Water Science

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Water Science

• Understand the Hydrologic Cycle
• (global, regional and local)
• Understand the Climate system
• Understand their components
• Society as a component
• (Don Wilhites Hydo-illogical cycle)

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http//ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/watercycle.html
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Bow River Basin Waterscape Climate change
http//geoscape.nrcan.gc.ca/h2o/bow/images/climate
l_e.jpg
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Water Science involves (my view)

• Understanding the global Climate System
• Understanding the Global Hydrological cycle
• Development of new technologies to bring
  potable water to people in settlements
• Understanding their components and interactions
• Society is a component of these cycles

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What societies do to get water

• Store water
• Clean water
• Conserve water
• Negotiate, compromise
• Move water to people
• Move people to water
• Trade-offs

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Hurricane in the USA
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Information needs monitoring goals
Emerging issues outcome of decisions
Environmental decisions
Understanding water resources
Public information
Stakeholders Gatekeepers
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Start here
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Climate change impacts on water

• how will global warming affect precipitation,
  surface and ground water resources?
• The hydrologic cycle is expected to intensify,
  meaning more precipitation
• Where, when in the year and
• how it will occur is a major concern

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Seasonality Where Science meets Society

• Michael Glantz
• CCB, NCAR
• December 4, 2006

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• It is difficult to find any aspect of rural life
  in the tropical third world which is not touched
  by seasonality
• Does seasonality make some people poor and keep
  them poor?
• (Chambers, 1981, p.xvi p. 2, respectively)

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Examples of seasonality
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Seasonality different definitions

• The changing availability of resources according
  to the different seasons of the year
• Periodic fluctuations in the climate related to
  seasons of the year e.g. wet winters, drier
  summers
• Many time series display seasonality. By
  seasonality, we mean periodic fluctuations.
• Seasons are defined differently in different
  environments and by different societies.
• Of or dependent on a particular season
• Cyclicality in a business or the economy from one
  season to the next.
• Changes in business, employment or buying
  patterns which occur predictably at given times
  of the year.

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Why focus on Seasonality?

• Most people, socio-economic sectors and societies
  are more dependent on the expected flow of the
  seasons than they realize
• For a couple of billion people it is a life-death
  concern
• For many others it may be a health or an economic
  concern

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Seasonality and water climate

• Various parts of the globe are affected by
  seasonal hazards
• Droughts
• Floods
• Fires
• Tropical storms
• Water-borne diseases
• Growing seasons, harvests, rainy seasons,
  summertime vacations, ski and other sports
  seasons, and the like

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Seasonality science

• Each location on the globe has a marked
  seasonality
• Human activities are attuned to that flow of the
  seasons
• More accurately, theyre attuned to the expected
  flow of the seasons hot, cold wet, dry calm,
  stormy, etc.
• Anything that disrupts that flow, disrupts human
  activities.

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Aspects of seasonality

• Precipitation (Amount, timing, distribution)
• Temperature
• Solar radiation
• Cloudiness
• Relative humidity
• Wind speed and direction
• Normal length flow of the seasons
• 1816 the year without a summer

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Seasonality and extreme events

• There are seasons for various kinds of climate-
  and weather-related events
• A hurricane, typhoon, cyclone season
• Fire season
• Growing season (planting, harvest)
• Hot, cold wet, dry seasons
• Rainy season
• Hunger season
• Snowmelt season
• Etc.

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People and the seasons

• People, societies, and economies are attuned to
  the normal (expected, not actual) flow of the
  seasons
• Most people on the globe depend on the normal
  flow of the seasons for their food supply
• Industrialized countries have to rebuild and
  compensate for superstorm damages poorer
  countries are forced to live with the damage and
  for the most part, cope on their own

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High impact events are a worldwide problem

• Every part of the globe is affected by.
• a high impact weather event
• a climate anomaly
• Death, destruction and misery from either
• Frequencies and impacts vary
• location to location
• For same type event at different times
• Impacts are regional/local
• Second-order effects are national

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International Red Cross predicts more global
'Super Disasters'

• Disaster Losses on the Rise -- May 21, 1999
• New Studies Indicate Earth's Future is Looking
  Hotter, Less Stable -- March 3, 1999
• Intensity of Hurricane Seasons Expected to Worsen
  in Coming Years -- August 10, 1998

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Seasonal impacts

• Latitude specific
• Locale specific
• Human activity specific
• Ecological process specific
• Vector borne diseases
• Floods, droughts, fires, epidemics
• Hunger season
• Rangelands productivity
• Tourism

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Things people do to override the influences of
the natural flow of the seasons

• Irrigation
• Deep tube wells
• Refrigeration, heating
• Air conditioning
• Greenhouses
• Trade (Export import agricultural produce)
• Feeding pens for livestock pastoralism
• Voluntary migration

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Law Policy

• Restriction on burning wood in winter
• Restrictions on fishing certain species
• Restrictions on water withdrawals for irrigation
  purposes
• Seasonal water use restrictions
• Restrictions on hunting season
• Movement Restriction across political borders

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Seasonality and Politics

• E.g., transboundary water issues
• Conflict between Kyrgyzstan Uzbekistan
• Kyrgyzstan wants to release water downstream in
  the winter to generate heat
• Uzbekistan wants the water released in the spring
  and summer for use in irrigation
• Conflict between Spain and Portugal
• Arid Spain built reservoirs on rivers flowing to
  the sea across Portugal
• Downstream Portuguese farmers received streamflow
  only after Spanish reservoirs released it,
  altering by some weeks the farming practices in
  Portugal

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Seasonal economics(weblines from various sources
on Google)

• Seasonality has been a major research area in
  economics for several decades
• seasonality factors are always something we have
  to take into account
• economic shocks for peasants in 1983 were
  seasonal climatic shocks
• The nature of seasonality in Spanish tourism time
  series
• Coping with Seasonality and Drought will interest
  both students and professionals in anthropology,
  development economics, gender studies, social and
  economic change.
• Prevalence, seasonality and economic importance
  of disease conditions in Nigeria cattle
  population
• Seasonality of Asthma at Local Hospitals
• Conference on Seasonality in Economic and
  Financial Variables
• Improved Seasonality of Flows through Irrigation
  Demand Management and System Harmonisation
• seasonality as an essential concept in planning,
  implementing, monitoring and evaluating
  land-based rural development programmes
• SEASONALITY IN INDUSTRIAL COMMODITIES

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Seasonal ethics equity

• The hunger season
• Seasonal health problems
• malaria
• dengue
• cholera outbreaks
• Upstream vs downstream water needs
• Commodification of water