Minnesota Water Resources Conference - Water Resources Center ...

BOOK OF ABSTRACTS
Tuesday, Monday, October 27 23
Concurrent Sessions III 3:15–4:45
Track C: Hydrologic Impacts of Climate Change
Adapting Stormwater Management to Climate Change
Camilla Correll, Emmons & Olivier Resources Inc., ccorrell@eorinc.com; Jennifer Olson, Emmons & Olivier Resources, Inc.;
Gary Oberts, Emmons & Olivier Resources, Inc.
The certainty of climate warming and changing weather patterns means that standard practices of the past
for stormwater managers must also change. Summers that will be warmer, drier, and stormier, and winters
that will be wetter and stormier both imply a need for adaptive practices beginning immediately, since change
has already begun. An increase in extreme events has been evidenced over the past 20-30 years and threatens
to double in the future. A look at changing weather patterns, hydrologic/hydraulic response, water quality,
surface and ground water levels, model paradigms, and BMP approaches are all necessary if we are to adapt
without major infrastructure disruption. Secondary impacts on water supply and wastewater will also be briefly
mentioned.
Devils Lake: Hydrologic Analysis of a Closed Basin System
Kari Layman, US Army Corps of Engineers, kari.l.layman@usace.army.mil; Rick L. Hauck, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
The Devils Lake basin is a 3,810 square-mile closed sub-basin of the Red River of the North. There is zero
outflow prior to the lake exceeding the natural overflow elevation of 1459.0 ft. Between July 1993 and July 2005,
precipitation levels within the Devils Lake basin caused the water surface elevation of Devils Lake to increase
from 1422.6 to 1449.3 ft. The 26.7 foot vertical rise resulted in an increase in lake surface area from 53,300 to
136,700 acres.
The rising lake waters impacted the City of Devils Lake flood protection project and the existing transportation
system. A risk based analysis was completed to evaluate the flood protection project for Federal Emergency
Management Agency certification. Given the current conditions, the analysis demonstrated, with reasonable
assurance, that the project will safely contain the one-percent event. In addition, hydrologic dam safety
analyses were completed to determine the appropriate top elevation for transportation routes that now
impound water.
Influence of Climate Change on Flow in the Minnesota River at Mankato
Jeramy Kulesa, University of Minnesota, kulesa@umn.edu; David Mulla, University of Minnesota
The effects of increasing precipitation on streamflow have been extensively studied extensively. Results of those
studies indicate that there is a relationship between increasing precipitation and flow, but the correlation is not
always high. Precipitation is just one component of both the changing climate and the hydrologic cycle that
drives flow. Rather than using precipitation as a metric for climate change, the Palmer Drought Severity Index
(PDSI) was used. This index takes precipitation into account, but also temperature and evapotranspiration
to get a better measure of the overall hydrologic effects of climate change. Results showed a strong (p