WaterWired

G.F. White Lecture by Steven L. Stockton - 'Global Context: The Flood Risk Management Challenge' @USACEHQ

Steven L. Stockton, P.E., Director of Civil Works, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, gave this address at the recent 2013 Gilbert F. White Lecture in the Geographical Sciences: Global Context - The Flood Risk Management Challenge. The lecture was sponsored by the NAS/NRC.

Download GFWhite_Lecture_Stockton_7May2013

From the WWW site:

Damages and loss of lives due to natural disasters, particularly flooding, is on the rise. The number of reported flood events has increased from ~ 250 per decade in the 1970s to more than 1,700 during the first decade of the 21 Century. All indications are that this trend will continue. 

Managing flood risks is a complex endeavor. Determining flood risks at any given location entails evaluating how high waters might rise as well as the vulnerability of people and assets in a flood's pathway. Assessing a communities' resiliency to return to pre-flood conditions must also be considered. Local governments, households, and businesses are key decision-makers regarding choices that affect flood risk and should be involved in planning processes. 

Join Steve Stockton as he explores the key principles in managing flood risks, including a new set of operating principles established by the agencies involved in the Hurricane Sandy Recovery. 

Steve will be the keynote speaker at the 2013 AWRA Annual Conference.

 Enjoy!

“There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.” - Victor Hugo (from the remarks)

Infographic: Will Your City Run Dry? Report: 'America's Water Risk: Water Stress & Climate Variability'

I just received a PR email from Veolia Water's publicity folks touting the release of a new report (although it is dated February 2013 - guess I am on the 'D-List' with Kathy Griffin) from the Columbia Water Center and Veolia, America's Water Risk: Water Stress and Climate Variability'.

Download GB_CWC_whitepaper_climate-water-stress_final

I think some of the material from this report was presented here.

Read a news release from Growing Blue.

Here is an infographic:

From the infographic page at Growing Blue:

According to Upmanu Lall, the director of Columbia’s Water Center, many of the tools which are currently developed to help businesses assess water risk “actually understate the risk of climate variations.” Lall noted that in addition to water scarcity projections, certain areas should also consider their exposure to drought, since droughts will magnify any problems created by water scarcity.

In developing this study, Columbia researchers first developed a new water research metric that they call the Normalized Deficit Cumulated (NDC) index. The index pulls from more than 60 years of precipitation data and the current water use pattern for the United States in order to better depict the discrepancy between water use and availability.

The study clearly shows that decision-makers need to be thinking beyond the problems of water scarcity, to the way drought will affect regions that are already facing problems. Said Lall, “Droughts will create an additional impact that needs to be understood, because drought magnifies the effects of scarcity.”

Explanation of the Normalized Deficit Index (NDC)
Two risk metrics were developed to capture the influence of within year dry periods (Normalized Deficit Index – NDI) and of drought across years (Normalized Deficit Cumulated – NDC). The NDI is computed as one number for each year using historical daily rainfall data for the area and current daily water needs. It measures the maximum cumulated water shortage each year during the dry period that needs to be provided for from ground water or from surface water storage or transfers from other areas.

The NDC is computed as one number over the historical climate record. It represents the largest cumulative deficit between renewable supply and water use over the entire period. Consequently, it reflects the stress associated with multi-year and within-year drought impacts at a location. Given that 60 years of historical climate data were used, the maximum of the NDI (i.e. the worst single year), and the NDC (i.e., the effect of a string of bad years) may have an average recurrence interval of approximately 60 years. The NDI data provides insights into other recurrence intervals as well.

I'm curious - from the above discussion it would appear that stationarity is tacitly assumed since the historical record is used.

This should be a good one - CWC and Upmanu Lall are top-shelf.
 

Enjoy!
 

“The needed focus for the study of climate change and variability is on the regional and local scales. “ - James Hansen(?)  - source: Roger Pielke, Sr.

The Mother of All California Water Plans Explained Here

The UC Davis Water Sciences Twitter sent around this Tom Meyer cartoon that explained Gov. Jerry Brown's plan for the Sacramento Delta tunnels.  

Makes sense to me!

