Decision Support in the Cadillac Desert: Climate Change and Water Supply in the Water Stressed and Politically Charged Western U.S.
Location
USU Eccles Conference Center
Abstract
NOAA’s Colorado Basin River Forecast Center provides seasonal water supply forecasts to a wide range of stakeholders in the Colorado River and Eastern Great Basins. These forecasts have traditionally relied on past historical climate information and tools created before widely available remote sensing data. Further, past historical hydroclimatic information, and our reliance on it, may not represent future conditions as climate change impacts are realized. The CBRFC is investigating forecast methodologies to aid stakeholders in decision support using newly available remote sensing information and stochastically generated future weather ensembles. Here, the CBRFC’s role in managing water resources is explained, and the challenges ahead for operational forecasts under changing climate conditions are discussed.
Decision Support in the Cadillac Desert: Climate Change and Water Supply in the Water Stressed and Politically Charged Western U.S.
USU Eccles Conference Center
NOAA’s Colorado Basin River Forecast Center provides seasonal water supply forecasts to a wide range of stakeholders in the Colorado River and Eastern Great Basins. These forecasts have traditionally relied on past historical climate information and tools created before widely available remote sensing data. Further, past historical hydroclimatic information, and our reliance on it, may not represent future conditions as climate change impacts are realized. The CBRFC is investigating forecast methodologies to aid stakeholders in decision support using newly available remote sensing information and stochastically generated future weather ensembles. Here, the CBRFC’s role in managing water resources is explained, and the challenges ahead for operational forecasts under changing climate conditions are discussed.
Comments
Paul Miller currently works for the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center as the Service Coordination Hydrologist in Salt Lake City, Utah. Prior to joining the CBRFC in November 2012, Paul worked for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Lower Colorado Region for about 7 years investigating the impacts of climate change to the Colorado River Basin. Paul received his B.S. in Environmental Hydrology and Water Resources from the University of Arizona in 2003, his M.S. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Notre Dame in 2005, and his Ph. D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 2010. His dissertation was titled, “Assessment of Impacts to Hydroclimatology and River Operations due to Climate Change over the Colorado River Basin.” He has also taught introductory hydrology and fluid mechanics courses at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.