Sustainable Water Resources Management in a Changing Climate

Presentation (pdf document)

Shaleen Jain, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Maine, Orono, 207/581-2420, Shaleen.Jain@maine.edu

Recent research linking dynamical climate variations to surface water supplies provides two important considerations for sustainable water resources management and rulemaking: (1) The changing envelope of climate variability over the last century is mirrored in water supplies as shifts in the metrics of hydrologic variability — trends in mean and variance of runoff, shifts in seasonality, and frequency of floods and droughts — of relevance to planning, management and design. (2) An improved understanding of the low-frequency (annual to decadal and longer time scale) climate variations promise a foreknowledge of regional hydrologic variability, thus opening a way to develop predictive tools that use climate precursors as a guide to proactively adapt water resources management and operating plans on within-year and longer time scales. We present examples from the current research in this emerging research area linking climate and managed and natural hydrologic systems. Some implications of this research for Maine's Sustainable Water Use Rulemaking are also discussed.