Title: Effects of spatially distributed sectoral water management on the redistribution of water resources in an integrated water model: SECTORAL WATER MANAGEMENT IN IA-ESM

Abstract

To advance understanding of the interactions between human activities and the water cycle, an integrated terrestrial water cycle component has been developed for Earth system models. This includes a land surface model fully coupled to a river routing model and a generic water management model to simulate natural and regulated flows. A global integrated assessment model and its regionalized version for the U.S. are used to simulate water demand consistent with the energy technology and socio-economics scenarios. Human influence on the hydrologic cycle includes regulation and storage from reservoirs, consumptive use and withdrawal from multiple sectors ( irrigation and non-irrigation) and overall redistribution of water resources in space and time. As groundwater provides an important source of water supply for irrigation and other uses, the integrated modeling framework has been extended with a simplified representation of groundwater as an additional supply source, and return flow generated from differences between withdrawals and consumptive uses from both groundwater and surface water systems. The groundwater supply and return flow modules are evaluated by analyzing the simulated regulated flow, reservoir storage and supply deficit for irrigation and non-irrigation sectors over major hydrologic regions of the conterminous U.S. The modeling framework is then used tomore » provide insights on the reliability of water resources by isolating the reliability due to return flow and/or groundwater sources of water. Our results show that high sectoral ratio of withdrawals over consumptive demand adds significant stress on the water resources management that can be alleviated by reservoir storage capacity. The return flow representation therefore exhibits a clear east-west contrast in its hydrologic signature, as well as in its ability to help meet water demand. Groundwater use has a limited hydrologic signature but the most pronounced signature is in terms of decreasing water supply deficit. The combined return flow and groundwater use signature conserves the east-west constrast with overall uncertainties due to the groundwater-return flow representation, varying ratios combined with different hydroclimate conditions, storage infrastructures, sectoral water uses and dependence on groundwater. The redistribution of surface and groundwater by human activities, and the uncertainties in their representation have important implications to the water and energy balances in the Earth system and land-atmosphere interactions.« less

Authors:

Voisin, Nathalie  ^[1];

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• Search OSTI.GOV for ORCID "0000-0002-6848-449X"
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Hejazi, Mohamad I. ^[2]; Leung, L. Ruby  ^[1];

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• Search OSTI.GOV for ORCID "0000-0002-3221-9467"
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Liu, Lu ^[3]; Huang, Maoyi  ^[1];

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• Search OSTI.GOV for ORCID "0000-0001-9154-9485"
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Li, Hong-Yi ^[4]; Tesfa, Teklu ^[1]

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland Washington USA
2. Joint Global Change Research Institute, College Park Maryland USA
3. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park Maryland USA
4. Montana State University, College of Agriculture, Bozeman Montana USA

Publication Date:

2017-05-01

Research Org.:

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (US), Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE

OSTI Identifier:

1368126

Report Number(s):

PNNL-SA-109215
Journal ID: ISSN 0043-1397; 35201; KP1703020

DOE Contract Number:  

AC05-76RL01830

Resource Type:

Journal Article

Journal Name:

Water Resources Research

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Volume: 53; Journal Issue: 5; Journal ID: ISSN 0043-1397

Publisher:

American Geophysical Union (AGU)

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

groundwater; return flow; integrated modeling; water resources management; hydrology modeling; water supply; Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory