New Federal interagency report: Managing Water Resources in a Changing Climate
"Climate Change and Water Resources Management: A Federal Perspective" by Levi D. Brekke, Julie E. Kiang, J. Rolf Olsen, Roger S. Pulwarty, David A. Raff, D. Phil Turnipseed, Robert S. Webb, and Kathleen D. White
Climate change is a significant challenge faced by the Nation’s water managers. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has provided estimates of how climate may change in the coming decades and how some of these changes in temperature and precipitation may change hydrologic conditions and their consequences for floods, droughts, water supply, and water quality. The purpose of this interagency report is to describe strategies to improve water management and planning in light of what we know about climate change but also what we don’t know. The report stresses the importance of tracking, anticipating, and responding to climate change. It documents some of the innovative approaches that are being put to use today to help water managers make effective decisions in light of the added uncertainties that climate change presents. Water managers can use this report to support their efforts to provide water to communities and farms, generate power for cities, sustain ecological systems, or protect lives and homes from floods all critical to the public’s health, safety, and quality of life. Two Federal science agencies, the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, collaborated with the Nation’s principal Federal water management agencies, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation, to explore strategies to improve water management by suggesting processes to improve tracking, anticipating, and responding to hydrologic effects of climate change. The report, “_Climate change and water resources management: A federal perspective_,” and a cover letter, can be viewed on-line here.
Among the key points highlighted in the report: The best available scientific evidence based
on observations from long-term monitoring networks indicates that climate change is occurring, although the effects differ regionally. Climate change is but one of many challenges facing water resource managers. Water managers need to consider the many sources of uncertainty and drivers of change. These include demographic change, changes in the way people use water in cities, farms, and in energy development, declining amounts of ground water in storage in some regions of the Nation, and demands for water to meet ecological goals. Long-term monitoring networks are critical for detecting and quantifying climate change and its impacts. Continued improvement in the understanding of climate change, its impacts, and the effectiveness of adaptation or mitigation actions requires continued operation of existing long-term monitoring and analysis of data, particularly of precipitation, snow pack, soil moisture, ground water and streamflow. Predictive modeling and ongoing monitoring are both needed to narrow the range of uncertainty about the future of water resources. But the uncertainty will remain large, and planning and management approaches need to continue to evolve to improve the quality of water management decisions in the coming decades. This report is designed to describe the state of current understanding and practice in dealing with this issue and to point the way forward for responsible water management in the face of climate change.