Modeled change in the Seasonality between 1971-1980 and the 1971-2000 Normal period
Description
Originators: US Environmental Protection Agency Publisher: US EPA Office of Research & Development (ORD) - National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL) Publication place: Corvallis, OR Publication date: Time Period of Data: 1900-2010; Projected data for 2041-2070. Data location: GeoPlatform ("https://www.geoplatform.gov/") and EPA Environmental Dataset Gateway (https://edg.epa.gov/). Abstract: We apply the hydrologic landscapes (HL) concept to assess the hydrologic vulnerability of the western United States (U.S.) to projected climate conditions. Our goal is to understand the potential impacts for stakeholder-defined interests across large geographic areas. The basic assumption of the HL approach is that catchments that share similar physical and climatic characteristics are expected to have similar hydrologic characteristics. We map climate vulnerability by integrating the HL approach into a retrospective analysis of historical data to assess variability in future climate projections and hydrology, which includes temperature, precipitation, potential evapotranspiration, snow accumulation, climatic moisture, surplus water, and seasonality of water surplus. Projections that are not within two-standard deviations of the historical decadal average contribute to the vulnerability index for each metric. The resulting vulnerability maps show that temperature and potential evapotranspiration are consistently projected to have high vulnerability indices for the western U.S. Precipitation vulnerability is not as spatially-uniform as temperature. The highest elevation areas with snow are projected to experience significant changes in snow accumulation. The seasonality vulnerability map shows that specific mountainous areas in the West are most prone to changes in seasonality, whereas many transitional terrains are moderately susceptible. This paper illustrates how the HL approach can help assess climatic and hydrologic vulnerability across large spatial scales. By combining the HL concept and climate vulnerability analyses, we provide a planning approach that could allow resource managers to consider how future climate conditions may impact important economic and conservation resources. Purpose: These data were created in support of the US EPA’s ACE CIVA 2.3, Task Project (QAPP: E-WED-0030854). However, these climate data and hydrologic landscape summaries should have broad applicability for hydrological, geomorphic, or ecological modeling, management, and restoration. This raster contains the modeled change in the seasonality of the month of maximum surplus precipitation between the target time period (in title) and the 1971-2000 Normal period (1 = same season, 0 = earlier season, 2 = later season).
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Tags
- environment
- 020:094
- downloadable data
- 1900 -2010
- united states
- climate
- 2041-2070
- water