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Compounding Impacts of Human-Induced Water Stress and Climate Change on Water AvailabilityThe terrestrial phase of the water cycle can be seriously impacted by water management and human water use behavior (e.g., reservoir operation, and irrigation withdrawals). Here we outline a method for assessing water availability in a changing climate, while explicitly considering anthropogenic water demand scenarios and water supply infrastructure designed to cope with climatic extremes. The framework brings a top-down and bottom-up approach to provide localized water assessment based on local water supply infrastructure and projected water demands. When our framework is applied to southeastern Australia we find that, for some combinations of climatic change and water demand, the region could experience water stress similar or worse than the epic Millennium Drought. We show considering only the influence of future climate on water supply, and neglecting future changes in water demand and water storage augmentation might lead to opposing perspectives on future water availability. While human water use can significantly exacerbate climate change impacts on water availability, if managed well, it allows societies to react and adapt to a changing climate. The methodology we present offers a unique avenue for linking climatic and hydrologic processes to water resource supply and demand management and other human interactions.
Document ID
20170007775
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Mehran, Ali
(California Univ. Irvine, CA, United States)
AghaKouchak, Amir
(California Univ. Irvine, CA, United States)
Nakhjiri, Navid
(California Univ. Irvine, CA, United States)
Stewardson, Michael J.
(Melbourne Univ. Parkville, Australia)
Peel, Murray C.
(Melbourne Univ. Parkville, Australia)
Phillips, Thomas J.
(Lawrence Livermore National Lab. Livermore, CA, United States)
Wada, Yoshihide
(Columbia Univ. New York, NY, United States)
Ravalico, Jakin K.
(State Rivers and Water Supply Commission Victoria, Australia)
Date Acquired
August 17, 2017
Publication Date
July 24, 2017
Publication Information
Publication: Scientific Reports
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
Volume: 7
ISSN: 2045-2322
Subject Category
Meteorology And Climatology
Earth Resources And Remote Sensing
Report/Patent Number
GSFC-E-DAA-TN45508
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
Climate-change policyHydrology

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