Long-Term Relationships Between Ocean Variability and Water Resources in Northeastern Utah1

Tingstad, Abbie H. and Glen M. MacDonald, 2010. Long-Term Relationships Between Ocean Variability and Water Resources in Northeastern Utah. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 46(5):987-1002. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-1688.2010.00471.x Abstract: The Uinta Mountains in the northwestern Colorado River Basin are an important source of water for Utah and the western United States. This article examines 20th Century hydrology in the Uinta Mountains region in the context of the previous four to eight centuries as well as possible relationships with Pacific and Atlantic Ocean variability using new tree-ring based reconstructions for streamflow and snowpack. The 20th Century appears to have been unusually wet compared with previous centuries. Relationships between hydrology in the region and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) are largely insignificant in instrumental datasets but may have been stronger, although inconsistent, over the longer time spans represented by the paleoclimate records. Impacts of individual modes of sea surface temperature variability may sometimes be enhanced by periods when climate forcing by ENSO, PDO, and/or AMO coincide. Such episodes are associated with deviations from mean hydrology as high as +14% and as low as −18%. The 20th Century could be a misleading benchmark to base water resource estimates upon and flexible water management strategies are necessary to take into account the large range of natural variability observed in the longer-term hydroclimatology as well as the challenges to predictability due to the apparently complex and inconsistent influence of ocean-driven variability.     

干旱灾害对江西省农业生产的影响及其对策

江西是农业大省,是国家重要的粮食主产区。近10 a来江西省干旱发生频繁,导致农业生产损失严重,威胁到农业的可持续发展。基于历史文献与资料,结合江西省农业厅的农业灾情调查数据和干旱指数最高的星子县、都昌县调研数据,着力分析近10 a来江西省的干旱状况及其对农作物生产的影响,探讨农业干旱灾害的成因。研究结果表明:江西干旱灾害以秋旱为主,近10 a年对江西的粮食和棉花生产造成重大损失,尤其是鄱阳湖区地区;江西农业干旱灾害的主要成因包括降水分布不均匀、红壤持水能力低、水利设施年久失修、植被结构破坏和易改变水文过程的大型水利设施建设。最后针对农业干旱灾害的主要成因,提出了减轻干旱灾害对农业生产不利影响的对策     

Impact of drought‐related vaccination on livestock mortality in pastoralist areas of Ethiopia

Under a national Livestock Policy Forum in Ethiopia the impact of livestock vaccination during drought was assessed in order to inform the development of a best‐practice guideline. For each of the different types of vaccine used during drought years there was no significant difference in livestock mortality, for any species, in vaccinated compared with non‐vaccinated herds. The limited impact of vaccination on livestock mortality was attributed to weaknesses in the design and implementation of vaccination programmes, including use of inappropriate vaccines, low vaccination coverage, problems with vaccine dosing, incorrect timing of vaccination and problems with vaccine storage. If these weaknesses could be overcome vaccination could be a useful means to protect livestock assets, with considerable benefit‐cost ratios. Vaccination should be conducted as a standard preventive measure during normal years, and programme design should be informed by participatory epidemiological studies.     

农业旱灾承灾体恢复力的影响因素——基于野外土地利用测量与入户调查

恢复力作为刻画人类自身响应和发挥主体能力、积极抵御和适应外界变化的指标,在灾害学领域的引入进一步丰富和明晰了灾害承灾体的性质,与脆弱性具有同等的重要性。但当前对灾害恢复力的研究不足,如何界定灾害恢复力的特征、诊断和定量评价恢复力尚存在较大的探讨空间。在湖南鼎城高排河流域野外土地利用现状测量与入户调查所得数据和气象数据的基础上,应用数学统计方法重点分析了土地利用、农户经济、文化素质状况等因素与农业旱灾承灾体恢复力的关系。结果表明,地貌类型与海拔高度从较大尺度上决定了农业旱灾承灾体恢复力的大小,水源地位置及其蓄水能力、水田与旱地的比例关系、劳动力文化水平、农户实际年收入和非农收入比例是影响农业旱灾承灾体恢复力的主要因素。     

Adaptive Water Resource Planning in the South Saskatchewan River Basin: Use of Scenarios of Hydroclimatic Variability and Extremes

The South Saskatchewan River Basin is one of Canada's most threatened watersheds, with water supplies in most subbasins over‐allocated. In 2013, stakeholders representing irrigation districts, the environment, and municipalities collaborated with researchers and consultants to explore opportunities to improve the resiliency of the management of the Oldman and South Saskatchewan River subbasins. Streamflow scenarios for 2025‐2054 were constructed by the novel approach of regressing historical river flows against indices of large‐scale ocean‐atmosphere climate oscillations to derive statistical streamflow models, which were then run using projected climate indices from global climate models. The impacts of some of the most extreme scenarios were simulated using the hydrologic mass‐balance model Operational Analysis and Simulation of Integrated Systems (OASIS). Based on stakeholder observations, the project participants proposed and evaluated potential risk management and adaption strategies, e.g., modifying existing infrastructure, building new infrastructure, changing operations to supplement environmental flows, reducing demand, and sharing supply. The OASIS model was applied interactively at live modeling sessions with stakeholders to explore practical adaptation strategies. Our results, which serve as recommendations for policy makers, showed that forecast‐based rationing together with new expanded storage could dramatically reduce water shortages.     

Drought Resilience of the California Central Valley Surface‐Ground‐Water‐Conveyance System1

Abstract: A series of drought simulations were performed for the California Central Valley using computer applications developed by the California Department of Water Resources and historical datasets representing a range of droughts from mild to severe for time periods lasting up to 60 years. Land use, agricultural cropping patterns, and water demand were held fixed at the 2003 level and water supply was decreased by amounts ranging between 25 and 50%, representing light to severe drought types. Impacts were examined for four hydrologic subbasins, the Sacramento Basin, the San Joaquin Basin, the Tulare Basin, and the Eastside Drainage. Results suggest the greatest impacts are in the San Joaquin and Tulare Basins, regions that are heavily irrigated and are presently overdrafted in most years. Regional surface water diversions decrease by as much as 70%. Stream‐to‐aquifer flows and aquifer storage declines were proportional to drought severity. Most significant was the decline in ground water head for the severe drought cases, where results suggest that under these scenarios the water table is unlikely to recover within the 30‐year model‐simulated future. However, the overall response to such droughts is not as severe as anticipated and the Sacramento Basin may act as ground‐water insurance to sustain California during extended dry periods.     

江西干旱灾害研究

在江西,干旱灾害是仅次于洪涝灾害的第二大农业灾害,本文对江西干旱灾害的面积,频率,分布,危害及其成因等作了较全面的调查和分析,在此基础上提出了减轻江西干旱灾害的若干建议,可供有关部门参考。     

近500年我国特大旱灾的研究

基于我国近500年历史旱灾资料,对其中持续特大干旱及旱灾个案进行了分析,并对其规律进行了探讨。指出干旱虽是常见的气候现象,但若是大范围、全流域乃至多个流域的持续干旱,则会酿成大灾。如明崇祯年间的持续数年的特大旱灾造成了水源和粮食的极度消耗,自然灾害导致了经济的全面崩溃,最终导致了朝代的更迭。本文以史为鉴,对我国现代面临的严峻的干旱缺水的形势进行了分析和预测,进而提出应将防范的重点集中在对社会影响极大的特大旱灾上,并且应当针对重旱、极旱的减灾对策及早研究和部署,行动越早就越主动。