Development, Coordination, and Delivery of Decision-Relevant Climate Information: Developing a Transboundary Regional Climate Adaptation Consortium

The residents of the Pacific Northwest use the Columbia River to meet the following needs: hydropower, flood control, cultural resources, fish and wildlife habitat, water supply and quality, fish migration, navigation, irrigation, and recreation. Managers make tradeoffs to meet the needs of these multiple users.  These management challenges are only increasing as the demands on the system increase. At the same time, climate variability and change will impact the Columbia River basin and the Pacific Northwest more broadly. Climate adaptation strategies require a coordinated approach among providers and users of climate information to identify climate risks and develop risk-based scenarios to inform decision-making. This presentation will describe an effort to develop a pathway for collaboration and coordination among existing regional research and data entities, such as research to operations (R2O), to inform adaptation in the context of climate variability and change in the Columbia River basin.  It is intended that this effort will form the basis of a transboundary, cross-agency consortium (Federal, state, tribal and private sectors) to develop and provide credible climate, climate impacts and preparedness information for the following contexts: i) Columbia River Treaty requirements, and ii) Pacific Northwest fisheries and wildlife.