The Golden State is baking. After months of drought in California the long-term forecast is鈥� more drought.
Rising global temperatures will turn much of the snow that currently replenishes the state鈥檚 reservoirs to rain, according to modelling studies by at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego. Unlike snow, which melts each spring and recharges California鈥檚 reservoirs, rain evaporates and soaks into the ground 鈥� it dwindles away, he says.
Cayan says the Sierra Nevada snowpack could be a third smaller in 2050 than it has been in recent years, and two-thirds smaller by 2100. The snowpack isn鈥檛 the only source of fresh water in California, but Cayan says it would be 鈥渕ore of a challenge鈥� to manage water as rainfall rather than snow. He presented his at the in Sacramento last week.
Advertisement
Cayan鈥檚 findings emerged as California鈥檚 Department of Water Resources (DWR) launched its to manage the state鈥檚 water. The future is one of never-ending restraint in water use. 鈥淭he goals of the plan are to make conservation a way of life,鈥� .
The main focus of the plan is to connect all California鈥檚 currently fragmented water sources so they鈥檙e easier to manage, and to rebuild much of its water supply and flood protection infrastructure.
It will cost $200 billion over the next decade just to maintain current levels of service, and $500 billion over coming decades to improve it, the plan says. On 4 November, California governor Jerry Brown launched a 鈥� a measure which, if approved by voters, authorises the state to spend $7.5 billion on water system improvements.
Cayan says the DWR has paid close attention to all climate change projections issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the latest plan includes a climate change component. 鈥淚 believe California has been quite progressive, and is on the right track,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut I think it鈥檚 fair to say that water management will have to adjust as the climate warms in future decades.鈥�
