Speaker: Steve Markstrom, USGS
Until General Circulation Model (GCM) simulations of future climate through 2099 project a wide range of possible scenarios (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007). To determine the sensitivity and potential effects of long-term climate change on the freshwater resources of the United States, the U.S. Geological Survey Global Change study “An integrated watershed-scale response to global change in selected basins across the United States” was started in 2008 to investigate the hydrologic effects of these scenarios. The long term goal of this national study is to provide the foundation for hydrologically based climate-change studies across the nation.
Fourteen basins for which the Precipitation Runoff Modeling System (PRMS) has been calibrated and evaluated were selected as study sites. PRMS is a deterministic, distributed-parameter watershed model developed to evaluate the effects of various combinations of precipitation, temperature, and land use on streamflow, and general basin hydrology. The PRMS models for this national study were developed, calibrated, and evaluated for previous or current modeling studies. Output from five GCMs which each simulated one baseline and three future GCM scenarios were used to provide an ensemble of climate-change scenarios for each watershed. These ensembles were used with PRMS to simulate future hydrologic conditions. The hydrologic effects and sensitivity to climate change were determined by comparisons with PRMS-simulations for current climatic conditions. The simulations were evaluated according to: (1) environmental flow components (e.g. low flows, floods), (2) annual water balance storage and flux, (3) timing and volume of evapotranspiration, (4) timing and volume of snowmelt, and (5) timing and volume of ground-water recharge/discharge
Denver Water - 3rd Floor Board Room
Please visit Denver Water's website for directions to their main office (the building outlined in red with the blue Denver Water symbol).
Lunch at 12:00, Program at 12:30
PLEASE RSVP if you plan to attend and please specify whether or not you will be eating the buffet lunch. All lunch orders must be in by 10am Friday. You may brown bag it or a buffet lunch will be provided by Denver Water catering service for a cost of $10.00 payable at the door.
All lunch RSVPs that are no-shows will be charged.
Please contact the Colorado Section at:
awracosection@ bbawater.com
or Kim Albright at Denver Water at:
(303-628-6516)
with reservations not later than NOON on FRIDAY, March 26th, 2010.
PLEASE try to RSVP if you will attend, even if you will not be eating the lunch buffet, by Monday so that we may set up the room accordingly.
Due to the financial burden that is placed on the Section, all those who RSVP for the buffet lunch will be charged.