On today’s rapidly changing planet, understanding the influence of climate change on hydrology, physical processes, ecosystem health and infrastructure is essential.

cbec incorporates climate change analysis and impacts into nearly all of our studies, assessments, and rehabilitation designs. Specific examples of our climate change services include:

  • Leveraging downscaled global climate model data to characterize changes to precipitation, runoff, and streamflows
  • Applying climate change-informed hydrologic data to hydrodynamic and morphodynamic models to evaluate changes to river and estuary conditions, floodplain inundation and flood risk, geomorphic response, and habitat conditions
  • Incorporating sea level rise projections into our assessments and rehabilitation designs of coastal and tidally-influenced environments
  • Evaluating implications of changing hydrologic and temperature regimes on future reservoir operations, specifically flow releases to provide adequate habitat quality for salmonids
  • Supporting resilience and assessment planning for coastal and tidally-influenced communities and habitat areas that consider the joint probably of climate change-informed ocean storms and river floods

Example Projects

The animation included here shows the 100-year climate-changed informed river flood with sea level rise and extreme wave conditions.

At the request of the State Coastal Conservancy, cbec updated a MIKE FLOOD hydrodynamic model previously prepared by cbec for a 40-mile reach of the Santa Clara River from the Ventura-Los Angeles County line to the Pacific Ocean in Ventura County. The model was originally developed to identify levee setback or floodplain reconnection opportunities along the Santa Clara River upstream of Harbor Blvd.

The model was updated to more accurately characterize the potential risks of flooding at the proposed Puente Power Project at the Mandalay Generating Station near Oxnard, CA due to a range of combined coastal and river flood conditions that include the effects of sea level rise and climate change based on the latest Ocean Protection Council sea level rise estimates, FEMA storm wave event calculations, and downscaled global climate model data.