Skip to main content

Currently Skimming:

Summary
Pages 1-12

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 1...
... For example, it is known today that the Colorado River Compact of 1922 -- the water allocation compact that divides Colorado River flows between the upper and lower Colorado River basin states -- was signed during a period of relatively high annual flows. It is also accepted that the long-term mean annual flow of the river is less than the 16.4 million acre-feet assumed when the Compact was signed -- a hydrologic fact of no small importance with regard to water rights agreements and subsequent allocations.
From page 2...
... The Committee on the Scientific Bases of Colorado River Basin Water Management was appointed to assess the extant body of scientific studies regarding both Colorado River hydrology and hydroclimatic trends that might affect river flows. The committee also was asked to consider related topics, including hydrologic models, data, and methods; organizations for evaluating hydroclimatic data; and systems operations and water management practices (the full statement of task to this committee is listed in Chapter 1)
From page 3...
... After discussing the language in its task statement, the committee concluded that the most appropriate way to help improve a hydrologic baseline for the Colorado River would be to evaluate existing scientific information (including temperature and streamflow records, tree-ring-based reconstructions, and climate model projections) and how it relates to Colorado River water supplies, demands, water management, and drought preparedness.
From page 4...
... The 20th century saw a trend of increasing mean temperatures across the Colorado River basin that has continued into the early 21st century. There is no evidence that this warming trend will dissipate in the coming decades; many different climate model projections point to a warmer future for the Colorado River region.
From page 5...
... The paleoclimate record reveals several past periods in which Colorado River flows were considerably lower than flows reflected in the Lees Ferry gaged record, and that were assumed in the 1922 Colorado River Compact allocations. Tree-Ring-Based Reconstructions, Drought, and Future Water Availability Tree-ring-based streamflow reconstructions allow the gaged record to be placed in the context of longer-term hydroclimatic variability.
From page 6...
... These reconstructions, along with temperature trends and projections for the region, suggest that future droughts will recur and that they may exceed the severity of droughts of historical experience, such as the drought of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Maintaining the Colorado River Streamflow Gaging Network The Lees Ferry gage record is an important part of the scientific basis for understanding Colorado River discharge and variability and thus for Colorado River water management.
From page 7...
... growth in the western United States was to develop new water supplies by creating large storage reservoirs. After a period of vigorous dam construction in the 1950s and 1960s, prospects for constructing additional large dams in the Colorado River basin have diminished.
From page 8...
... The combination of limited Colorado River water supplies, rapidly increasing populations and water demands, warmer regional temperatures, and the specter of recurrent drought point to a future in which the potential for conflict among existing and prospective new users will prove endemic. Steadily rising population and urban water demands in the Colorado River region will inevitably result in increasingly costly, controversial, and unavoidable trade-off choices to be made by water managers, politicians, and their constituents.
From page 9...
... Technological and conservation options for augmenting or extending water supplies -- although useful and necessary -- in the long run will not constitute a panacea for coping with the reality that water supplies in the Colorado River basin are limited and that demand is inexorably rising. IMPROVING DROUGHT PREPAREDNESS: COOPERATION, SCIENCE, AND PLANNING Interstate Cooperation The drought of the late 1990s and early 2000s prompted the Colorado River states to move toward a new level of interstate cooperation in devising water shortage management criteria.
From page 10...
... Some of this scientific knowledge has been fundamental to legal and operational decisions, such as the Bureau of Reclamation's Operating Criteria, reservoir operations rule curves, and other aspects of Colorado River basin water resources planning and policy. Some of this scientific information, on the other hand, may not be as well integrated in Colorado River basin water policy as it should be.
From page 11...
... Today, population growth and increasing water demands have moved urban water issues to the fore of the western water landscape. Increasing urban population and water demands have prompted municipal water managers to think creatively about more efficient water management and ways to increase water supplies and/or limit water use.
From page 12...
... A comprehensive, action-oriented study of Colorado River region urban water practices and changing patterns of demand should be conducted, as such a study could provide a more systematic basis for water resources planning across the region. At a minimum, the study should address and analyze the following issues: • historical adjustments to droughts and water shortages, • demographic projections, • local and regional water demand forecasting, • experiences in drought and contingency planning, • impacts of increasing urban demands on riparian ecology, • long-term impacts associated with agriculture-urban transfers, and • contemporary urban water polices and practices (e.g., conservation, landscaping, water use efficiency technolo gies)


This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More information on Chapter Skim is available.