Regional Climate Change Workshops

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NATIONAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES FACT SHEET Regional Climate Change Workshops

Introduction: In order to improve understanding of the national-scale consequences of global climate change, the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) are sponsoring a series of regional workshops. The purpose of these workshops is to examine the vulnerabilities of various regions of the United States to climate variability and climate change and to aggregate information across regions to support national-scale scientific assessment (called for in the Global Change Research Act).

Participants: These workshops will include the broad research and stakeholder community, drawn from federal, state, and local governments; universities and laboratories; industry, agricultural and natural resource managers; non-governmental organizations; and others. Regional organizers will issue workshop invitations.

Outputs: The workshops, while reflecting special regional needs, will have some common outputs:

Description of the region's environmental, demographic, and economic conditions.
Identification of vulnerabilities to climate variability and climate change.
Identification of adaptation and resource management options.
Definition of research needs for improving estimates of regional vulnerabilities, understanding the consequences of climate variability and change, and analyzing viable response options.
Input for regional scientific assessment.

Locations: An initial set of 8 regional workshops was held in 1997. Additional workshops in 1998 will include Rocky Mountains/Great Basin, Gulf Coast, Southwest Border, Hawaii and Pacific Islands, California, Metropolitan East Coast, Great Lakes, Appalachians, Caribbean and Southern Atlantic Coast, Eastern Midwest, Southern Great Plains, and Native Peoples/Native Homelands.

The workshops are part of a larger process:

An Aspen Global Change Institute meeting of technical experts, July 29-August 7, 1997, synthesized initial regional workshop results and began the planning for a national scientific assessment.

A National Forum on Climate Change Impacts, held in Washington, DC November 12-13, 1997, related regional and national-scale impacts and continued the planning for a national assessment.

The national scientific assessment, to be completed during 1999, will become a contribution from the US to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Third Assessment Report.

USGCRP Background: The USGCRP was established by the President in 1989, and codified by Congress in the Global Change Research Act of 1990. The program=s fundamental purpose is to increase understanding of the Earth system and thus provide a sound scientific basis for national and international decision making on global change issues. The USGCRP is currently focused on four key areas of Earth system science: Seasonal to Interannual Climate Variability; Climate Change over Decades to Centuries; Changes in Ozone, UV Radiation, and Atmospheric Chemistry; and Changes in Land Cover and Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecosystems.

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For Additional Information, Contact: *Environment Division, Office of Science and Technology Policy Fax: 202-456-6025, or *US Global Change Research Program Coordination Office Fax: 202-488-8676 regional.workshops@usgcrp.gov http://www.usgcrp.gov

OSTP/USGCRP Regional Climate Change Workshops Regional workshops convened as part of the start-up phase of the National Assessment 1997 Workshops

Region	Organizing Institution(s)	Site	Dates	Coordinating Agency(s)
Central Great Plains	Colorado State University and University of Nebraska/NIGEC	Fort Collins, CO	May 27-29	DOE
Alaska	University of Alaska	Fairbanks, AK	June 3-6	DOI
Southeast	University of Alabama, Huntsville, and Florida State University	Nashville, TN	June 25-27	NASA, NOAA
Pacific Northwest	University of Washington	Seattle, WA	July 14-16	NOAA, NASA
Southwest	University of Arizona	Tucson, AZ	September 3-5	DOI, NOAA
New England	University of New Hampshire	Durham, NH	September 3-5	NSF
Middle-Atlantic	Pennsylvania State University	State College, PA	September 9-11	EPA
Northern Great Plains	University of North Dakota	Grand Forks, ND	November 5-7	NASA

1998 Workshops

Region	Organizing Institution(s)	Site	Dates	Coordinating Agency(s)
Rocky Mountains and Great Basin	Utah State University	Salt Lake City, UT	February 16-18	DOI
Gulf Coast	Southern University and A&M College	Baton Rouge, LA	February 25-27	EPA
Southwest Border	University of Texas, El Paso	El Paso, TX	March 2-4	NASA
Hawaii and Pacific Islands	Center for the Application of Research on the Environment	Honolulu, HI	March 3-6	FEMA, NOAA, DOI, NSF, NASA
California	University of California, Santa Barbara	Santa Barbara, CA	March 9-11	NSF
Metropolitan East Coast	Columbia University	New York City, NY	March 23-24	NSF
Great Lakes	University of Michigan	Ann Arbor, MI	May 5-7	EPA
Appalachians	West Virginia University	Morgantown, WV	May 27-29	USFS
Eastern Midwest	Indiana University	Indianapolis, IN	June 29-30	USDA
Caribbean/Southern Atlantic Coast	Florida International University	Miami, FL	July 21-23	NOAA
Southern Great Plains	Texas A&M University	Ft. Worth, TX	June/Sept.	USDA
Native Peoples/Native Homelands	Intertribal Council on Utility Policy	TBD	Sept.	NASA

Office of Science and Technology Policy 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, N.W Washington, DC 20502 202.395.7347 Information@ostp.eop.gov

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