Climate Impacts

1. Agriculture
The relationship between climate and crop yields is a complex problem. Assessing the agricultural impacts of climate change involves both the development of crop models and applying the crop models to GCM output. This session aimed to discuss both these issues and will include the following topics:

• Development and validation of crop models

• Downscaling issues - i.e. the use of relatively low resolution climate data to drive higher resolution crop models

• Feedback between changes in agricultural practices and the climate

• Integrating crop and climate models

Keynote presenters

Dr Andrew Challinor (CGAM, University of Reading, U.K)
Dr Michael Dingkuhn (CIRAD, Toulouse, France)

PROMISE's contribution to this topic

2. Hydrology

Management of water resources is a major issue for monsoon-affected countries. In the next century the population of many of these countries is projected to increase putting ever increasing strain on resources. This session will cover the methodology used to assess changes in hydrology, possible scenarios for changes in water resources and the development of hydrological models. Of particular interest is the impact of irrigation on climate change since this links the hydrological and agricultural impacts of climate change. Topics discussed included:

• Integrated approach to water resource modelling for monsoon climates

• Development of river routing schemes and their application to monsoon affected countries such as India

• Assessment of the impact of climate change on water resources and the hydrological balance in Amazonia, Congo and India

The following have been invited to give key-note talks in this session:

Dr Nick Chappell (University of Lancaster, U.K.)
Professor Katia Laval (LMD, Paris, France)
Dr Jeremy Meigh (CEH, Wallingford, U.K)

3. Health

Climate is widely recognised to have a strong effect on health in monsoon-affected countries. This short session included two talks on different aspects of the relationship between monsoon variability and disease.

Keynote presentation

Dr Andy Morse (University of Liverpool, U.K.)

Links to all available abstracts and powerpoint presentations

1. Hydrological impacts of monsoon variability

2. Agricultural impacts of monsoon variability

3. Health impacts of monsoon variability

PROMISE's contribution to this topic

WP3000 Ground hydrology and water resources for monsoon climates

WP3100 Seasonal prediction of crop yields and assessment of climate change impacts on crop productivity