Impacts of Climate Change on Hydrology and Water Resources in the Boise and Spokane River Basins
نویسندگان
چکیده
In the Pacific Northwest, warming climate has resulted in a lengthened growing season, declining snowpack, and earlier timing of spring runoff. This study characterizes the impact of climate change in two basins in Idaho, the Spokane River and the Boise River Basins. We simulated the basin scale hydrology by coupling the downscaled precipitation and temperature outputs from a suite of global climate models and the Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), between 2010 and 2060 and assess the impacts of climate change on water resources in the region. Precipitation and Temperature projections between 2010 and 2060 exhibited a wide range. For the Boise River basin, changes in precipitation ranged between -3.8 % and 36%. Changes in temperature were expected to be between 0.02 and 3.9 °C. In the Spokane River region, changes in precipitation were expected to be between -6.7% and 17.9 %. Changes in temperature appeared ranging between 0.1 and 3.5 °C over a period of next five decades between 2010 and 2060. In the Boise River basin, change in peak flows (March through June) were projected to range between -58 to +106 m/s and for the Spokane River basin the range was expected to be between -198 m/s and + 88 m/s. Both the basins exhibited substantial variability in precipitation, evapotranspiration and recharge estimates. A range of possible hydrologic impacts at a local scale was expected to enable the stakeholders with possible options in their decision-making process.
منابع مشابه
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