Title: Hydrological Drought in the Anthropocene: Impacts of Local Water Extraction and Reservoir Regulation in the U.S.

Abstract

Hydrological drought is a substantial negative deviation from normal hydrologic conditions and is influenced by climate and human activities such as water management. By perturbing the streamflow regime, climate change and water management may significantly alter drought characteristics in the future. Here we utilize a high-resolution integrated modeling framework that represents water management in terms of both local surface water extraction and reservoir regulation, and use the Standardized Streamflow Index (SSI) to quantify hydrological drought. We explore the impacts of water management on hydrological drought over the contiguous US in a warming climate with and without emissions mitigation. Despite the uncertainty of climate change impacts, local surface water extraction consistently intensifies drought that dominates at the regional to national scale. However, reservoir regulation alleviates drought by enhancing summer flow downstream of reservoirs. The relative dominance of drought intensification or relief is largely determined by the water demand, with drought intensification dominating in regions with intense water demand such as the Great Plains and California, while drought relief dominates in regions with low water demand. Here, at the national level, water management increases the spatial extent of extreme drought despite some alleviations of moderate to severe drought. In an emissions mitigationmore » scenario with increased irrigation demand for bioenergy production, water management intensifies drought more than the business-as-usual scenario at the national level, so the impacts of emissions mitigation must be evaluated by considering its benefit in reducing warming and evapotranspiration against its effects on increasing water demand and intensifying drought.« less

Authors:

Wan, Wenhua  ^[1];

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Zhao, Jianshi  ^[2];

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Li, Hong-Yi  ^[3];

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Mishra, Ashok  ^[4];

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Leung, L. Ruby  ^[5];

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Hejazi, Mohamad ^[5]; Wang, Wei  ^[2];

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Lu, Hui  ^[2];

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Deng, Zhiqun ^[5]; Demissisie, Yonas  ^[6];

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Wang, Hao ^[7]

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China); Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
2. Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China)
3. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Montana State Univ., Bozeman, MT (United States)
4. Glenn Department of Civil Engineering, Clemson University, Clemson SC USA
5. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
6. Washington State Univ., Pullman, WA (United States)
7. Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China); China Inst. of Hydropower and Water Resources, Beijing (China)

Publication Date:

2017-11-03

Research Org.:

Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE; National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC); National Key Research and Development Program of China

OSTI Identifier:

1414545

Report Number(s):

PNNL-SA-121352
Journal ID: ISSN 2169-897X; KP1703030

Grant/Contract Number:  

AC05-76RL01830; 51579129; 2017YFC0404403

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Volume: 122; Journal Issue: 21; Journal ID: ISSN 2169-897X

Publisher:

American Geophysical Union

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; hydrological drought; water management; local water extraction; reservoir regulation; emission mitigation