watervulnerability

Coconino National Forest Watershed Vulnerability Assessment, Southwest Region (R3)
and sixth HUC watersheds without many water resources have not been assessed for climate
vulnerability and will not inform sixth HUC WCF prioritization or projects outside of the WCF.
2. Following the WVA process, watersheds without many water resources will have low value, even
though climate change can significantly alter upland vegetation types. Thus, results are biased
towards watersheds with many water resources. The process could be expanded to assess
vulnerability of other resources to better assist management.
3. We need to effectively present the framework so that Forest staff understand the process and do
not have to start from scratch. It seems that the 6-step process varied somewhat between pilot
Forests.
4. Integration with the resource specialists was necessary to identify the resource values of concern,
assess how potential hydrologic changes might affect the resources, and identify and weigh
stressors and buffers.
5. Need to be able to effectively address the time, cost, and relevance of performing a WVA to the
leadership team to make it useful to managers.
PROJECT TEAM
The following team members contributed to this assessment:
Amina Sena, CNF, hydrologist
Mike Childs, CNF, fisheries
Janie Agyagus, CNF, wildlife
Ralph Martinez, Plumas NF, GIS
Ken Roby, Lassen NF (retired)
REFERENCES
Arizona Department of Water Resources. 2011. Arizona Water Atlas Volume 5: Central Highlands
Planning Area.
http://www.azwater.gov/AzDWR/StatewidePlanning/WaterAtlas/CentralHighlands/default.htm
Dominguez, F. and J. Cañon and J. Valdes. 2009. IPCC-AR4 climate simulations for the Southwestern
US: the importance of future ENSO projections. Climatic Change DOI: 10.1007/s10584-009-9672-5
Liang, X., D. P. Lettenmaier, E. F. Wood, and S. J. Burges. 1994. A Simple hydrologically Based
Model of Land Surface Water and Energy Fluxes for GSMs, J. Geophys. Res., 99(D7), 14,415-14,428.
Littell, J.S., M.M. Elsner, G.S. Mauger, E.R. Lutz, A.F. Hamlet, and E.P. Salathé. 2011. Hydrologic
Change in the Northern U.S. Rockies and Pacific Northwest: Internally Consistent Projections of Future
Climate for Resource Management. Regional Climate and Preliminary project report, USFS JVA 09-JV-
11015600-039. Prepared by the Climate Impacts Group, University of Washington, Seattle.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 1994. National Climatic Data Center. Mean Total
Precipitation - Annual vector digital data. Available on line at: Server=geodata.library.arizona.edu;
Service=5151; Database=atlas01; User=NCDC; Version=dbo.DEFAULT
156 Assessing the Vulnerability of Watersheds to Climate Change