Projected Climate Change for the Conterminous United States (National Assessment)

One goal of the National Scale Assessment included identifying regions and associated river reaches across the United States that are most vulnerable to projected climate and land use changes. As an initial attempt to characterize river system vulnerability, we followed the definition posed by Kasperson et al. (2006) that incorporates exposure of systems to stresses like climate and land use changes, sensitivity of systems to those changes, and system resilience. This project intended to provide (1) a framework of stream classification to assess vulnerability of fish habitat under future climate change, (2) a framework of stream classification to assess vulnerability of fish habitat with projected urban and agriculture land use change, and (3) identifying regions and associated river reaches across the U.S. that are vulnerable to projected climate and land use changes, to provide information for decision-making and management use.

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