The Climate Futures research group at the University of Tasmania has launched a publication that’s the culmination of a 4-year research project with Wine Australia.Australia’s Wine Future: A Climate Atlas describes trends for growing conditions including changes in temperature, rainfall, evaporation, heat and cold extremes, for every wine region in Australia, until 2100. This 487 page atlas uses
the CSIRO’s regional climate model, dynamically downscaled to a fine-scale 5-10km resolution.
Climate Futures worked closely with Wine Australia to provide tailored climate information for the needs of growers nationwide by translating complex science into information that’s immediately useful on the ground.
An important focus of the climate atlas is enabling climate information and adaptation decisions to be shared across regions. Identifying now how regions will likely change allows growers to look to their peers in regions that are currently analogous with their future projected conditions, both in Australia and overseas, to learn how wines are produced in these areas. This kind of knowledge transfer will allow more effective medium-to-longer term decision making in the face of ongoing climate change.
The Climate Atlas has already garnered much national media coverage, including this report by the ABC.
The Australia’s Wine Future: A Climate Atlas is open access and can be downloaded here