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Sustainability, equitable allocation and protection of water resources must occur within the framework of integrated management and water governance, but its implementation is problematic. Ongoing global climate change, increasing population, urbanization, and aspirations for better living standards present a challenge to the planetary sustainability. While water use at global scale currently seems to be within its planetary boundary, shortages prevail in several water-scarce and overpopulated regions, and are projected to increase. Furthermore large-scale impoverishment of aquatic biodiversity, ecosystem degradation and reductions in water quality are unaddressed ‘side effects’ in areas where water can be secured...
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Trends of summer precipitation and summer temperature and their influence on trends in summer drought and area burned in British Columbia (BC) were investigated for the period 1920–2000. The complexity imposed by topography was taken into account by incorporating high spatial resolution climate and fire data. Considerable regional variation in trends and in climate–fire relationships was observed. A weak but significant increase in summer temperature was detected in northeastern and coastal BC, whereas summer precipitation increased significantly in all regions—by up to 45.9 %. A significant decrease in province-wide area burned and at the level of sub-units was strongly related to increasing precipitation, more...
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Owing to large climatic and orographic variation, British Columbia covers a variety of ecosystems extending from temperate rainforests on the Pacific coast to boreal forests in the north-east. The aim of this study is to investigate the spatial variation of trends in wildfire activity and their relationship to summer drought for the entire province of British Columbia. Time series of annual wildfire extent and occurrence, summer self-calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index and summer Aridity Index were derived from spatially explicit data. Sixteen landscape regions according to the provincial Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classification system served as spatial reference. The regional series for 1920-2000 were subjected...
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