The Effects Atmospheric Changes Have on Runoff

Abstract

Over the last century, the earth has seen unprecedented atmospheric concentrations contaminate our ecosystems due to human activity. Predictions state the introduction of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), will increase temperatures, and change the amount and location of precipitation causing more runoff. This could potentially result in disturbance events such as floods, to be more frequent and severe. This study aims to perform an assessment of the effects of a range of hypothetical climate changes on runoff in the North-east Pond River watershed, located in Newfoundland.
 To carry this out a watershed runoff model simulates runoff in the basin for current climatic conditions and for hypothetical climatic conditions that represent a range of possible climate changes (Bobba et al., 1997). The hypothetical changes in climate will showcase the effects of a 2oC increase in temperature on the total annual precipitation. This will then be compared to flood forecasting models to analyze how runoff will be affected by various climatic conditions, inducing unusual flooding events (Wijayarathne & Coulibaly, 2020). Previous studies have indicated the runoff sensitivity in watersheds to changes in temperatures which raises concerns as to the adverse effects this may cause in limiting water resources in the semi-arid regions in parts of Canada and the U.S. Thus, there is a need to increase the understanding of the sensitivity of water resources in Canadian watersheds to climate variability and climate change as effects of this magnitude on the North-east Pond River could have significant environmental implications.