Abstracts
Adaptation Strategies for Agriculture in Canada: Preparing for the 21st Century
Virginia Wittrock1, Grace Koshida, and Elaine Wheaton
1Saskatchewan Research Council
wittrock@src.sk.ca
The droughts of 2001 and 2002 covered large portions of southern Canada. These droughts had intensities not recorded for at least a hundred years, struck regions of the country that were less accustomed to drought, and had characteristics that appeared to be consistent with continued climate change. The droughts brought devastating impacts to many sectors of the economy and posed considerable adaptation challenges.
The Canadian Drought Study of 2001 and 2002 addressed the causes of droughts, climatology and identified major biophysical and socio-economic impacts. The project only began to address adaptation options, processes and vulnerabilities.
We further explore agricultural adaptation in a new project. This project's purpose is to improve our understanding of current adaptation processes and options in Canadian agriculture. We will do this by using the record to near-record droughts of 2001 and 2002 as an analogue of future climate change stresses due to climate change extremes.
Previous research has developed a set of indicators of adaptive capacity. Documenting responses to recent droughts is an ideal method to estimate actual adaptive capacity. The effectiveness of actual responses can be measured by factors including the residual negative effects remaining after their application, their costs and disruptions, and the problems encountered during and after their applications.
Our presentation covers some of the adaptation strategies already in place. We will also raise questions and request input from the audience regarding further adaptation options.
2005-04-05 |
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