Climate Change Impacts on California’s Water Resources

While California’s water resources and infrastructure are already facing critical challenges in terms of providing Californians with adequate water supply, numerous studies have demonstrated the unfavorable impacts of climate change on the state’s water supply system. As such, observed temperature increases, changing precipitation patterns, variations in runoff timing and magnitude resulting from changes in snow accumulation and melt characteristics, and recent droughts in California may be partly attributable to changing hydro-climatic conditions. Hence, from a water supply standpoint, the study of climate change and consequent hydrologic variability bear important implications for water resources planning and management in California. This chapter aims to illustrate how climate change and its associated impacts have affected or are expected to affect California’s water resources. Additionally, implications for water infrastructure and a summary of strategies for adaptation to climate change are presented.

[1]  Edmund G. Brown,et al.  The California water atlas , 1979 .

[2]  T. Karl,et al.  Global climate change impacts in the United States. , 2009 .

[3]  Global climate change and California: potential impacts and responses. , 1991 .

[4]  David W. Schindler,et al.  WIDESPREAD EFFECTS OF CLIMATIC WARMING ON FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEMS IN NORTH AMERICA , 1997 .

[5]  J. Lund,et al.  WATER MANAGEMENT ADAPTATION WITH CLIMATE CHANGE , 2009 .

[6]  Marion W. Jenkins,et al.  Adaptability and adaptations of California’s water supply system to dry climate warming , 2008 .

[7]  E. Maurer,et al.  The Sensitivity of California Water Resources to Climate Change Scenarios 1 , 2007 .

[8]  Pavel Ya. Groisman,et al.  Prolonged Dry Episodes over the Conterminous United States: New Tendencies Emerging during the Last 40 Years , 2008 .

[9]  M. Shelton.  SEASONAL HYDROCLIMATE CHANGE IN THE SACRAMENTO RIVER BASIN, CALIFORNIA , 1998 .

[10]  M. Dettinger,et al.  Changes in the Onset of Spring in the Western United States , 2001 .

[11]  Martyn P. Clark,et al.  DECLINING MOUNTAIN SNOWPACK IN WESTERN NORTH AMERICA , 2005 .

[12]  N. Christidis,et al.  Modeling the Recent Evolution of Global Drought and Projections for the Twenty-First Century with the Hadley Centre Climate Model , 2006 .

[13]  J. Dracup,et al.  The evolution of climate change impact studies on hydrology and water resources in California , 2007 .

[14]  S. Stine,et al.  Extreme and persistent drought in California and Patagonia during mediaeval time , 1994, Nature.

[15]  Michael D. Dettinger,et al.  Changes toward Earlier Streamflow Timing across Western North America , 2005 .

[16]  Jay R. Lund,et al.  Modeling California's high‐elevation hydropower systems in energy units , 2009 .

[17]  Daniel R. Cayan,et al.  Climatic Fluctuations and the Timing of West Coast Streamflow , 1992 .

[18]  Corinne Le Quéré,et al.  Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis , 2013 .

[19]  Elizabeth L. Chalecki,et al.  THE IMPACTS OF CLIMATIC CHANGES FOR WATER RESOURCES OF THE COLORADO AND SACRAMENTO‐SAN JOAQUIN RIVER BASINS 1 , 1999 .

[20]  B. Santer,et al.  Identification of external influences on temperatures in California , 2008 .

[21]  Jay R. Lund,et al.  Estimated impacts of climate warming on California’s high-elevation hydropower , 2010 .

[22]  M. Dettinger,et al.  Changes in Snowmelt Runoff Timing in Western North America under a `Business as Usual' Climate Change Scenario , 2004 .

[23]  R. Stouffer,et al.  Stationarity Is Dead: Whither Water Management? , 2008, Science.

[24]  R. Seager,et al.  Model Projections of an Imminent Transition to a More Arid Climate in Southwestern North America , 2007, Science.

[25]  Minghua Zhang,et al.  Climate Models: An Assessment of Strengths and Limitations , 2008 .

[26]  Michael D. Dettinger,et al.  CLIMATE CHANGE SCENARIOS AND SEA LEVEL RISE ESTIMATES FOR THE CALIFORNIA 2008 CLIMATE CHANGE SCENARIOS ASSESSMENT , 2009 .

[27]  M. Ejeta,et al.  USING FUTURE CLIMATE PROJECTIONS TO SUPPORT WATER RESOURCES DECISION MAKING IN CALIFORNIA , 2009 .

[28]  Vincent R. Gray.  Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis Summary for Policymakers , 2007 .

[29]  M. Dettinger,et al.  Large-Scale Atmospheric Forcing of Recent Trends toward Early Snowmelt Runoff in California , 1995 .

[30]  Jeremy S. Pal,et al.  Climate change hotspots in the United States , 2008 .

[31]  J. Lund,et al.  Aggregated Modeling Alternatives for Modeling California's High-Elevation Hydropower with Climate Change in the Absence of Storage Capacity Data , 2007 .

[32]  A. Gershunov,et al.  North Pacific cyclonic and anticyclonic transients in a global warming context: possible consequences for Western North American daily precipitation and temperature extremes , 2009 .