Western Water Assessment logo Icon of River Sponsors: NOAA and CU
NOAA Disclaimer Search WWA site University of Colorado NOAA Search WWA site

Western Water Assessment
Research on the Colorado River

This page is dedicated to research on the Colorado River by Western Water Assessment team members and affiliates. For more information on Western Water Assessment research themes, visit our Current Research page or visit the Team Member Directory for contact info.

Law and Policy

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

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

Pulwarty, R., Jacobs, K., Dole, R., 2005: The hardest working river: Drought and critical water problems on the Colorado.
In D. Wilhite (ed): Drought and Water Crises: Science, Technology and Management Taylor and Francis Press 249-285

Jacobs, K., and Pulwarty, R., 2004: Climate, science and decision making.
In Lawford, R., et al (eds): Water: Science, Policy and Management. AGU Monograph. AGU Press Washington DC 177-204

Pulwarty, R., 2003: Climate and water in the West: Science, information and decisionmaking.
Water Resources (Update) 124, 4-12

River Management and Use

The utilization and impacts of climate information on the development and operations of the Colorado River system (1981) by C.W. Howe and A.H. Murphy
Article from the Panel on the Effective Use of Climate Information in Decision Making
NOAA's Tree Flow Page: This site has links to graphic reconstructions of streamflows for rivers in Colorado that date back to the 1600's and 1700's.

Climate Variability and Change in the Colorado River Basin

Colorado River Basin Climate: Paleo, Present, Future.  A special publication for the Association of California Water Agencies and Colorado River Water Users Association Conferences, November 2005.  Various authors.
This publication provides an overview of hydroclimate-related information for the Colorado River Basin.  It describes the basin's climate, variability, and factors influencing it over varied timescales.

"How the west was warmed".  Martin Hoerling, NOAA Climate Diagnostics Center.  Presented Sept. 23, 2005 at the Urban water supplies and climate change in the west conference, Las Vegas, NV.
 
Effects of temperature and precipitation variability on snowpack trends in the western U.S. Hamlet, A. F., P. W. Mote, M. Clark, and D. P. Lettenmaier. Journal of Climate.

Declining mountain snowpack in western North America. (2005). Mote, P. W., A. F. Hamlet, M. Clark, and D. P. Lettenmaier. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 86(1):39-49.
Cover story of the Jaunary 2005 edition of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.  This research shows that while there has been a decline in snowpack in the Pacific Northwest, there is not a similar signal in the Colorado River Basin.

Seasonal  Cycle Shifts in Hydroclimatology over the Western United States. (2004). Regonda, Satish K. and Balaji Rajagopalan, Journal  of Climate, 18:372-384.
This article is similar to the Mote et. al. article above.  The researchers found that there is a strong trend of earlier peak streamflows in the Pacific Northwest due to higher temperatures during March and April.

Restoration and Conservation

Pulwarty, R. and Melis, T., 2001: Climate extremes and adaptive management on the
Colorado River. J. Environmental Management 63, 307-324

Sitemap | Contact (Find Us) | Intranet | Email webmaster