Grantee Research Project Results
2012 Progress Report: US Freshwater Resources in the Coming Decades: An Integrated Climate-hydrologic Modeling Study
EPA Grant Number: R834190Title: US Freshwater Resources in the Coming Decades: An Integrated Climate-hydrologic Modeling Study
Investigators: Reinfelder, Ying Fan , Robinson, David A. , Miller, James R.
Current Investigators: Reinfelder, Ying Fan
Institution: Rutgers
EPA Project Officer: Packard, Benjamin H
Project Period: August 1, 2009 through July 31, 2012 (Extended to July 31, 2014)
Project Period Covered by this Report: August 1, 2011 through July 31,2012
Project Amount: $769,065
RFA: Consequences of Global Change for Water Quality (2008) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Ecological Indicators/Assessment/Restoration , Climate Change , Watersheds , Aquatic Ecosystems , Water
Objective:
To reconstruct the past 33 years (1979-2011) of hydrologic change in North America and to project coupled climate-hydrologic changes in the next 50 years under Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios.
Progress Summary:
During the third year of the project, we have:
- completed Task 1, offline hydrologic simulation of the past 33 years forced by climate reanalysis (NARR), by Dr. Haibin Li;
- tested a new river and floodplain routing scheme that takes into account the back-water effects that cause flooding in lowland valleys and coastal areas, and published two papers on testing the scheme in particular and the integrated model in general, by Drs. Gonzalo Miguez-Macho and Ying Fan;
- compiled more snow observations (snow water equivalent) at 767 SNOTEL sites over the past decades, by Dr. Haibin Li;
- implemented our groundwater-surface model in the default land model of WRF (NOAH-MP) in collaboration with NCAR WRF land model group, by Dr. Gonzalo Miguez-Macho; and
- completed test runs of WRF-Hydro for Task 2, coupled climate-hydrologic simulations of the past decades, by Mr. Ross Alter, Ph.D. Candidate.
Future Activities:
During the next year of the project, we will:
- complete the analysis of results and the manuscript from Task 1 of the project, led by Dr. Li;
- complete Task 2 (coupled climate-hydrology simulation of past 10 years, 2002-2011, using WRF-Hydro), led by Mr. Alter;
- include human withdraw in the modeling framework; and
- include a simple energy model to simulate stream temperature, both led by Dr. Pokhrel.
During the final year of the project, we will perform multiple 10-year coupled simulations using WRF-Hydro with boundary conditions provided by the various IPCC climate projections (Task 2), to assess likely future changes in land hydrologic stores (groundwater, soil moisture, river flow and wetland distribution), fluxes (rainfall, evapotranspiration, groundwater recharge, and stream flow), and stream temperature under climate change and expansion of human footprints on land hydrology, over the period of 2050-2060 and 2090-2100.
We plan to set up a project webpage to post results from Task 1 after we finish the analyses.
Journal Articles on this Report : 2 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
Other project views: | All 13 publications | 10 publications in selected types | All 10 journal articles |
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Type | Citation | ||
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Miguez-Macho G, Fan Y. The role of groundwater in the Amazon water cycle: 1. Influence on seasonal streamflow, flooding and wetlands. Journal of Geophysical Research:Atmospheres 2012;117(D15):D15113 (30 pp.). |
R834190 (2012) R834190 (2013) R834190 (Final) |
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Miguez-Macho G, Fan Y. The role of groundwater in the Amazon water cycle: 2. Influence on seasonal soil moisture and evapotranspiration. Journal of Geophysical Research:Atmospheres 2012;117(D15):D15114 (27 pp.). |
R834190 (2012) R834190 (2013) R834190 (Final) |
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Supplemental Keywords:
Water resources, climate variability, climate change, irrigation withdraw, land hydrology, stream flow, flooding, droughts, groundwater, soil moisture, wetlands, stream temperature, LEAF, WRF, dynamic downscalingRelevant Websites:
Ying Fan Reinfelder Website Exit
Climate Simulation Lab (CSL) Allocations 2011 Exit
Rutgers University Global Snow Lab Exit
Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.