Modeling The Effects Of Climatic Changes OnAvailability And Quality Of Water

Abstract

Mankind's water supply depends largely upon precipitation for resupply and regeneration. Thus, its quantity, availability, and quality are direct functions of climatic patterns. Natural climatic changes, varying from drought to flood conditions, are capable of drastically altering water supplies. Anthropogenic climate changes due to industrialization, agriculture, urbanization, and other activities are also capable of having profound effects on water supplies. A comprehensive, fully-coupled climatewater model suite is being developed to understand and ultimately predict the effects of global and regional climatic changes upon the availability and quality of water supplies. This methodology will be applicable to any region of the world. Incorporated are models that simulate: (i) the large-scale atmospheric circulation; (ii) the regional atmospheric circulation and its interaction with the earth's surface; (iii) surface hydrology; and (iv) ground-water flow and transport. A key element of our project is to couple the models together interactively. This will allow us to relate the implications of large-scale climatic changes to the local or regional scale in a physically-consistent manner.