WSC-Category 3 Collaborative: America's Water - The Changing Landscape of Risk, Competing Demands and Climate

最近德克萨斯州、中西部和加利福尼亚州的干旱使农业、能源生产、工业、人类使用和环境之间日益激烈的用水竞争成为美国一个关键的经济和可持续发展问题。该项目将评估美国在面对气候变化、新能源选择和技术、经济和农业趋势时水的可持续性。它将探讨依赖水的部门如何影响其他经济部门并与之相互作用，并提供一个概念框架，为公共和私人关于水分配、基础设施发展和对水密集型经济活动的区域投资的决策提供信息。将开发数学和统计模型，突出全国的水风险，提供过去和未来取水和可用水的趋势信息，并帮助确定在特定气候、经济和水资源分配情景下特定的种植模式、能源开发和水基础设施可能导致的结果，以及这种配置在持续的干旱和洪水期间可能如何表现。该项目将首先评估用水状况，以及上个世纪气候、能源开发和经济的变化如何影响整个美国大陆的用水及其估值的变化。这项评估将着眼于气候统计、地表水可获得性和质量、定价结构、水权和契约、供应增加和储存发展、地下水获取、能源成本、经济因素、保护举措以及在用水模式变化背景下的环境关切方面的变化。评估还将衡量水风险，因为它与用水和供水的地理分布以及驱动经济因素有关。然后，该项目将开发一个交互式建模环境，以展望未来用水和供水的演变。这将考虑水和能源基础设施的能力扩展、种植模式相对于气候、能源和经济情景的可能重新分配，以及规定的水权和分配机制以及50年或更长时间内的生态需求。该项目将在国家范围内评估可能的市场和政策驱动的水可持续性适应战略，以适应气候、经济和能源情景，同时考虑对新基础设施的投资需求、保护以及区域供水限制可能导致的作物和能源使用的潜在转变。

Recent droughts in Texas, the Midwest and California have brought the increasing competition for water between agriculture, energy production, industry, human use and the environment into focus as a critical economic and sustainability issue for America. This project will assess the sustainability of water in America in the face of changing climate, new energy choices and technologies, economic and agricultural trends. It will explore how water dependent sectors affect and interact with the rest of the economy, and provide a conceptual framework to inform public and private decision making on water allocation, infrastructure development and regional investments in water intensive economic activities. Mathematical and statistical models will be developed that highlight water risks across the country, provide information on the trends of past and future water withdrawals and availability, and help identify where particular cropping patterns, energy development, and water infrastructure may result under a specific climate, economic and water allocation scenario, and how this configuration may perform during sustained periods of droughts and floods.The project will first assess the state of water use and how the variations in climate, energy development and economics over the last century have influenced changes in water use and its valuation across the continental USA. This assessment will look at changes in climate statistics, surface water availability and quality, pricing structure, water rights and compacts, supply augmentation and storage development, access to groundwater, energy costs, economic factors, conservation initiatives, and environmental concerns in the context of changes in water use patterns. The assessment will also measure of water risk as it relates to the geographic distribution of water use and supply, and the driving economic factors. The project will then develop an interactive modeling environment for envisioning the future evolution of water use and supply. This will consider the capacity expansion of water and energy infrastructure, potential re-allocation of cropping patterns, relative to climate, energy and economic scenarios, and prescribed water rights and allocation mechanisms and ecological needs over a 50 year or longer horizon. The project will evaluate possible market and policy-driven adaptation strategies for water sustainability at a national scale to climate, economic, and energy scenarios, while considering needs for investment in new infrastructure, conservation, and potential shifts in crops and energy use that may be induced by regional water supply constraints.