Water Sector Climate Science and Tools
This tab presents climate science and tools for understanding climate change impacts to the water sector and potential adaptation options. Apply additional filters to narrow the list by resource type, impact, region, state, or jurisdictional focus.
92 results are shown below.
Filter by States AffectedSelect states to filter this list
All
Alabama Alaska American Samoa Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Guam Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Northern Marianas Islands Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Puerto Rico Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virgin Islands Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming
Resource
BASINS (Better Assessment Science Integrating point and Non-point Sources) is a multipurpose environmental analysis system designed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to help regions, states, and local agencies develop cost-effective approaches to watershed management and environmental protection.
Resource Category: Data and tools
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
December 2009
This report, which was commissioned by the Water Utility Climate Alliance (WUCA), considers how federal investments in the science of climate change, and in particular climate modeling, can best be directed to help improve the quality of research so that it may be more useful to water utilities and other possible users in adapting to climate change. It explains how climate models work, describes how some WUCA members have used climate models and downscaling to assess impacts on their systems and develop adaptation options, and makes seven initial recommendations for how climate modeling and downscaling techniques can be improved so that these tools and techniques can be more useful for the water sector.
Authors or Affiliated Users: Joseph Barsugli, Chris Anderson, Joel B. Smith , Jason M. Vogel
Resource Category: Data and tools
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
November 2009
This handout produced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides the top ten strategies utilities can use to prepare for climate change, including pages for notes after each tip. According to the guide, the most important step is to update "your" emergency response plan - utilizing the findings from the other 9 strategies.
Resource Category: Data and tools
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
May 2009
Provided by the California Energy Commission's Climate Change Center, this study includes a detailed analysis of California's infrastructure, property, and current population at risk from projected sea-level rise, as well as the cost of building structural measures to reduce that risk. Specifically, it identifies the risks of flooding and erosion to specific populations, roads, railways, power plants, water treatment plants, ports and airports, emergency and healthcare facilities, wetlands, coastal and San Francisco Bay properties, and groundwater aquifers.
Authors or Affiliated Users: Matthew Heberger, Heather Cooley, Pablo Herrera, Peter H. Gleick, Eli Moore
Resource Category: Assessments
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
May 2009
This paper presents advances in climate projection information that the California Department of Water Resources has made since their 2006 report, "Progress on Incorporating Climate Change into Management of California's Water Resources. " These advances include an improved understanding of how well selected climate models represent historical climate conditions and refined methodologies for representing stream flows, outdoor urban and agricultural water demands, and sea-level rise in planning tools, in order to assess their usefulness in decision making for water resource managers.
Resource Category: Data and tools
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
April 11, 2009
A collaborative effort of the Bureau of Reclamation, USGS, USACE, and the California Dept. of Water Resources, this paper presents a flexible methodology for conducting climate change risk assessments involving reservoir operations. The risk-based framework described in this paper provides a new context for climate change assessments. It is a flexible framework that advances methods for assessing scenario-impacts and/or characterizing uncertainties about projection scenarios or associated impacts.
Authors or Affiliated Users: Levi D. Brekke, Edwin P. Maurer, Jamie D. Anderson, Michael D. Dettinger, Edwin S. Townsley, Alan Harrison, Tom Pruitt
Resource Category: Assessments
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
Building Coast-Smart Communities is a role play product developed by the state of Maryland and funded by NOAA. It was used by the state in a summit, attended by more than 170 mayors, county commissions, environmentalists, business leaders and Maryland state officials, to discuss the State's climate change adaptation options. The half day role play quickly introduces people to the challenges faced by coastal communities and the primary options for addressing them. As such, local government authorities, planning departments, chambers of commerce, civic groups and residents associations can conduct this role play in their communities.
Resource Category: Education and Outreach
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
2009
This report is part 1 of Chapter 3 of the Washington Climate Change Impacts Assessment (see separate entry), focusing on water resource impacts for the state. Parts 2 and 3 of this chapter focus on the Puget Sound and the Yakima River Basin respectively. Based on results from 39 global simulations performed for the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC AR4) projections, this report presents downscaled model findings and the implications on the hydrology of the Pacific Northwest.
Authors or Affiliated Users: Marketa M Elsner, Lan Cuo, Nathalie Voisin, Jeffrey S Deems, Alan F Hamlet, Julie A Vano, Kristian EB Mickelson, Se-Yeun Lee, Dennis P. Lettenmaier
Resource Category: Assessments
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
2009
Utilizing a multi-model ensemble approach of downscaled climate model projections, hydrologic modeling, and water management models, this report presents results for changes in reservoir levels and snow pack in the Yakima River basin and resulting impacts to irrigated agriculture in the basin. The paper presents the analysis of hydrological conditions and how climate change is projected to impact water supply for water users with junior water rights and - in the extreme years - users with senior water rights throughout the basin.
Authors or Affiliated Users: Julie A. Vano, Michael Scott, Nathalie Voisin, Claudio O. Stockle, Alan F. Hamlet, Kristian E. B. Mickelson, Marketa McGuire Elsner, Dennis P. Lettenmaier
Resource Category: Assessments
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
September 2008
This report from the Chesapeake Bay Program Science and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) addresses the current understanding of climate change impacts on the tidal Chesapeake Bay, and identifies critical knowledge gaps and research priorities. It is intended to provide the basis for incorporating climate change considerations into resource management decisions.
Authors or Affiliated Users: Christopher R. Pyke, Raymond Najjar, Mary Beth Adams, Denise Breitburg, Carl Hershner, Robert Howarth, Michael Kemp, Margaret Mulholland, Michael Paolisso, David Secor, Kevin Sellner, Denice Wardrop, Robert Wood
Resource Category: Assessments
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
