Climate change is recognized as one of the biggest challenges facing future generations and already affects present-day decisions. Much of Propel Solution’s work contributes to assessing the impacts of climate change on the hydrologic cycle with the goal of increasing the resilience of communities, businesses, infrastructure and the environment to future climate change impacts.
We work with clients to interpret and communicate climate change science. We help develop business cases for risk assessment and adaptation, visualize climate change and provide training and stakeholder engagement. Using straightforward tools and approaches to identify and prioritize risks, we assess climate change impacts for a diverse range of vulnerable communities. Propel incorporates climate change projections into flood risk and coastal erosion modeling, and conducts adaptation planning working at national, program and project scales to develop strategies to build climate resilience and environmental and social safeguards, particularly for infrastructure development.
Propel specializes in hydrological modeling and assessment using down-scaling and evaluation of climate change scenarios for specific regions to enhance the utility of hazard predictions through improved climate and hydrology monitoring. Using advanced climate science, stakeholder consultation, engagement, capacity building and training Propel has become a leader in adaptation planning and adaptive capacity building.
Customized Modeling Applications (Python, R, MATLAB)
Many of the problems identified by our clients cannot be solved using pre-packaged software. Propel builds customized modeling applications to solve these unique problems which have ranged from climate change impact analyses to analysis of environmental datasets for regulatory or litigation support. For example, Propel staff developed data processing and analysis scripts to quantify the economic impacts of climate change on coral reefs, winter recreation, and inland flooding. We commonly publish the results of these customized studies in peer reviewed outlets.
Water Supply and Runoff
Propel has conducted and published several studies focused on the hydrologic impacts of climate change, including a major study for the State of Colorado. We collaborate closely with the National Center for Atmospheric Research on this work. In addition, we have great familiarity with selecting appropriate future climate scenarios and Global Climate Models for hydrologic impact work, and are very familiar with the results and guidelines coming from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. We also have great expertise working with the Variable Infiltration Capacity model for working with spatially distributed hydrologic modeling systems that are able to take outputs from Global Climate Models.
Our clients look to Propel to provide cutting-edge technical capabilities in the field of hydrology for water supply planning. We have extensive experience with the use of paleo reconstructed hydrology and stochastic hydrology, where we are to able expand beyond the typical 30 to 60-year historical datasets and refine estimates of reliability with hundreds or thousands of years of data.
Drought
Drought planning and preparation requires a robust system of monitoring tools to ensure drought conditions are adequately tracked for a variety of water user groups. Propel offers cutting edge technical solutions to develop and optimize drought mapping and analysis tools and our comprehensive approach aims to develop monitoring applications tailored to each user’s unique needs.
We apply open-source web-mapping software along with actively hosted web mapping service products to generate a seamless portal to help users navigate the abundance of drought-related data. This tool merges data analysis with actionable responses to promote timely and effective decision making.