West Wide Climate Risk Assessment: Climate Data and Impacts Assessments.

The SECURE (Science and Engineering to Comprehensively Understand and Responsibly Enhance) Water Act (P.L. 111-11, section 9503) authorizes the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) to assess climate change risks for water and environmental resources in eight “major Reclamation river basins.”  The major Reclamation river basins listed within the SECURE Water Act (SWA) are the Colorado, Columbia, Klamath, Missouri, Rio Grande, Sacramento, San Joaquin, and Truckee river basins.  Section 9503 also includes the authorities to evaluate potential climate change impacts on water resource management, and development of strategies to either mitigate or adapt to impacts.

Reclamation is accomplishing the SWA authorities through activities within its WaterSMART Basin Study Program, which also includes implementation of West-Wide Climate Risk Assessments (WWCRA) and Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs).

The WWCRA activities are aimed to develop future projections of water supplies, water demands, and river system operations, characterized in a consistent manner within the eight major Reclamation river basins listed within the SECURE Water Act.

This presentation will provide an overview of the climate datasets that have been developed through Reclamation efforts in collaboration with other Federal and non-Federal Agencies, and applications of these datasets in water supply and demand assessments.