2011 - Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences ...

WESTERN WATER ASSESSMENT
n Impacts of Climate Change and Dust Deposition on Water Resources in the Colorado River Basin
n Climate Adaptation on Western National Forests
n Colorado Climate Preparedness Project
n Ongoing Stakeholder Engagement and Collaborations
The Western Water Assessment (WWA) is one of 11
NOAA-funded Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments
(RISA) programs across the country. Using multidisciplinary
teams of experts in climate, water, law and
economics, the WWA team works with decision makers
across the Intermountain West to produce policy-relevant
information about climate variability and change. By building
relationships and networks of decision makers, WWA
is able to develop practical research programs and useful
information products.
In FY11, the WWA research team continued to expand
its research and decision-support products into three major
thematic categories: 1) Decision Support for the Colorado
River Basin and Headwaters; 2) Ecological Vulnerabilities,
Impacts and Adaptation, and 3) Emerging Initiatives and
Adaptation Strategies to Inform Climate Services. WWA’s
ongoing projects and newer initiatives were well-received
by the broad community of federal, state, local and private
stakeholders with whom we work, and several major endeavors
emerged as particularly important efforts.
Impacts of Climate Change and Dust Deposition
on Water Resources in the Colorado River Basin
Specific WWA research activities in FY11 included a
significant effort to understand a question on the minds
of numerous stakeholders in the region: To what extent
does the deposition of dust from the Colorado Plateau
region on high-elevation snowpack in the Colorado River
headwaters affect runoff timing and volume? Using the
Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) hydrologic model,
WWA researchers were able to show that dust deposition
is not only causing early spring runoff, but also may be
responsible for evaporative losses equivalent to 800,000
acre-feet per year, or nearly 5 percent of the average total
annual flow in the river. These results were published in
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and communicated
directly to decision makers at the Department
of Interior, the White House Office of Science and Technology
Policy and other agencies. Ongoing and future work
will incorporate future climate projections into the model.
Climate Adaptation on Western National Forests
As part of a broader U.S. Forest Service effort entitled
“A Toolkit for Adapting to Climate Change on Western
National Forests: Incorporating Climate into Resource
Management and Planning,” WWA is working with Forest
Service researchers at the Rocky Mountain Research
Station on a pilot project for the Shoshone National Forest
in Wyoming. As part of this project, a WWA researcher
worked directly with management and planning staff at
the Shoshone Forest to understand specific parameters
of interest. She then developed a climate-vulnerability
70 CIRES Annual Report 2011
Modeled change in date of 90% snow depletion due to dust loading.
From Painter, T, J Deems, J Belnap, A Hamlet, C Landry, and B Udall
(2010), Response of Colorado River runoff to dust radiative forcing in
snow, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(40),
17125–17130.
Colorado Climate Preparedness Project data base, screenshot.
assessment for the forest, focusing on shifts in available
range for whitebark pine and aspen, along with changes
in streamflow that could impact Yellowstone cutthroat
trout and water supplies.
Colorado Climate Preparedness Project
At the request of the State of Colorado, WWA researchers
completed the Colorado Climate Preparedness Project
(CCPP), a survey of climate impacts and adaptation