Warming and Implications for Water Supply in the Colorado River Basin
Citation
Gregory J McCabe, and David M Wolock, Warming and Implications for Water Supply in the Colorado River Basin: .
Summary
Thehigh demand for water, the recent multiyear drought (1999–2007), andprojections of global warming have raised questions about the long-termsustainability of water supply in the southwestern United States. Inthis study, the potential effects of specific levels of atmosphericwarming on water-year streamflow in the Colorado River basin areevaluated using a water-balance model, and the results are analyzedwithin the context of a multi-century tree-ring reconstruction (1490–1998) ofstreamflow for the basin. The results indicate that if futurewarming occurs in the basin and is not accompanied byincreased precipitation, then the basin is likely to experience periodsof water supply shortages more severe than those inferred fromthe long-term [...]
Summary
Thehigh demand for water, the recent multiyear drought (1999–2007), andprojections of global warming have raised questions about the long-termsustainability of water supply in the southwestern United States. Inthis study, the potential effects of specific levels of atmosphericwarming on water-year streamflow in the Colorado River basin areevaluated using a water-balance model, and the results are analyzedwithin the context of a multi-century tree-ring reconstruction (1490–1998) ofstreamflow for the basin. The results indicate that if futurewarming occurs in the basin and is not accompanied byincreased precipitation, then the basin is likely to experience periodsof water supply shortages more severe than those inferred fromthe long-term historical tree-ring reconstruction. Furthermore, the modeling results suggestthat future warming would increase the likelihood of failure tomeet the water allocation requirements of the Colorado River Compact.
Published in ASCE Conference Proceedings, volume 316, issue 40976, on pages 273 - 273, in 2008.
