In the climate change vernacular, adaptation refers to the human response to inevitable changes in climate, and mitigation encompasses the suite of efforts to reduce atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases. The IPCC and other major organizations tend to treat these two matters independently, although planning separately for each aspect of the climate picture can present conflicts. One example is the national investment and interest in biofuels. However, dedicated biofuel crops may not reduce carbon when the larger context is considered (e.g. fertilizer), and the amount of water needed to grow these crops may expand existing water use. Biofuels may thus trade off one benefit for another, increasing vulnerability. Another example involves water conservation. Conservation that supplies new growth may be mal-adaptive if declining supplies and increased variability occur with climate change. This theme is designed to draw attention to the needs of decision makers to find productive adaptive strategies, especially to climate change but also to natural variability. This theme is being driven by intense stakeholder interest in exactly how to adapt to climate change given the uncertainties, and how not to adapt.
CURRENT RESEARCH & ASSESSMENTS
Forecasts, Data, Tools and Product Evaluation
Water Rights and Climate Change: The Impact of a Shifting Hydrograph on the Timing and Administration of Water Rights in the West: 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 project (Summer 2007 to Summer 2008) examines 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.
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