### Report from the workshop on climate downscaling and its application in high Hawaiian Islands, September 16–17, 2015

By: David A. HelwegVictoria KeenerJeff M. Burgett

                            https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20161102

#### Links

-                                                                                                                             Document:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  **Report**                                                                                                     (5.6 MB pdf)                                                                                                                                     
- Appendixes:                               - **Appendix 1. “Review of RISA Survey: Insights Learned Through Using Downscaled Climate Products” by Victoria Keener**                            (5.7 MB pdf)                        
  - **Appendix 2. “Island Downscaling Resources Matrix” model descriptions**                            (44 KB xlsx)                        
  - **Appendix 3. “Presentation on Statistical Downscaling” by Oliver Elison Timm**                            (2.1 MB pdf)                        
  - **Appendix 4. “Dynamical Downscaling” by Yuqing Wang**                            (12.2 MB pdf)                        
  - **Appendix 5. “The Climate Change Conundrum: A Water Resource Management Perspective” by Lenore Ohye**                            (3.3 MB pdf)                        
  - **Appendix 6. Appendix 6. “Estimating Climate-Change Impacts on Groundwater Recharge for the Island of Maui, Hawaiʻi” by Alan Mair**                            (2.6 MB pdf)                        
  - **Appendix 7. “Drought and Fire in Hawaiʻi and the US Affiliated Pacific Islands” by Christian Giardina and Michelle Mansker**                            (17.1 MB pdf)                        
  - **Appendix 8. “Application Perspective Case Studies—Hawaiian Species and Habitat Conservation in a shifting climate” by Lucas Fortini, Sierra McDaniel, Rick Camp, and Jim Jacobi**                            (3.4 MB pdf) 
- Download citation as:  RIS                         |                         Dublin                            Core

#### Abstract

First posted July 14, 2016

**For additional information, contact:**
David A. Helweg, DirectorDepartment of the Interior Pacific Islands Climate Science Center U.S. Geological Survey Climate and Land Use Mission Areahttps://www.doi.gov/csc/pacific

In the subtropical and tropical Pacific islands, changing climate is predicted to influence precipitation and freshwater availability, and thus is predicted to impact ecosystems goods and services available to ecosystems and human communities. The small size of high Hawaiian Islands, plus their complex microlandscapes, require downscaling of global climate models to provide future projections of greater skill and spatial resolution. Two different climate modeling approaches (physics-based dynamical downscaling and statistics-based downscaling) have produced dissimilar projections. Because of these disparities, natural resource managers and decision makers have low confidence in using the modeling results and are therefore are unwilling to include climate-related projections in their decisions. In September 2015, the Pacific Islands Climate Science Center (PICSC), the Pacific Islands Climate Change Cooperative (PICCC), and the Pacific Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (Pacific RISA) program convened a 2-day facilitated workshop in which the two modeling teams, plus key model users and resource managers, were brought together for a comparison of the two approaches, culminating with a discussion of how to provide predictions that are useable by resource managers. The proceedings, discussions, and outcomes of this Workshop are summarized in this Open-File Report.

#### Suggested Citation

Helweg, D.A., Keener, V., and Burgett, J.M., 2016, Report from the workshop on climate downscaling and its application in high Hawaiian Islands, September 16–17, 2015: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2016–1102, 25 p., http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/ofr20161102.

ISSN: 2331-1258 (online)

#### Study Area

#### Table of Contents

- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Contents
- Executive Summary
- Introduction
- Pre-Workshop Survey: Perceptions of Climate Needs and Downscaling Data by Modelers and Resource Managers in Hawaiʻi
- Structured Discussion I: Commonalities
- Structured Discussion II: Best Science Practices, I
- Structured Discussion III: Applications of Current Products
- Structured Discussion IV: Best Science Practices, II
- Wrap-Up: Downscaling Working Group
- Selected References
- Appendixes 1–8

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