WWA Activities

Climate Workshops for Front Range Water Managers
Climate workshops geared towards municipal, state, and federal water managers, extension specialists, other policy makers interested in climate and water resources management. Topics include long-term climate trends and projections and potential impacts to water resources in the West, as well as seasonal forecasts and outlooks. WWA has an ongoing effort to host or co-sponsor workshops with water managers to develop and maintain two-way communication on needs for climate information by this sector and climate research and products.

WWA and NOAA comment on EIS for Colorado River Interim Guidelines for Lower Basin Shortages and Coordinated Operations for Lakes Powell and Mead. For more information on the EIS see: http://www.usbr.gov/lc/region/programs/strategies.html

Appendix U: Climate Technical Work Group Report, Colorado River Interim Guidelines for Lower Basin Shortages and Coordinated Operations for Lakes Powell and Mead

Water Rights and Climate Change Project
In many basins throughout the West, snowmelt is coming earlier than in historic times, prompting holders of prior appropriation water rights to demand water at an earlier calendar date than in the past.  This is obviously problematic for those rights defined in terms of specific calendar dates (associated with historic patterns of use), and may be even more troublesome for rights defined more generally (e.g., such as an “irrigation season” right), as this can have the net effect of increasing the diversion season and, thus, the size of the right.  This ongoing project (Summer 2007 to Summer 2008) will examine the extent to which this problem exists in Colorado and in a yet-to-be-determined Pacific Northwest state, where earlier runoff is much more pronounced than in the Rocky Mountain region. Researchers Kenney, NRLC, Klein, CSTPR, Goemans, CSU, Alvord, CIRES.

Reconciling Projections of Future Colorado River Streamflow: The goal of this project is to reconcile future Colorado River streamflow projections by evaluating the various methodologies and models being used in projections and to understand why different modeling approaches produce varying flow reduction amounts. The second component of this project entails identifying a common subset of appropriate climate scenarios and models in development of future projections of streamflow; and using these scenarios and models to generate a consistent suite of Colorado River streamflow projections by the mid to late 21st century. Results will directly apply to the needs of water planners across the western U.S., and similar mid-latitude continental regions where water resources are heavily dependent on snowmelt runoff from mountainous headwater areas. Nick Graham (HRC), Dan Cayan (CAP), Dennis Lettenmaier, Andy Wood (CIG), Robert Webb, Brad Udall, (WWA) Martin Hoerling (NOAA-WWA), Jonathan Overpeck, Holly Hartman (CLIMAS).

Front Range large water providers’ vulnerabilities and climate products needs.  This on-going task seeks to identify water user needs for climate products (information and forecasts) in order to better match these needs to WWA and NOAA research, and to develop a dialogue between the water policy community and the research community. Researchers Ray and Lowrey.

Native Communities & Climate Change: Legal and Policy Approaches to Protect Tribal Legal Rights: The WWA has contributed to this report, prepared primarily by the University of Colorado Law School (Natural Resources Law Center), examining a diversity of climate change impacts on tribes, as well as how tribes might address these issues through legal and policy measures.  The study focuses on 4 regional case studies-Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, and Florida-to discuss how the effects of climate change impacts tribal resources, communities and activities differently in each of these areas, as well as legal and policy measures that tribes might employ to protect their legal rights in the absence of federal action. The penultimate draft of the report was released for review through a national database of American Indian Tribes in February 2007. Final publication is anticipated for summer 2007. Researchers Mark Squillace, NRLC, Sarah Krakoff, NRLC, Douglas Kenney, NRLC, Jon Hanna, NRLC, Christina Alvord, CIRES, Ethan Plaut, NRLC, Scott Gray, NRLC.

Colorado River Climate Primer.  This publication summarizes Paleo-climate, current climate patterns and future climatology projections for the Colorado River Basin Researchers Kenney, Udall, Pulwarty, Wolter.

Grand Canyon Adaptive Management. This study develops forecasts of late-summer storms and associated sediment input into the Grand Canyon to support multi-stakeholder adaptive management experiments aimed at sustaining ecological, cultural and recreational activities. This work is in collaboration with the Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center.  Researchers Jain, Pulwarty, Eischeid.

Climate and Tourism Workshop.  Tourism and recreation in the West are a large part of the economy and are strongly linked to climate.  This workshop will result in an applied research and services agenda. Workshop is scheduled for January 23-24, 2007. Researchers Pulwarty, Kenney, Alvord, Udall.

IPCC AR4 Model Suitability for Colorado.  This study investigates the value and applicability of recent AR4 model run data for use by Denver Water and others water providers.  Researchers Hoerling, Eischeid.
Streamflow Variability. In conjunction with an ongoing National Science Foundation (NSF) effort, this project explores apparent tendencies for Western rivers to illustrate increasing variability and synchroneity in streamflows.  Researcher Jain.
Colorado River Flow Yield Study.  This study synthesizes information from paleo streamflow reconstructions, future streamflow projections from models, native streamflow reconstructions and other sources to generate an accurate flow yield estimate for the Colorado River. Researchers Kenney, Pulwarty, Udall, Woodhouse.

Websites

Colorado River Climate, Management, Law and Policy website. Enhance and update existing site on matters of interest to Colorado River water managers. Add discussion of useful existing climate products and new climate product needs by water managers. Researchers Pulwarty, Kenney, Ray, Udall, Lowrey

Colorado River Streamflow - A Paleo Perspective website. This site will provide information about long-term variations in streamflow for the Colorado River basin, including the 2006 Woodhouse, Gray, Meko tree-ring reconstruction of flow at the Lees Ferry gage. Researchers Woodhouse, Lukas, Meko (UA-CLIMAS).

TreeFlow: Streamflow Reconstructions for the West website. This redesigned website will be an expansion of an existing website on tree-ring streamflow reconstructions for Colorado, and encompasses reconstructions across the western U.S. The website allows water managers to access and utilize streamflow sequences much longer than the historical gage record to better plan for climate variability and change. Jointly funded by the NCDC Paleoclimatology Branch. Researchers Woodhouse, Lukas.

WWA's Guide to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Webpages
These webpages provide an overview of the IPCC process and three Working Groups including definitions, and inks to official IPCC documents and materials. Researchers: Jessica Lowrey, WWA, Andrea Ray, NOAA, ESRL.

Hard Times on the Colorado River: Drought, Growth, and the Future of the Compact (2005)
Twenty-sixth annual conference at the Natural Resources Law Center in Boulder, Colorado from June 8-10, 2005

Colorado River Web Section

Western Water Law and Policy Web Section

Colorado Front Range Web Section

 

 

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