A Colorado River Test Case for Convergent Science, Decision-Making and Community Action
Abstract
The Colorado River is aridifying as the climate of the Southwest U.S. warms rapidly. The river serves 40+m people in 7 U.S. and 2 Mexican states including all major Southwestern U.S. cities and irrigates over 1.5m hectares of land. River flows are down about 16% in the 21st century, reducing the nation's two largest reservoirs, Lakes Mead and Powell, to about 50% of full. An agreement signed in 2007, and modified this year to reduce the chances of critically low reservoirs, runs out in 2026. Renegotiations for a new agreement are set to begin in 2020. Stakeholders include states, Indian Tribes, irrigators, municipalities, environmental NGOs, and the federal government. Stakeholders have indicated they want strong science to guide the negotiations and the new agreement, but exactly what does that mean in a changing climate? Confronting and managing through the unthinkable — flows low enough to empty Lakes Mead and Powell — must be considered. How should the scientific community respond?
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFM.U14B..04U
- Keywords:
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- 0498 General or miscellaneous;
- BIOGEOSCIENCES;
- 0299 General or miscellaneous;
- GEOHEALTH;
- 1899 General or miscellaneous;
- HYDROLOGY;
- 6349 General or miscellaneous;
- POLICY SCIENCES & PUBLIC ISSUES