Climate Change and US Water Resources, Paul E. Waggoner (ed). (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1990), 477pp.
Understanding environmental problems; making effective use of technical information; applicable to water resources issues; written for the first party participant.
Climate Change and US Water Resources is a careful examination of the effect of the greenhouse effect (global warming as a result of increases in CO2 and ozone depletion) on the supply of and demand for water resources. The work is comprised of multiple free-standing essays.
Climate Change and US Water Resources is required reading for ARSC 5020/7020 as taught by Professors Glantz and Wescoat. This work will be of interest to the informed reader who wishes to broaden her understanding of the effect of global warming on water resources. It is a report to the American Association for the Advancement of Science Panel on Climatic Variability, Climate Change and the Planning and Management of US Water Resources. It begins with a page on conversion factors, useful to those not versed in the measurement of water resources. This is followed by a summary of the work and recommendations to the Panel. The recommendations are divided into three categories, recommendations to: scientists, public bodies, and private persons and enterprises.
The remainder of the book is divided into four sections. The first section concerns the setting . The editor begins this section with an examination of the issues. This is followed by three additional works by separate authors. The first is an examination of what future water use might look like under the present climate conditions. Next, prospects for climate change and finally decision-making under uncertainty are addressed. Section two is comprised of six works addressing the general topic of the relationship of climate to water resources. After an examination of climate forecasting, an explanation of what statistics can tell us is presented. Next, the effect of climate change and CO2 enrichment on evapotranspiration is addressed. The next two chapters focus upon the progression from climate conditions to water flow to storage of water. The final chapter in this section is an essay by Peter H Gleick on the vulnerability of water systems.
The largest section of the book is section three which is comprised of eight chapters, each representing separate works addressing impacts and responses. The first five chapters in this section focus upon the impacts of changes in water resources on: flooding and the frequency of droughts, irrigation, water quality, recreation and wildlife, and urban water. The last three chapters address: water electricity and institutional innovation, reallocation by markets and prices, and the political agenda. The final section addresses climate change and US water resources in a summary by the editor and Roger R. Revelle.
Climate Change and US Water Resources is both; sufficiently rigorous scientifically to provide new information to those working in the field of hydrology or water resources management, and carefully written enough not to exclude informed readers who are interested in water resources issues but who are not hydrologists.
T. A. O'Lonergan
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