What Do Experienced Water Managers Think of Water Resources of Our Nation and Its Management Infrastructure?

This article represents the second report by an ASCE Task Committee “Infrastructure Impacts of Landscape-driven Weather Change” under the ASCE Watershed Management Technical Committee and the ASCE Hydroclimate Technical Committee. Herein, the ‘infrastructure impacts” are referred to as infrastructure-sensitive changes in weather and climate patterns (extremes and non-extremes) that are modulated, among other factors, by changes in landscape, land use and land cover change. In this first report, the article argued for explicitly considering the well-established feedbacks triggered by infrastructure systems to the land-atmosphere system via landscape change. In this report by the ASCE Task Committee (TC), we present the results of this ASCE TC’s survey of a cross section of experienced water managers using a set of carefully crafted questions. These questions covered water resources management, infrastructure resiliency and recommendations for inclusion in education and curriculum. We describe here the specifics of the survey and the results obtained in the form of statistical averages on the ‘perception’ of these managers. Finally, we discuss what these ‘perception’ averages may indicate to the ASCE TC and community as a whole for stewardship of the civil engineering profession. The survey and the responses gathered are not exhaustive nor do they represent the ASCE-endorsed viewpoint. However, the survey provides a critical first step to developing the framework of a research and education plan for ASCE. Given the Water Resources Reform and Development Act passed in 2014, we must now take into account the perceived concerns of the water management community.


Answer Choices Responses
Change in magnitude of extremes (low flows or high flows) Change in frequency of extremes (low flows or high flows) Temporal trend in extremes (declining or rising trend) Change in variability (compared to mean flow) Other (please specify) 6 Change in Magnitude of Extremes, AND, change in timing of those extremes (due to changing weather patternse.g. earlier and higher peak flows off the sierra nevada due to incresaed temps and rain on snow events) The changes in extremes I've observed have been attributed by the science community as being due to natural variability. However, they occur under conditions (e.g., warmest decade in historical record) that are very likely attributable to climate change. These background conditions exacerbate the impacts of the extremes --for example, further reducing snowpack in a drought year.
2/17/2015 12:12 PM 6 Policy -the rising control exerted by a centralized government on water resources will change the way the resources are managed, utilized and distributed, generally for the detriment of economic development.
2/16/2015 9:08 AM 7 I don't think I can provide an intelligent answer to this question. It almost seems like a leap of faith rather than something based on data. All of the last 3 questions are very basin specific. Having worked in many basins, I am of the opinion that generic answers to these 3 questions are NOT useful. The list of potential issues is useful in evaluating a particular basin, but the answers for that basin are highly likely to be inappropriate for other basins. In other words, I would place little significance on the answers to the last three questions. I have seen 1 or more of these issues arise in many of the basins I've worked on. Our current infrastructure is not designed to handle the extremes we are facing. Addtionally, again water infrastructure is a big concern.
5/5/2015 3:13 PM 3 Cyanotoxins will be a major impact moving forward. There are many, many other issues to be concerned about. 5/1/2015 9:24 PM 4 Design standards may not account for these changes, so adaptations, future thought in how to design systems is needed. First most urban infrastructure is not currently built to treat for all of these contaminants and that coupled with salinity increases will drive the need to build new enhanced treatment facilities that will be very expensive. These newer facilities will in all likelihood also drive an increase in power consumption. Hence urban water rates are going to experience significant increases. From water utility perspective -adaptive management is the technique that has been applied. That will get us part of the way, but how the practices are regulated (rule curves, policy frameworks, funding mechanisms for infrastructure) may need to be adapted to address these changes. Certainly some of the other standards of practice may need to be changed too. There is a need for greater flexibility in the operation of large projects and a related need for more data, in real time, as well as improved season and interannual predictive capacity and skill.
2/17/2015 12:30 PM 11 There isn't the political will needed to make the large investments in infrastructure necessary not only to catch up from past decades of neglect but also to build resiliency for the future.
2/17/2015 12:16 PM 12 I believe the huge western projects are environmentally and economically unsustainable. In the Eastern US where water is abundant most of the time there will be greater resilience and more security for those major parts of the economic system that rely on fresh water. I see a migration of irrigated agriculture back to the East where only a fraction of that used in the West is needed.

Answer Choices Responses
Understanding engineering implications on distribution of water resources; Developing flexible operational procedures for water management; Conducting risk management and vulnerability assessments for water infrastructure; Understanding the uncertainty of the role of external drivers (such as climate change); Other (please specify) Q9 Please outline briefly any knowledge gaps in external drivers (landscape or weather) that you feel currently prevents the engineering community from formulating practical solutions for more resilient water infrastructure (Note: These gaps may be considered as 'recommended research areas'). Specific effects of climate change on regional extremes Improving skills of regional climate models and impact analyses 2/14/2015 6:41 AM

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Lack of knowledge about implications of climate change on variability of local-to-regional scale precipitation patterns Q10 In follow up to Question 9, what specific type of information or assessment do you think is most useful in immediately and positively impacting engineering practices? (Please limit your response to 250 characters) Seasonal impacts of precipitation on future water supplies. Most GCM's do a poor job of representing regional climate scenarios at less than an annual basis. This is important because irrigation demand relies on the precipitation distribution during the off-season (Oct-Apr) for soil moisture recharge and within the growing season. Precipitation shortfalls during either of these critical periods increases the demand for irrigation water to offset the loss normal soil moisture recharge. Second, a change in precipitation distributions with in Rocky Mountain region during the "Snow Season" can result in poor reservoir inflows and subsequently reduce available water for irrigation deliveries. There needs to be a stronger relationship between those in the research community and those in the water management community.