Impacts of climate variability and regional growth on regional water resources

This integrated project is based on WWA's belief that the South Platte basin may become increasingly vulnerable to climate variations and extremes owing to its concentration of population and industry, together with projections of growth. Vulnerability is expected to be expressed both in terms of the difficulties in meeting competing demands for water (i.e., water shortages in various sectors) and the adverse environmental impacts caused by the combined impacts of regional growth and climate extremes.

Projects

• Interviews with sectors of the WWA user community in the South Platte to identify critical water problems that are sensitive to climate variability
  
• Analysis with the integrated South Platte assessment model to assess the sensitivity of the WWA user community to the stresses of climate variability and regional growth
  
• Assessment of the effects of climate variability and water management on both low flows and flushing flows, and the attendant impacts on in-stream pollution and stream metabolism
  
• Use of the integrative assessment model to examine the benefits and pitfalls of various coping strategies
  
• Understand the potential role of the South Platte assessment model for policy and planning purposes