Extrapolating Climate-Change Predictions of Hydrology Across Regions Using Soil and Landscape Data.

Global climate change remains a controversial subject amongst scientists and political leaders, and this controversy affects the general public.  To date, predictions made about climate change have little direct application for individuals responsible for managing local land resources.  This presentation will present a methodology to prepare maps that portray and predict climate change impacts on soil hydrology and drainage class at the county scale across the Coastal Plain region. These maps will be used to estimate land areas that could be affected by climate change, and from this evaluate changes in land values and ecosystem services.  This methodology is derived from the unique application of soils information, hydrological models and long-term climate predictions to create these maps and interpretations. To do this, two problems must be resolved: 1) methods to extrapolate climate-change predictions made at points to broad landscapes must be identified, and 2) climate-change data of precipitation and rainfall must be assembled into daily time steps using the monthly values currently available.  Methods to solve these problems will be discussed.  To achieve the goal of the project a research team must be assembled that contains members with expertise in determining and modeling long-term water table levels in soils, soil survey, predictive soil mapping, GIS techniques, as well as evaluating the economic and ecological implications of climate change. Through the integration of this expertise, hydropedology will lay a foundation for a transformative effort addressing local impacts of climate change, and may provide a new paradigm for presenting climate change impacts to the public.