Professor Hayley Fowler – Climate Change: Increasing Extreme Weather and Impacts on Water Resources

Invitation to SCI’s Free Public Evening Lecture:
Professor Hayley Fowler – Newcastle University
Climate change: Increasing Extreme Weather and Impacts on Water Resources

Wednesday 26 June 2019

Seven of the 10 warmest years on record for the planet have all occurred since 2010, with 2016 being the hottest year on record since 1880, with average temperatures measuring 0.99 degrees Celsius (1.78 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the mid-20th century mean.
Global temperatures are projected to increase over this century and beyond.
Warmer air can hold more moisture: for each degree of warming, the air’s capacity for water vapour goes up by around seven percent.
A moister atmosphere can produce more intense precipitation events, resulting in heavier precipitation, more intense heat, and more damage from storm surges and coastal flooding as a result of sea-level rise.

Evidence shows climate change poses serious risks to lives and livelihoods around the world, particularly from increases in extreme events, but what can we expect from future climate? Is the Paris Agreement enough? What will be the likely impact on water resources management?

During her Public Evening Lecture, on Wednesday 26 June 2019, Professor Hayley Fowler will explore the potential changes to extreme rainfall, flooding and drought, drawing on local and international case studies and historical information to examine why we can expect more heatwaves, droughts and flooding events in the future, and how we can learn from the past.

About the speaker

Hayley Fowler is Professor of Climate Change Impacts in the School of Engineering at Newcastle University. A hydroclimatologist with over 15 years of experience, she has analysed the impacts of climate change and variability on hydrological systems, publishing more than 90 ISI-cited articles since 2000. She is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and a Royal Society Wolfson Research Fellow.

She is a Contributing Author to two chapters of the forthcoming IPCC 6^th Assessment Report, and an author of the next UK Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA3). She is also chair of the Global Energy and Water EXchanges (GEWEX) Hydroclimatology Panel (GHP) sub-daily precipitation cross-cut and Chief Editor of the international journal “Frontiers in Interdisciplinary Climate Studies”.

Her internationally-renowned research examines recent trends in precipitation extremes and future projections and their impacts on flood and drought risk with over £10M of funding from NERC, Defra, EPSRC, ERC, EU, Royal Society, Leverhulme Trust, British Council, and UK Water Industry Research. She has also been instrumental in developing new downscaling techniques to bridge the gap between modellers and users of climate information (e.g. UKCP09 Weather Generator) and developing new guidance for UK urban drainage design to improve UK Climate Resilience.

She collaborates widely, particularly with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (USA) and the University of New South Wales (Australia) where she has held Visiting Professorial Positions.

Date for your diary: Wednesday 26 June 2019
Venue: SCI HQ, 15 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8PS

Reception opens at 18.00 and the lecture starts at 18.30. This is a free event.

NOTES TO EDITORS

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