The Impact of Climate Change on Regional Systems
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The Impact of Climate Change on Regional Systems

A Comprehensive Analysis of California

9781845427474 Edward Elgar Publishing
Edited by Joel B. Smith, Vice President, Stratus Consulting Inc., Boulder, Colorado, US and Robert Mendelsohn, Edwin Weyerhaeuser Davis Professor of Forestry Policy, School of Forestry and Environmental Sciences and Professor of Economics, Department of Economics and School of Management, Yale University, New Haven, US
Publication Date: 2007 ISBN: 978 1 84542 747 4 Extent: 304 pp
Models are used to estimate potential physical and biological impacts, efficient adaptations, and residual damages from climate change. The contributors cover a broad array of climate change impacts on affected market sectors (including water supply, agriculture, coastal resources, timber, and energy demand) as well as ecosystems and biodiversity. An integrated hydrologic-agriculture model is developed to explore how the region would adapt to changes in water flows. Interactions between climate impacts and population and economic growth, urbanization, and technological change are also explored. For example, the study examines how both climate change and projected land development affect the region’s terrestrial ecosystems and biodiversity.

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Critical Acclaim
Contributors
Contents
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Climate scientists have determined that recent global temperature increases are due in large part to increased greenhouse gas emissions from human activities. Even if mitigation of these gases begins immediately, there is every reason to believe that climate change will continue to occur. Every region in the world ought to forecast, as the contributors do in this study of California (a region of broad variation and high population), how it will be affected by climate change and how it might best adapt.

Models are used to estimate potential physical and biological impacts, efficient adaptations, and residual damages from climate change. The contributors cover a broad array of climate change impacts on affected market sectors (including water supply, agriculture, coastal resources, timber, and energy demand) as well as ecosystems and biodiversity. An integrated hydrologic-agriculture model is developed to explore how the region would adapt to changes in water flows. Interactions between climate impacts and population and economic growth, urbanization, and technological change are also explored. For example, the study examines how both climate change and projected land development affect the region’s terrestrial ecosystems and biodiversity.

The level of geographical detail, along with the broad applicability of the modeling, methodology, and conclusions, make this a unique and valuable reference for environmental economists, scientists, planners, and policymakers.
Critical Acclaim
‘The book works well as a reference for how one can examine potential climate change impacts in a subnational area. A clear strength of the work lies in the unifying framework that the climate, population, and, to a somewhat lesser degree, urbanization scenarios provide. Collectively, these appear to bracket a wide range of possible drives that will shape climate change impacts. The overall analysis takes a refreshing approach in that it does not try to fit all these elements and the subsystem impact assessments into one grand integrated model, but rather develops the assessments from a common base while allowing each to follow its own logic and scale. . . it provides a welcome overview of how one can conduct a multisystem, multisector climate impact assessment that combines natural, engineering, and social sciences in a rigorous format.’
– Kris Wernstedt, Journal of Regional Science
Contributors
Contributors: R.M. Adams, K.E. Bashford, R. Drapek, H. Galbraith, C. Hakkarinen, L.L. Houston, R. Howitt, D. Hudgens, M.W. Jenkins, R. Jones, J.D. Landis, J.M. Lenihan, J.R. Lund, R. Mendelsohn, N.L. Miller, R. Neilson, J. Neumann, E. Pienaar, M. Reilly, J.B. Smith, E. Strem, S.K. Tanaka, J. Wu, T. Zhu
Contents
Contents:

Preface

1. Introduction
Joel B. Smith and Robert Mendelsohn

2. Socio-economic Changes
Joel B. Smith

3. Urbanization Scenarios
John D. Landis and Michael Reilly

4. Climate Change Scenarios
Chuck Hakkarinen and Joel B. Smith

5. Terrestrial Ecosystem Changes
James M. Lenihan, Raymond Drapek and Ronald Neilson

6. Biodiversity Changes and Adaptation
Hector Galbraith, Joel B. Smith and Russell Jones

7. Timber Impacts
Robert Mendelsohn

8. Changes in Runoff
Norman L. Miller, Kathy E. Bashford and Eric Strem

9. Changes in Crop Yields and Irrigation Demand
Richard M. Adams, JunJie Wu and Laurie L. Houston

10. Water Resources Impacts
Jay R. Lund, Tingju Zhu, Stacy K. Tanaka and Marion W. Jenkins

11. Agricultural Impacts
Richard Howitt and Elizabeth Pienaar

12. Energy Impacts
Robert Mendelsohn

13. Coastal Impacts
James Neumann and Daniel Hudgens

14. Conclusion
Robert Mendelsohn and Joel B. Smith

Index
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