Planning." Funded by NOAA SARP CSI-Water, Project Dates: 09/01/2011 - 8/31/2013

Executive Advisory Committee Meeting Notes, November 2011
Technical Work Group "roadmaps" - May 2012

Annual Reports

Year 1

"Use of Seasonal Climate Forecasts to Minimize Short-Term Operational Risks for Water Supply and Ecosystem Restoration". Funded by NOAA_OAR_CPO, Project Dates: 10/2012 - 9/2014

Synthesis of Preliminary Stakeholder Phone Meetings, September, 2010
Wendy Graham and Lisette Staal, UF Water Institute (Report)
A Review of Regional and Global Water Utilities Use of Climate Information
Victoria Keener, PhD. University of Florida, Southeast Climate Consortium (Handout Workshop 1)
Bibliography of resources related to Climate and Water Utilities
Victoria Keener, PhD, University of Florida, Southeast Climate Consortium (Handout Workshop 1)
Working Group Monitoring and Feedback – Research Summary of Report 1
Wendylin Bartels, PhD, University of Florida, Florida Climate Institute (Handout Workshop 2)
“What Can We Learn from other Groups”
Includes participant summaries of groups focused on impacts of climate change, climate variability and sea level rise on public water utilities, compiled by Lisette Staal, UF Water Institute (Pre-workshop document Workshop 2)
Development of Public Water Supply Utility Relevant Climate Information for Improved Operations and Planning: Implementing a collaborative working group process in Florida, Staal, L. et. al., November 2010 (Poster presented at Florida Climate Institute, Tallahassee Florida)
Participants’ PROJECT Summaries
Brief descriptions of participants’ projects focused on Evaluation of potential climate impacts to Water Utilities — updated May 2011
Draft Declaration of Collaboration, May 2011
This document was prepared as an action item from Workshop 2. It was distributed for consideration at Workshop 3, but was not specifically discussed. Participants agreed to review and send comments to lstaal@ufl.edu.
Development of Public Water Supply Utility Relevant Climate Information for Improved Operations and Planning, Staal, L. et. al., November 2011 (Poster presented at Southeast Climate Consortium, Tallahassee Florida)
Two Sides of the Same Coin: Communicating Climate Change Science to Stakeholders in Florida and Hawai'i. Keener, V. W., Staal, L., & Finucane, M. L. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, "Scientist Participation in Science Communication" Session, San Francisco, CA, December 5-9, 2011.

Workshop 2, January 20, 2011

Workshop 3, May 4, 2011

Agenda
Workshop Report
Presentations

COAPS Land-Atmosphere Regional Reanalysis: Dynamic Downscaling to 10km using NCEP-Scripps RSM 1979-2001, Vasu Misra, FSU EOAS, COAPS, SEC
Assessment of Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Potential:
Cropping Systems in the SE USA, Jim Jones, Florida Climate Institute, SouthEast Climate Consortium

Statistical and Dynamic Downscaling of GCM predictions for use with Tampa Bay Water's Integrated Hydrologic Model, Wendy Graham, UF Water Institute
Use of Intra-seasonal and Seasonal Forecasts to Reduce Risk in Regional Public Water Supply Management, Chris Martinez, University of Florida
Long-Term Climate Change Evaluation for the St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD), Water Supply Impact Study (WSIS), Michael Cullum, P.E., SJRWMD

Research Agenda Task Group

Agenda
Workshop Report (pending)
Presentations

Workshop #8 Introduction – Staal, Lisette, University of Florida
“Florida Water and Climate Alliance - Knowledge Management System & FloridaWCA.org” – Irani, T and Erica Odera, University of Florida
“2013 National Climate Assessment Report” a presentation by Jayantha Obeysekara, SFWMD
“Southeast Region Technical Input Report to the National Climate Assessment” a presentation by Keith Ingram, UF . The full report is available at http://downloads.usgcrp.gov/NCA/Activities/NCA_SE_Technical_Report_FINAL_7-23-12.pdf
“Central Florida Water Initiative - Background and Model Overview” a presentation by Ken Herd, SWFWMD
“Climate Change Impact Assessment over West Central Florida” a presentation by Syewoon Hwang, Wendy Graham
Session 6: Science to Action in FloridaWCA- looking back, looking forward, Staal, Lisette, UF

