Kathleen Miller's Home Page
Kathleen Miller Dr. Miller is a Scientist III working with the Institute for the Study of Society and Environment (ISSE) at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. She is an economist who collaborates in multidisciplinary research on climate impacts, vulnerability and adaptation. She is the author of numerous papers on the management of water, fisheries and other natural resources in the context of climate variability and prospective climate change. Her research focuses on human exploitation of climate-sensitive natural resources, and the socioeconomic and institutional factors affecting resource management decisions in the context of uncertainty and competing interests.
She is the co-author of a book on the implications of climate change for urban water utilities: Climate Change and Water Resources: A Primer for Municipal Water Providers (Awwa Research Foundation, 2006). She is a lead author of Chapter 3, “Water Resources and Their Management,” in the IPCC Working Group II, Fourth Assessment Report: Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. She is also a lead author of the forthcoming IPCC Technical Paper on Climate Change and Water.
In addition, she is currently engaged in research and program leadership on the implications of climate change for the management of internationally-shared marine fisheries. Specifically, she co-chairs Working Group 5, “Socioeconomic Aspects and Management Strategies” of the international GLOBEC-CLIOTOP (Climate Impacts on Oceanic Top Predators) Project, and serves on the CLIOTOP Scientific Steering Committee.
She received a B.A. in anthropology and M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Washington.
Climate change is likely to have profound impacts on water resource availability, flood frequency, watershed characteristics and water quality. Yet most water resource managers, and in particular, urban water providers have only a limited understanding of climate change and how it may affect their ability to continue serving their customers’ needs in a cost-effective and environmentally sustainable manner. This knowledge gap impelled the American Water Works Research Foundation (AwwaRF) to seek NCAR’s assistance in providing information to municipal water industry professionals about climate change, its implications for the drinking water industry and strategies to plan most effectively to manage those impacts.
In response to this request, ISSE scientist Kathleen Miller and David Yates (RAL) developed a program to engage urban water providers in developing an educational resource for the drinking water industry about climate change and its potential impacts on water supplies and the operation of urban water systems. The project began with a workshop involving representatives of major urban water utilities in the U.S., Canada, and Europe as well as scientists from NCAR, the university community, government agencies and consulting firms. The project team then worked with industry representatives to develop material for the educational resource – a book and accompanying CD. The book, Climate Change and Water: A Primer for Municipal Water Providers, alerts urban drinking-water professionals to the fact that global climate change may have large impacts on the availability, quality, and cost of water to meet consumer demands.
Miller, K. and D. Yates, 2006: Climate Change and Water Resources: A Primer for Municipal Water Providers. Denver, CO: AwwaRF and UCAR. 83 pp. (Available here in PDF format).
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Dr. Kathleen Miller's research on water and climate change for scientific or professional audiences. This website offers access to recent research in the field, while furnishing readers with maps and references to the source materials. Dr. Miller's research focuses on the following themes:
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International Fisheries and Climate Variability research in ESIG, led by scientist Dr. Kathleen Miller, encompasses three separate projects that look at the impacts of climate variability on fish abundance and distribution and the implications of that variability for efforts to maintain effective cooperative international fisheries management.
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Publications & Curriculum Vitae
Dr. Miller's Curriculum Vitae (file size: 100 KB).
List of Publications
A complete list of Dr. Miller's publications, listed by year.