4. “ The hills look like sawdust, really, that colour.
I've never seen it where the grass didn't
turn green in the spring before.”
JERRY MURPHY
Elnora, Alberta
source: Globe and Mail, 1 July 2009
18. Climate history of North America
Younger Demise of Laurentide
Dryas Ice Sheet
20 16 12 8 4 0
THOUSANDS OF
YEARS AGO
Final Drainage
of Lake Agassiz
LAST GLACIAL MODERN
MAXIMUM OBSERVATIONS
19.
20. CLIMATE PROXIES
ice cores
tree rings
lake sediments
speleothems
corals
33. Renewable water resources, by country
Brazil
Russia
Canada
USA
China
India
Columbia
Peru
Zaire
0 2,000 4,000 6,000
Source: Shiklomanov and Rodda, 2003
km3/y
36. “ Drought severity over the Northern Plains
during 1932 – 1939 was likely triggered
”
instead by random atmospheric variability.
Hoerling et al., Geophysical Research Le ers, 2009
37. Martin-Philippe Girardin
Canadian Forest Service
Greg Pederson
United States Geological Survey
Glen MacDonald David Sauchyn Emma Watson
UCLA University of Regina Environment Canada
Erik Nielsen Jacques Tardif
Manitoba Geological Survey University of Winnipeg
53. 755 m 3/s
847 m 3/s
809 m 3/s
770 m 3/s
823 m 3/s
787 m 3/s
901 m 3/s
3
54. MEGADROUGHT
intensity at least equivalent to modern multiyear droughts
duration longer than the several years to decade thereof
Seager et al., Journal of Climate, 2008
55. 58 oN
56 oN
1718 - 1722
54 oN
52 oN
50 oN
48 oN
oW
90
114 oW o o
oW
96
108 W 102 W
Ringwidth anomaly
−2
-2 −1 0
0 1 2
+2 (deviations)
Source: St. George et al., 2009
56. 1842 to 1876
Above average Below average
Source: St. George et al., 2009
57. g e o l o g i c a l
STRESS TESTS
for hydrological systems
72. “
The forts now stand like a castle of romance in the midst of
an ocean of deep contending currents, the water extending
for at least a mile behind them, and they are thereby only
approachable by boats and canoes.”
Francis Heron
Hudson Bay Company, 1826
St.. George and Rannie, Canadian Water Resources Journal, 2003
73. Flood damaged Normal growth
69
Photograph: Suzana Radivojevic
74. 350 years of Red River floods
St. George and Nielsen,The Holocene, 2003
80. “
Decadal prediction, a new eld of study, focuses on time-
evolving regional climate conditions over the next 10–30 yr,
which is a time period of interest to infrastructure planners,
water resource managers, and others.
e decadal time scale offers a critical bridge for informing
adaptation strategies as climate varies and changes.
”
Meehl et al., BAMS, 2009
Photograph: Kman999
