More on climate change and water management

I posted last week about the Secure Water provision of S 22, the Omnibus Public Lands bill that has passed the Senate, which would mandate federal planning for the effects of climate change on water resources.

Federal water agencies are already looking at how water planning needs to adapt to climate change. The US Geological Survey, Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation, and NOAA have issued a new interagency publication, Climate Change and Water Resources Management: A Federal Perspective.

Among the key recommendations: long-term monitoring at the right locations is key to understanding the impacts of climate change; water planning should incorporate projections of future climate conditions rather than relying solely on the hisotrical record; adaptive management may be useful for dealing with the added uncertainties introduced by climate change; and more research is needed to fill important knowledge gaps.

Hat tip to WaterWired.

Bureau of Reclamation, Corps of Engineers, NOAA, USGS, water planning