Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Hydropower companies throughout the world increasingly realize that they must deal with issues of climate change. A better knowledge of the nature of climate change impacts will allow water resource managers to make better planning and operation decisions.  The main objective for the research project is to assess the long-term impact of climate change on the variability and availability of water supply for watersheds of primary interest to Manitoba Hydro and Hydro-Québec, two major Canadian hydro-energy producers.  Specific objectives are: to develop future climate scenarios at the watershed scale; to use the climate scenarios to simulate future river flows for watersheds of interest to these agencies; to evaluate the uncertainty of flow estimates; and to assess the climate change impact on hydropower facilities and explore potential adaptation strategies.In this project, sophisticated statistical techniques and hydrological models will be used along with global and regional climate model output to generate climate scenarios and simulate river flows.  Adaptation strategies will be investigated through numerical modelling experiments to existing/proposed and hypothetical hydropower systems.The project will allow the consolidation and development of expertise at Hydro-Québec and at Manitoba Hydro in the area of climate change impact on water resources. Tools and techniques developed in this project are expected to be advantageously transferred to Canadian hydropower companies, water resources agencies and engineering firms concerned with climate change.