Description
Water Policy and Planning in a Variable and Changing Climate addresses the current challenges facing western water planners and policy makers in the United States and considers strategies for managing water resources and related risks in the future. Written by highly-regarded experts in the industry, the book offers a wealth of experience, and explains the physical, socioeconomic, and institutional context for western water resource management. The authors discuss the complexities of water policy, describe the framework for water policy and planning, and identify many of the issues surrounding the subject.
A provocative examination of policy issues surrounding western water resources, this book:
- Considers the implications of natural climate variability and anthropogenic climate change for the region’s water resources, and explains limitations on the predictability of local-scale changes
- Stresses linkages between climate patterns and weather events, and related hydrologic impacts
- Describes the environmental consequences of historical water system development and the challenges that climate change poses for protection of aquatic ecosystems
- Examines coordination of drought management by local, state and national government agencies
- Includes insights on planning for climate change adaptation from case studies across the western United States
- Discusses the challenges and opportunities in water/energy/land system management, and its prospects for developing climate change response strategies
- Presents evidence of changes in water scarcity and flooding potential in the region and identifies a set of adaptation strategies to support the long-term sustainability of irrigated agriculture and urban communities
- Draws upon Colorado’s experience in defining rights for surface and tributary groundwater use to explain potential conflicts and challenges in establishing fair and effective coordination of water rights for these resources
- Assesses the role of policy in driving flood losses
- Explores policy approaches for achieving equitable and environmentally responsible planning outcomes despite multiple sources of uncertainty
Water Policy and Planning in a Variable and Changing Climate
Table of Contents
Section I Overview and Background
Introduction: The Context for Western Water Policy and Planning
Kathleen A. Miller, Alan F. Hamlet, and Douglas S. Kenney
Natural Variability, Anthropogenic Climate Change, and Impacts on Water
Availability and Flood Extremes in the Western United States
Daniel R. Cayan, Michael D. Dettinger, David Pierce, Tapash Das, Noah Knowles,
F. Martin Ralph, and Edwin Sumargo
Section II Water Policy Issues Related to Climate Variability and Change
Key Legal Issues in Western Water Management and Climate Adaptation
Denise D. Fort
The West’s Water—Multiple Uses, Conflicting Values, Interconnected Fates
David Lewis Feldman
Protection and Restoration of Freshwater Ecosystems
Brian D. Richter, Emily Maynard Powell, Tyler Lystash, and Michelle Faggert
Climate Variability and Adaptive Capacities of Intergovernmental Arrangements: Encouraging Problem Solving and Managing Conflict
Edella Schlager
Support for Drought Response and Community Preparedness: Filling the Gaps between Plans and Action
Kelly Helm Smith, Crystal J. Stiles, Michael J. Hayes, and Christopher J. Carparelli
Providing Climate Science to Real-World Policy Decisions: A Scientist’s View from the Trenches
Andrea J. Ray
Using the Past to Plan for the Future—The Value of Paleoclimate Reconstructions for Water Resource Planning
Connie A. Woodhouse, Jeffrey J. Lukas, Kiyomi Morino, David M. Meko, and Katherine K. Hirschboeck
Section III Case Studies: Regional Issues and Insights on Adaptation Pathways
The Columbia River Treaty and the Dynamics of Transboundary Water Negotiations in a Changing Environment: How Might Climate Change Alter the Game?
Barbara Cosens, Alexander Fremier, Nigel Bankes, and John Abatzoglou
California, a State of Extremes: Management Framework for Present-Day and Future Hydroclimate Extremes
Jeanine Jones
California’s Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta: Reflections on Science, Policy, Institutions, and Management in the Anthropocene
Richard B. Norgaard
California’s Climate Change Response Strategy: Integrated Policy and Planning for Water, Energy, and Land
Robert C. Wilkinson
California’s Irrigated Agriculture and Innovations in Adapting to Water Scarcity
Heather Cooley
Responses of Southern California’s Urban Water Sector to Changing Stresses and Increased Uncertainty: Innovative Approaches
Celeste Cantú
Climate Change and Allocation Institutions in the Colorado River Basin
Jason Anthony Robison
Using Large-Scale Flow Experiments to Rehabilitate Colorado River Ecosystem Function in Grand Canyon: Basis for an Adaptive Climate- Resilient Strategy
Theodore S. Melis, William E. Pine, III, Josh Korman, Michael D. Yard, Shaleen Jain, and Roger S. Pulwarty
Integration of Surface Water and Groundwater Rights: Colorado’s Experience
Thomas V. Cech
Floods as Unnatural Disasters: The Role of Law
Sandra B. Zellmer and Christine A. Klein
Adaptive Management and Governance Lessons from a Semiarid River Basin: A Platte River Case Study
Chadwin B. Smith, Jason M. Farnsworth, David M. Baasch, and Jerry F. Kenny
Drought as an Opportunity for Legal and Institutional Change in Texas
Ronald Kaiser