“Mirrors on the ceiling,
The pink champagne on ice
And she said 'We are all just prisoners here, of our own device'
And in the master's chambers,
They gathered for the feast
They stab it with their steely knives,
But they just can't kill the beast

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
'Relax,' said the night man,
'We are programmed to receive.
You can check out any time you like,
But you can never leave ...'
    -- Hotel California by The Eagles (written by Don Felder, Don Henley, and Glenn Frey)

Upmanu Lall @columbiawater: 'Managing Water Systems to Address Climate Risk'

I downloaded this useful presentation by Dr. Upmanu Lall of Columbia University's Water Center  from the Water Innovations Alliance website.

Lall presented this material at a WIA event in New York City in late February 2013.

Download Lall_WaterConference_February2013

Below is a graphic from the report showing the USA's ratio of average demand to renewable supply. 

In addition to Lall's presentation on the USA's water stress and climate variability, he and his co-authors have a case study from Ceará in northeastern Brazil.

You can learn more about the Center's climate risk projects, Northeast Urban Climate Risk and Climate Risk and Conflict in Central Asia.

Enjoy - good stuff!

"The near term situation for water is already grim in many places." - Upmanu Lall, from the USA presentation

Report: 'Hard Choices - Adapting Policy and Management to Water Scarcity'

Happy May Day!

This is the report from the New Mexico Water Resources Reserach Institute's 57th Annual New Mexico Water Conference, Hard Choices: Adapting Policy and Management to Water Scarcity.

Download Policy_Options_NMWRRI_NMWater_Conference57_August2012

Although the report deals with New Mexico, those in other states will find it helpful. The report offers 40 recommendations, some of which (from April Reese's 30 April E&E article) are: utilities must work together to develop more sustainable water systems; green infrastructure like porous pavement to reduce flood risk and enhanced aquifer recharge should be expanded; leaking pipes and other delivery infrastructure must be repaired; and management of dams and reservoirs must be improved to "maximize both agricultural and environmental needs."

Caution is urged on water transfers. Some rural residents are skeptical of transfers - after all, water flows to money and power.

It might even be necessary to review interstate compacts in light of advanced knowledge about water budgets and hydroclimatology. 

Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM), one of the co-sponsors, wrote this cover letter:

This conference report is a discussion of a variety of policy options proposed by participants and attendees of the New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute’s 57th Annual Water Conference titled Hard Choices: Adapting Policy and Management to Water Scarcity. The conference in August 2012 featured five panel discussions and solicited input from all attendees to submit policy ideas for discussion. Following the conference, I directed my staff to work with a diverse group of water policy experts to put this document together to record the policy options for consideration by the public and policy makers.

As we adapt to our ongoing drought and a future where drought may become more frequent in New Mexico and the Southwest, I will look to this conference report as a resource, and I encourage further engagement and feedback from New Mexicans. I would like to thank the New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute Interim Director Sam Fernald and his staff for their tremendous assistance, along with other experts representing agricultural, municipal, environmental, state, federal and tribal stakeholders.

I feel strongly that working collaboratively is the key to overcoming our collective water challenges. I will strive to carry on the Western tradition of leadership on water issues to best serve New Mexico and the United States.

Here is the conference report prologue:

The information and proposed actions in this document represent a comprehensive discussion of current and near-future water issues as articulated by regional experts and the public during the 2012 WRRI NM Water Conference. Although the issues range widely over supply, demand, conservation, technology and policy, a relatively simple reality emerges. It is likely to be drier in New Mexico in the decades to come than it has been in recent decades past, as the chart below suggests. By almost any measure, under current trends and trajectories, future water supply will not meet future water demand in New Mexico. Although supply can clearly be augmented in the future by conservation, improved policy and management, and new technologies, the evidence that emerges from the best New Mexico water science is that significant reduction in demand will be essential to meeting the constraints placed by smaller future supplies. Decades of relative water abundance in New Mexico and the region, coupled with large growth in local and regional populations and increased consumption, are leading us to a crisis point for water availability for residential, industrial, agricultural and environmental uses. 

Enjoy! Thanks to Jan Schoonmaker for sending this my way. 

'In the end, our society will be defined not only by what we create but also by what we refuse to destroy. - John Sawhill