Human-induced changes in the hydrology of the western United States.
Observations have shown that the hydrological cycle of the western United States changed significantly over the last half of the 20th century. We present a regional, multivariable climate change detection and attribution study, using a high-resolution hydrologic model forced by global climate models, focusing on the changes that have already affected this primarily arid region with a large and growing population. The results show that up to 60% of the climate-related trends of river flow, winter air temperature, and snow pack between 1950 and 1999 are human-induced. These results are robust to perturbation of study variates and methods. They portend, in conjunction with previous work, a coming crisis in water supply for the western United States.
Barnett
Tim P
TP
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA. tbarnett-ul@ucsd.edu
Pierce
David W
DW
Hidalgo
Hugo G
HG
Bonfils
Celine
C
Santer
Benjamin D
BD
Das
Tapash
T
Bala
Govindasamy
G
Wood
Andrew W
AW
Nozawa
Toru
T
Mirin
Arthur A
AA
Cayan
Daniel R
DR
Dettinger
Michael D
MD