Schuster, Z., Potter, K., and Liebl, D.

Journal of Hydrologic Engineering

Published date August 1, 2012

Assessing the Effects of Climate Change on Precipitation and Flood Damage in Wisconsin

  • Uses statistically downscaled and debiased precipitation projections for the state of Wisconsin derived from 14 general circulation models (GCMs) to assess the projected precipitation changes for the mid–21st century in a way that is relevant to water-resource decision making
  • Analyzes metrics that are relevant to storm-water design, such as the 100-year, 24-h quantile, and the authors also evaluated the changes in a risk-assessment context using idealized damage functions that translate precipitation depths into economic damages
  • Results of the design-metric analysis show that the 100-year, 24-h quantiles for Wisconsin are projected to have significant but modest increases of approximately 11% over the next 50 years
  • Risk assessment shows that the largest percent changes in risk for Wisconsin are projected to be in the northeast portion of the state