HR: 0800h
AN: H51A-1107    [Abstracts]
TI: Sensitivity of California River Flows to Schematic Climate Changes
AU: * Duan, Q
EM: qduan@llnl.gov
AF: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, L-103 7000 East Avenue, Livermore, CA 94551 United States
AU: Duffy, P
EM: pduffy@llnl.gov
AF: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, L-103 7000 East Avenue, Livermore, CA 94551 United States
AU: Taylor, J
EM: taylor201@llnl.gov
AF: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, L-103 7000 East Avenue, Livermore, CA 94551 United States
AB: Water supply in California is vulnerable to changing climate conditions, especially under global warming scenarios. Increasing human demand for water exacerbates this problem. This presentation illustrates how climate changes could affect California's water supply through a series of sensitivity studies. We performed a series of hydrological simulations over California using a number of hypothetical meteorological forcing data sets. Those data sets were created by modifying the historical meteorological data and those generated from high-resolution climate models to imitate different climate change scenarios. Different warming levels and precipitation amounts were played out to understand the effects of climate change on snow volume, seasonal timing of river flows, peak flow rates and frequency/intensity of droughts. This study is part of the ongoing climate and water research initiative in Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to use high-resolution global and regional climate models and surface hydrology models to provide water managers with projections of the effects of climate change and variability on California hydrological cycle.
DE: 1655 Water cycles (1836)
DE: 1860 Runoff and streamflow
DE: 1600 GLOBAL CHANGE (New category)
DE: 1630 Impact phenomena
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting