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48 CLIMATE CHANGE ALBERTAS BIODIVERSITY CLIMATE CHANGE AND SOUTHERN ALBERTA COMMUNITIES Climate change is expected to impact Albertas rural municipalities economically socially and environmentally. Understanding these potential impacts is necessary to plan adaptive approaches to future climate conditions. The projected changes in Albertas climate both in terms of changes in average conditions and changes in climate extremes and extreme events have significant implications for the well-being of rural municipalities in the grass- lands region. Tracy Lee and colleagues 2014 reviewed and summarized the climate change implications for agriculture infrastructure emergency response recreation and human health they found that all are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and that the implicationsformunicipalitiesarewidespread overlapping and interconnected. For example Increased temperatures and reduced moisture availability in summer could result in changes in grassland productivity or species composition that affect forage quantity or quality and therefore impact stocking rates for livestock production. Streamflowreductionscombinedwith projectedreductionsinavailablemoisture mayimpactproductionofirrigatedcropsand thedemandforirrigationinfrastructure. Changes in streamflow and the timing and intensity of rainfall could also impact water quality through runoff and nutrient loading with consequences for water treat- ment infrastructure and human health. Climate change will have significant implications for the well-being of Albertas rural municipalities. Communities will need to incorporate climate change into their planning. Albertas rural municipalities have a long history of adapting to environmental change and in many cases have already integrated resilience to climate variability into their municipal operations. This experience provides astrongfoundationforcontinuingto build climate resiliency in preparation for projected future changes in climate that will likely be outside the norm of historical variability even in light of the uncertainty associated with these projected changes.