Climate Change
Climate change is likely to make soils considerably drier during the summer months across most of the US, leading to agricultural losses and/or greater need for irrigation. Source: US National Climate Assessment, 2023.
Climate change is already having significant impacts on water supply and demand, impacts that are almost certain to grow more severe in the decades ahead. These impacts include greater evapotranspirative demand; a loss of snow and ice (an important form of water storage in some locations); and more severe droughts and floods driven by greater temporal variability.
The magnitude of climate change impacts on local water supply is generally poorly understood, so the central task for water managers is to increase resilience in the face of an uncertain future, while continuing to do what they can to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the worst impacts of climate change.
Resources to Understand Climate Change
For a discussion of climate change and “the end of stationarity,” see Chapter 3.
Climate Change in the News
Ignoring Climate Change Won’t Make It Go Away
Three recent news items illustrate the Trump Administration's contempt for science and its attempt to degrade the information we need to manage water problems and other environmental issues: 1. "US Government to Stop Tracking the Costs of Extreme Weather," New York...