A Decision Support Tool for Assessing Climate Change Impacts on Extreme Rainfall Processes

This study proposes a decision support tool (SDEXRAIN) for assessing the climate change impacts on extreme rainfall processes at a given location. More specifically, the SDEXRAIN consists of two components: (i) a spatial statistical downscaling model to describe the linkage between global climate variables and daily annual maximum rainfalls at a given site; and (ii) a temporal statistical downscaling model to describe the relations between daily and sub-daily annual maximum rainfalls. Results of a numerical application of this tool using NCEP re-analysis and observed precipitation data available at two locations with completely different climatic conditions (Seoul station in South Korea and Dorval station in Canada) have indicated that the proposed SDEXRAIN could accurately describe the relations between global climate predictors and daily and sub-daily annual maximum rainfalls at a given site. Hence, this tool can be used for assessing the climate change impacts on extreme rainfalls at a location of interest.