Supervisors: Prof Jason Evans (jason.evans@unsw.edu.au), Dr Fei Ji (fei.ji@environment.nsw.gov.au), De Kei-Wai Cheung (kei-wai.cheung@unsw.edu.au)
Dryness is defined by ratio of accumulated annual rainfall and potential evapotranspiration (PET). Understanding changes in dryness will help stakeholders and policy makers for making long-term plan in water management and designing mitigation/adaptation measures. Historical records have shown that Australia is getting wetter rather than drier, however, Victoria and southwest Western Australia have the opposite trend. In some regions dryness may be dominated by the annual rainfall while for some regions the PET may be a critical factor. The key question is how the dryness will change in the future and what will be the pattern across the nation.
In this study, the 50-km resolution climate simulations from the NARCliM (NSW/ACT regional climate modelling) outer domain will be used to assess the future changes in dryness. The simulated rainfall and PET will be analysed in associated with consideration of surface properties to quantify the regional key factors for the changes in dryness.
This project will be located at UNSW and DPIE