By Keyvan Malek and Sonia A. Hall Investing in efficient irrigation systems usually requires significant capital. As with other capital-intensive investments, doing it would only make economic sense if the benefits exceed the costs. Each farmer can estimate the cost of switching their system to a high-efficiency system. But what about the benefits? What do […]
By: Joye Redfield-WilderRepost from ECOconnect 2016 forecast will guide water management in Columbia River Basin Ecology’s Office of Columbia River (OCR) has a mission to “aggressively pursue development of water supplies to benefit both instream and out of stream uses.” Since 2006, the program has been building water resiliency in Eastern Washington, especially in response […]
By Liz Allen If you follow research priorities for agriculture and the environment at the federal and international level, you’re likely aware that the “Food-Energy-Water Nexus” has become something of a buzz phrase in recent years. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the National Science Foundation, for example, have put out […]
By Liz Allen In the Climate Modeling Series, I have explored what you need to know to interpret and use models effectively (you can find the four previous posts in the series by searching “Climate Model Series” on AgClimate). For this final installment, I’d like to use hot-off-the-press research of global significance to illustrate why, […]
By Liz Allen Just how well can we model the impacts that climate change will have on agriculture in the Pacific Northwest? Simply put, there will always be uncertainty about exactly how the climate of the future will differ from historical patterns and what those changes will mean for farmers in the region. How accurately […]
by John Abatzoglou and Katherine Hegewisch Reprinted from: Climate of the Inland Northwest US Concerned about record breaking temperatures tomorrow, low spring snowpack this winter, or warming temperatures over the next half century? Coping mechanisms exist to minimize detrimental impacts (or maximize opportunities) from these three types and timescales of climate impacts. From the perspective […]
By Sonia A. Hall Water, water everywhere… but will it continue to be there in the future? Will it be available when we need it? Or do we need to invest in projects or policies now, because the water in the future will not be the same as in the past? These are the issues […]
By John Stevenson Reprinted from: The Climate CIRCulator LYING ROUGHLY DEAD CENTER in the lower half of Idaho, the Big Wood River Basin is more than 3,000 square miles, an area larger than Delaware. As with much of the U.S. West, the Big Wood is facing potential water scarcities as warming temperatures lead to less […]
By CIRCulator Editorial Staff Reprinted from: The Climate CIRCulator A GREAT DEAL of attention has been paid to how climate change will affect water availability as it relates to snowpack. But far less attention has been paid to how climate change could affect ground water recharge. A recent paper in the Journal of Hydrology addresses […]
By CIRCulator Editorial Staff Reprinted from: The Climate CIRCulator MANY CLIMATE ADAPTATION plans are largely based on climate model projections of precipitation. However, many of these models are notorious for their inability to accurately simulate seasonal rainfall at the regional level. This is especially true for the Pacific Northwest where models consistently depict summers as […]