Water Policy and Planning in a Variable and Changing Climate: Insights from the Western United States

Water Policy and Planning in a Variable and Changing Climate addresses the current challenges facing western water planners and policy makers in the United States and considers strategies for managing water resources and related risks in the future. Written by highly-regarded experts in the industry, the book offers a wealth of experience, and explains the physical, socioeconomic, and institutional context for western water resource management. The authors discuss the complexities of water policy, describe the framework for water policy and planning, and identify many of the issues surrounding the subject.

A provocative examination of policy issues surrounding western water resources, this book:

• Considers the implications of natural climate variability and anthropogenic climate change for the region’s water resources, and explains limitations on the predictability of local-scale changes
• Stresses linkages between climate patterns and weather events, and related hydrologic impacts
• Describes the environmental consequences of historical water system development and the challenges that climate change poses for protection of aquatic ecosystems
• Examines coordination of drought management by local, state and national government agencies
• Includes insights on planning for climate change adaptation from case studies across the western United States
• Discusses the challenges and opportunities in water/energy/land system management, and its prospects for developing climate change response strategies
• Presents evidence of changes in water scarcity and flooding potential in the region and identifies a set of adaptation strategies to support the long-term sustainability of irrigated agriculture and urban communities
• Draws upon Colorado’s experience in defining rights for surface and tributary groundwater use to explain potential conflicts and challenges in establishing fair and effective coordination of water rights for these resources
• Assesses the role of policy in driving flood losses
• Explores policy approaches for achieving equitable and environmentally responsible planning outcomes despite multiple sources of uncertainty

Water Policy and Planning in a Variable and Changing Climate

describes patterns of water availability, existing policy problems and the potential impacts of climate change in the western United States, and functions as a practical reference for the student or professional invested in water policy and management.

Kathleen A. Miller is an economist working at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, in the Climate Science and Applications Program. She conducts research on climate impacts, vulnerability, and adaptation. Her work focuses especially on natural resource governance and adaptation planning under uncertainty and on modeling interactions between human strategic behavior and dynamic natural systems. She is the author of numerous papers on the management of water, fisheries, and other natural resources in the context of climate variability and prospective climate change.

Douglas S. Kenney has been with the University of Colorado’s Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy and the Environment since 1996 where he directs the Western Water Policy Program. He researches and writes extensively on several water-related issues, including law and policy reform, river basin- and watershed-level planning, the design of institutional arrangements, water resource economics, and climate change adaptation. Dr. Kenney has also served as a consultant to a variety of local, state, multistate, and federal agencies, and has made presentations in 20 U.S. states, seven countries, and four continents.

Alan F. Hamlet is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering & Earth Sciences, College of Engineering, at University of Notre Dame. Dr. Hamlet’s research is focused on the integrated modeling of climate variability and change, surface water hydrology, water resource systems, the built environment, and aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. He has been actively involved in stakeholder education and outreach programs in the Pacific Northwest for many years and is a leader in the development of decision support systems and sustainable climate change adaptation strategies in the water sector.

Kelly T. Redmond is the deputy director and regional climatologist at the Western Regional Climate Center at the Desert Research Institute, Reno, Nevada. He has played an active role nationally in development of the climate services sector. Dr. Redmond is currently working on several projects for the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS). He is closely involved in the NOAA Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessment (RISA) Program and the Department of Interior Climate Science Center Program. He has also served on and contributed to approximately a dozen committees for the National Academy of Sciences and National Research Council.