Climate Sensitivity Analysis for Public Water Supply
Location
Eccles Conference Center
Event Website
http://water.usu.edu/
Start Date
3-29-2011 10:20 AM
End Date
3-29-2011 10:40 AM
Description
Water managers in the western United States have numerous challenges to continue to provide the quantity and quality of water required by their customers in the decades to come. In addition to drought, population growth, and limited resources, managers can no longer assume hydrologic stationarity for planning purposes. In Utah, for example, measured temperature in the last decade have nearly 2° F when compared to the 1901 - 2000 average. Work to assess Salt Lake City's water supply vulnerability to climate change is underway through a collaborative effort which includes Salt Lake City Public Utilities (SLCPU), the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center (CBRFC), and the Western Water Assessment (WWA). In this collaborative approach, SLCPU is assessing areas of potential vulnerability with assistance from WWA. Ultimately these vulnerabilities will be tested against scenarios presented. First, the major water supply basins for Salt Lake City are evaluated for the sensitivity of April to July runoff to past variability of winter and spring temperature and precipitation using the observations and results from the calibrated operational CBRFC hydrology model. Second, we illustrate the results simple temperature change scenarios that were run through the same CBRFC model to assess potential impacts to runoff in streams important to Salt Lake City water supply.
Climate Sensitivity Analysis for Public Water Supply
Eccles Conference Center
Water managers in the western United States have numerous challenges to continue to provide the quantity and quality of water required by their customers in the decades to come. In addition to drought, population growth, and limited resources, managers can no longer assume hydrologic stationarity for planning purposes. In Utah, for example, measured temperature in the last decade have nearly 2° F when compared to the 1901 - 2000 average. Work to assess Salt Lake City's water supply vulnerability to climate change is underway through a collaborative effort which includes Salt Lake City Public Utilities (SLCPU), the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center (CBRFC), and the Western Water Assessment (WWA). In this collaborative approach, SLCPU is assessing areas of potential vulnerability with assistance from WWA. Ultimately these vulnerabilities will be tested against scenarios presented. First, the major water supply basins for Salt Lake City are evaluated for the sensitivity of April to July runoff to past variability of winter and spring temperature and precipitation using the observations and results from the calibrated operational CBRFC hydrology model. Second, we illustrate the results simple temperature change scenarios that were run through the same CBRFC model to assess potential impacts to runoff in streams important to Salt Lake City water supply.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/runoff/2011/AllAbstracts/7