Climate Exchange

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in a flow 25 per cent below average. This occurred

as the Southwestern US was experiencing very rapid

urban growth and sprawl. Major Southwest cities have

averaged over 25 per cent growth in the past ten years

with attendant social, economic and environmental

demands on water resources.

NIDIS convened a series of stakeholder workshops at

different administrative units with water managers and

resource specialists from federal, state, municipal, tribal

and other governments of Utah, Wyoming and Colorado

to identify information gaps and initiate the development

of decision support tools and processes. Three critical

problems were identified as NIDIS priorities:

• Coordinated reservoir operations: low flow shortage

triggering criteria on Lakes Powell and Mead, the

two largest man-made lakes in the US

• Inter- and intra-basin transfers (to the burgeoning

Front Range)

• Ecosystem health and services.

Within this problem setting, three major efforts are

underway:

• Identification of federal and state-level partner-

ships, decision support tools and actions needed (to

improve information development, coordination and

flow for risk reduction)

• Assessment and consolidation of drought indicators

and triggers used in the Upper Basin

• Implementation of an Upper Colorado Basin

Drought EWS.

Partners and end users of NIDIS information in

this basin include: the Department of the Interior

(Reclamation, United States Geological Survey, Fish

and Wildlife Service), United States Department

of Agriculture (Forest Service, Natural Resources

Conservation Service), Native American tribes (Four

Corners region), resource management personnel and

state climatologists from the Basin States,

State of

Colorado Conservancy District and Front Range Urban

Community (Denver and Aurora Water), Colorado

Climate Center, Western Regional Climate Center, and

National Drought Mitigation Center.

NIDIS products and services in the Colorado Basin

to date include development of new watershed-based

drought indicators and triggers used in the Upper

Basin; improved linkages between climate and stream-

flow modelling during drought; and a low flow impacts

database for 164 National Weather Service forecast

points. The Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB)

Community Colorado Basin-specific Drought Portal

and the Weekly Drought and Water Outlook webinars

and early warning discussions with resource managers

are further examples.

The Colorado Basin Early Warning information

now feeds into and informs the national level Drought

Monitor that is regularly updated by NOAA and the

US Department of Agriculture and the University of

Nebraska’s National Drought Mitigation Centre.

NIDIS recently conducted the first ever assessment of the status of

drought early warning systems across the United States. There is

thus significant leveraging of existing system infrastructure, data

and products produced by operational agencies. Examples include

the Natural Resources Conservation Service snow-depth network,

reservoir levels from federal agencies such as the Department of

the Interior and the United States Army Corps of Engineers. NIDIS

also reports on advances in hazards research and the development

of early warning systems, as well as on new technologies and

techniques that can improve the effectiveness of existing DEWS

implementations.

NIDIS is increasingly acknowledged by Western Governors

University and others as providing a natural prototype for achieving

effective climate services, engaging both leadership and the public

and establishing an authoritative basis for integrating monitoring and

research to support risk management. As the first such prototype, the

Colorado Basin EWS is used to illustrate the variety of scales on which

NIDIS Early Warning Systems prototyping functions.

The Colorado River Basin Early Warning System

The Colorado River supplies much of the water needs of seven

US states, two Mexican states and 34 Native American tribes,

over an area covering almost 637,000 square kilometres. These

communities constitute a population of 25 million inhabitants at

present with a projection of 38 million by 2020. While the basin

has experienced significant droughts, the period from 2000-2004

was the driest five-year interval on record, surpassing even the

famous Dust Bowl years of the 1930s. After the critical year of

2002, during which streamflow was reduced to 25 per cent of

average, it became clear to the states and the Federal Entities that

an improved process was needed to integrate federal, state and

local risk assessment and early warning needs for drought impact

mitigation. The influence that warmer temperatures could have

were seen in the winter of 2005-2006, when, with a snowpack of

100 per cent of normal, the combination of low antecedent soil

moisture and the occurrence of the warmest January-July period

on record (driving snow sublimation and evaporation) resulted

Proactive

Planning

Impact

Mitigation

Identifying and transfering indicators, decision support tools and innovative

local strategies for risk assessment, communication and preparedness

Coordinate existing national scale and local climate-related data and

information support activities (e.g., within watersheds and states)

Integrating Tools-scenarios

information Portals

Improved

Adaption

Monitoring

Analogs/

Productions

Applications

Research

NIDIS Regional information managment model

Source: NIDIS