Hello Everyone,
February is gone . . . or was it skipped this year! Welcome to March and the scent of spring in the Northern hemisphere and some cooler evenings here in New Zealand, but still very summer-like during the day. We have some interesting news this month as new projects get underway and linkages are made.
Items in this news post include:
1] Matthew and the software team have just released a new update - SimCLIM 2.2.0.4.
In SimCLIM Go to Help and click on Check for Updates, download the update (be sure SimCLIM is closed) and click on the download to install the update and when finished open SimCLIM.
Date of release: 3 March 2010
Note: this release is a rollup of 2.2.0.2, 2.2.0.3 and 2.2.0.4
2] CLIMsystems is happy to announce a number of new Associates
These include Dr. Rex Cruz and Dr John Pulhin of the University of the Philippines Los Banos. Both bring extensive climate change and sector interests in forestry, basins and community development in Asia. Rex completed his PhD at the University of Arizona and John did his PhD at the Australian National University. Both have been Lead Authors for the IPCC and have interesting climate change adaptation projects underway in the region.
We also wish to welcome Mr. Joel Smith who has 24 years of experience with environmental, policy, and regulatory issues, particularly as they relate to global climate change. He is an expert on global climate change impacts and adaptation and has worked extensively with agencies such as the EPA in the United States and with numerous agencies internationally. Joel was the lead author for the Synthesis chapter on climate change impacts for the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and a coordinating lead author for the same chapter in the Third Assessment Report.
We also wish to welcome two of Joel's colleague as Associates: Dr. Jason Vogel who completed his PhD at the University of Colorado. His interests are in policy analysis, climate change impacts and adaptation assessment, decision analysis, risk assessment, climate science, chemical regulation, high-level radioactive waste, natural resources management, environmental research, data management and statistics. Along with Joel and Jason we are happy to have Mr. Brian Lazar who has completed his MS in Environmental/Water Resource Engineering at the University of Colorado. Brian's interests are in the characterization and mechanics of integrated hydrologic systems, using analytical techniques from engineering, physics, and hydrology. Mr. Lazar performs snowpack and hydrologic modeling and analysis, climate change impact assessments, and data research and analysis.
Joel, Jason and Brian are all based at Stratus Consulting in Boulder, Colorado but are available and are involved with CLIMsystems activities.
3] CLIMsystems is exploring new links with other software tools. Discussions are underway with some important software developers and we hope to have additional announcements to make in next month's news. If as an end user of a CLIMsystems product you have software tools that you commonly use as part of your day-to-day activities and you would like to consider their output in the context of climate change (and they are models driven by climate variables) please drop us a line so we can discuss options. We are interested in linking with more and more impact models.
All the best and remember you have 31 days in March - to achieve all that great climate change risk and adaptation work.
Cheers!
Peter and the CLIMsystems Team
We hope folks are settling into their 2010 activities without too much difficulty. We are having a very nice summer here on the North Island of New Zealand. But the northernmost part of the island was this week declared a drought area (El Nino). The South Island is suffering from wind, rain and cold temperatures. Every El Nino is different! Items in this news post include:
1] Chapter in new book on climate change
Integrated Regional Assessment of Global Climate Change Edited by C. Gregory Knight, Pennsylvania State University Jill Jäger, Sustainable Europe Research Institute, Vienna
Provides state-of-the-art descriptions of methodological challenges, allowing the reader to learn new techniques for such assessments • Contains examples of integrated regional assessments, enabling an understanding of how these assessment processes can be designed • Contributors from around the world promote an international perspective on the practice and results of integrated regional assessments of both environmental and climate change.
Richard Warrick has a major contribution:
From CLIMPACTS to SimCLIM: Development of an integrated assessment system
A partial download is available from Google Books:
http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=B8O31ILKKOMC&pg=PT293&lpg=PT293&dq
2] Project launched in the Philippines
Last week Peter Urich traveled to Albay Province in the Philippines to kick-off a project in conjunction with the Province of Albay, lead by the forward thinking Governor Joey Sarte Salceda. The project is being led by Professor John Pulhin of the College of Forestry and Environment of the University of the Philippines - Los Banos (UPLB). The Dean of the College Professor Rex Cruz was also in attendance as well as a wide range of stakeholders. A customised version of SimCLIM, tentatively called AlbayCLIM, has been developed using a 30 meter DEM. Some new methods were developed by the Team at CLIMsystems, led by Dr. Yinpeng Li, for scaling GCM patterns to a provincial level. Before the next workshop, scheduled for the end of April 2010, a range of shape files, site specific time series and tidal data will be added to the program. Further to the Albay project discussions are taking place to do some expanded climate change modeling of watersheds in the Philippines with our partners at DHI Water and Environment and UPLB.
3] Adaptation Forum next week in Washington DC
Richard Warrick is off to Washington DC next week to deliver a paper and be a panel member at the Climate Change Impacts on Water: An International Adaptation Forum. http://www.waterclimateforum.org/index.html
All the best from the Team at CLIMsystems.
Happy New Year to everyone and wishing you the best in 2010! Items in this news post include:
1] Matthew Dooley who heads the computer programming section at CLIMsystems worked very hard before the holiday season to transform our help manual to an on-line format that is easily accessed via the CLIMsystems website. It can be accessed at: http://climsystems.com/simclim/docs/topic.php?name=contents
2] As we update various study areas around the world (we now have approximately 70 percent of the World’s population mapped with SimCLIM) the next executable has some important new features. One of the most critical is for regular downloadable updates of the executable file. Accessed through the Help menu, a link is created to the CLIMsystems website where bug fixes and new features form regular updates for SimCLIM users. Check back regularly (every week or so) to make sure you have the latest operating system. The download includes a list of new features. A sample is provided below:
3] CLIMsystems is teaming up with GHD and Climate Risk Australia Pty for climate change risk and adaptation assessments across Australia. An informal launch was conducted in Sydney just before the Holidays. A more formal launch is expected in the First Quarter of 2010. More news will follow on this important relationship.
4] Staff at CLIMsystems have been (and will be) traveling!
Peter Urich, Richard Warrick and Peter Kouwenhoven traveled to Europe and North America and visited the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Potsdam, Germany and DHI Water and Environment in Denmark and DHI Water and Environment in Portland Oregon. We also met with Phil Pasteris of CH2M Hill while in Portland Oregon.
Peter Kouwenhoven and Peter Urich were in Vanuatu toward the end of last year. You can check out a copy of the press release at: http://www.prweb.com/releases/Climate_Changes/Sea_Level_Changes/prweb...
Peter Urich heads to the Philippines this week to work with Professor John Pulhin of the University of the Philippines, Los Banos on a groundbreaking climate change risk and adaptation assessment project in Albay Province, Southeast of Manila. Check out the press release for more details: http://balita.ph/2009/12/21/albay-province-hosts-pioneering-climate-c...
Richard Warrick is currently in Australia teaching a climate change risk and adaptation course at the University of the Sunshine Coast. Later this month he will be traveling to Washington DC and the UK.
We will keep the updates coming in 2010. We expect this year to be even busier than last year!
All the best from the Team at CLIMsystems.
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