Task Groups

Research - Develop a Florida Public Water supply Utility Research Agenda

Lead, Tirusew Asefa, Tampa Bay Water (formed in Workshop 2, January 20, 2011)

Research Agenda—ideas for research (working draft in progress)

Science - Plan science workshops to highlight recent climate change/climate variability/SLR relevant to Public Water Utilities

Lead, Wendy Graham, University of Florida. (formed in Workshop 2, January 20, 2011)

SUS/FAU/FCI White Paper – Explore ways to leverage SUS/FAU/FCI climate white papers on "Water Management"

Lead, Len Berry and Nicole Hammer, Florida Atlantic University (formed in Workshop 2, January 20, 2011)

Explore and suggest mechanisms to share the efforts of PWSU-CIWG with others including smaller utilities (formed in Workshop 3, May 4, 2011)
- Lead, Jessica Bolson, Miami University

Web Links - Participant related/suggested

Scenarios for Climate Assessment and Adaptation http://scenarios.globalchange.gov - A suite of scenarios of sea level rise, regional and national climate, land use and land cover, and other conditions. This website provides an overview of and links to reports, data sets, graphics, and other information intended as input to the U.S. National Climate Assessment (NCA). (Submitted by Keith Ingram, January 2013)
Of particular interest, Regional Climate Trends and Scenarios for the U.S. National Climate Assessment Part 2. Climate of the Southeast U.S., NOAA Technical Report NESDIS 142-2Washington, D.C. , January 2013 (Submitted by Keith Ingram, January 2013)
“2012 South Florida Weather Year in Review”, NOAA, NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE, WEATHER FORECAST OFFICE, Miami, Florida 33165(Submitted by Nancy Gallinaro, January 2013)
Data Digest from the Florida Climate Institute- Dr. Vasu Misra (link to pdf)
DATASET – Florida Climate Institute - Florida State University Seasonal Hindcasts at 50km resolution (FISH50). FISH50 is a global seasonal hindcast (or reforecast) for the period 1982-2008. (Submitted by Vasu Misra)
ASCLiP FORECAST FORUM (IFF) forecasts experimental in nature (submitted by Vasu Misra)
Bolson, Jessica and Kenneth Broad, “Early Adoption of Climate Information: Lessons Learned from South Florida Water Resource Management” http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/WCAS-D-12-00002.1
Martinez, Christopher J., J. Maleski, M. Miller, “Trends in precipitation and temperature in Florida, USA,” shows that mean, maximum, and minimum temperatures have all increased in Florida over the period of record available (1895 to present) and in recent years (1970 to present). Results have been published in the Journal of Hydrology: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2012.05.066
Misra, V., E. Carlson, R. K. Craig, D. Enfield, B. Kirtman, W. Landing, S.-K. Lee, D. Letson, F. Marks, J. Obeysekera, M. Powell, S.-l Shin, 2011: Climate Scenarios: A Florida-Centric View, Florida Climate Change Task Force. [Available online at http://floridaclimate.org/whitepapers/]
Mitchum, Gary T., University of South Florida, August 2011, Sea Level Changes in the Southeastern United States: Past, Present, and Future. The Florida Climate Institute (FloridaClimateInstitute.org) commissioned this report funded by the Southeast Climate Consortium (SEClimate.org)
Obeysekera, J. et. al., July 2011, Past and Projected Trends in Climate and Sea Level for South Florida, SFWMD Hydrologic and Environmental Systems Modeling, Technical Report, July 2011
SANDIA REPORT, SAND2011-0039, Unlimited Release, March 2010. A Deeper Look at Climate Change and National Security, A.D. Romig Jr., George A. Backus, and Arnold B. Baker; Prepared by Sandia National Laboratories Albuquerque, New Mexico 87815 and Livermore, California 94550