Grantee Research Project Results

2012 Progress Report: US Freshwater Resources in the Coming Decades: An Integrated Climate-hydrologic Modeling Study

EPA Grant Number: R834190
Title: 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

Publications Views
Other project views:	All 13 publications	10 publications in selected types	All 10 journal articles

Publications
Type	Citation	Project	Document Sources
Journal Article	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)	Full-text: Wiley-Full-text PDF Exit Abstract: Wiley-Abstract & Full-text HTML Exit Other: ResearchGate-Full-text PDF Exit
Journal Article	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)	Full-text: Wiley-Full-text PDF Exit Abstract: Wiley-Abstract & Full-text HTML Exit Other: ResearchGate-Full Text PDF Exit

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 downscaling

, RFA, Scientific Discipline, Air, Hydrology, climate change, Air Pollution Effects, Environmental Monitoring

Relevant Websites:

Ying Fan Reinfelder Website Exit

Haibin Li Website Exit

Yadu Pokhrel Website Exit

Climate Simulation Lab (CSL) Allocations 2011 Exit

Rutgers University Global Snow Lab Exit

Progress and Final Reports:

Original Abstract

The 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.