Mouth

I’d like to use this final post to reflect on my blogging experience, and draw up a few conclusions. Over the last 3 and a half months, I’ve thrown a huge amount of information at this blog, on a subject I am extremely passionate about. While all of the posts have all come under a blanket of the effect of climate change on discharge and runoff, some have had a very individual theme – as such, it would be nice to conclude the messages I’ve been trying to get across, in a simple form.

1. Anthropogenic forcing of climate is altering the hydrological cycle as a whole. Patterns of rainfall and evaporation will change in differing way around the world. As such, there also are changes in discharge and runoff around the world.

2. While they are not perfect, environmental models have a lot of value. They allow us to attempt to predict the future, and in this case model how discharge may change around the world. It is not an exact science, and there is much uncertainty, but these models certainly have great scientific value, and will only improve.

3. Management of rivers and their surrounding areas has to change in the face of these expected changes in discharge and run-off, whether an increase or decrease. We must stop altering channels from their natural state, constructing hard engineering projects and the urbanisation of floodplains. Riverine environments have a certain natural capacity to adapt, but we are not allowing them the chance.

4. These changes are not just a matter of a bit more or a bit less water. Resultant floods and droughts could have serious consequences for both humans and ecosystems around the world.

5. This is not a problem to leave to consider into the future. We have to act now if we want to be able to adapt to possible changes in the future. Ideally, we need to reduce emissions to reduce the anthropogenic forcing of climate, but we also must start to put management strategies in place for the most at risk places.

6. Hydrology and environmental modelling are incredibly exciting areas of research that are essential for understanding the future of our earth.

I hope that the blog has been somewhat informative, and has presented a fair discussion of the science I have discussed. Writing this blog has been an enjoyable experience, and something that I have really grown to love doing over the last few months, and it is certainly something I intend to continue doing in my own time. Initially writing these posts was difficult and uncomfortable – I’ve never blogged or written in a ‘popular science’ style before. I am all the better for doing so as a person though; dense academic prose has its place, but it is writing in a clear, engaging and concise manner that matters most – science exists to be communicated freely.  As I’ve progressed, I’ve very much enjoyed putting these posts together and writing about something I have a passion for.  My own opinions on the subject have also developed over the last few months, from middle of the road to more impassioned about the importance of changes to discharge and the hydrological cycle of a whole.

I might be taking a break from blogging for a while, but rivers are still flowing, and our climate is still changing. We as humans have the chance to put right and prepare for the mistakes we have made. I just hope we end up doing so, or else risk getting caught in the flow.