http://www.rff.org/Events/Pages/The-Future-of-US-Water-Supplies.aspx?goback=%2Egde_1826367_member_273168889#%21
The Future of US Water SuppliesRFF First Wednesday Seminar
Date
October 2, 2013
12:45 - 2:00 p.m. EST
A light lunch will be provided starting at 12:30 p.m.
Location
First Floor Conference Center
1616 P St. NW
Washington, DC 20036
Registration for in-person attendance is required. To RSVP for this event, please visit RFF's
event registration page.
This event will also be webcast live starting at 12:45 p.m. Join the webcast at
rff.org/live.
Have a question for the panel while watching the live webcast? Simply
tweet your question of 140 characters or less and include the hashtag #AskRFF. Watch the Q&A at the end of the event to see if it is selected.
About the Event
Two significant agency reports were released in the past year evaluating US water supplies moving forward and the potential of both growth patterns and climatic changes to increase the risk of water shortages. The Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) released the Colorado River Basin Supply and Demand Study, and according to BOR Commissioner Michael Conner, “Findings indicate that in the absence of timely action to ensure sustainability, there exists a strong potential for significant imbalances between water supply and demand in coming decades.” The Vulnerability of US Water Supply to Shortage, released by The US Forest Service, focuses more broadly on the lower 48 states and their 98 sub-regional basins. According to that report, the US water supply will be more susceptible to shortages due to changes in supply rather than demand. Although these reports have some limitations (clearly identified in the reports themselves), they provide significant insights into water availability issues over the next 50 to 100 years. Additionally, a collaborative study was released by the American Meteorological Society—Understanding Uncertainties in Future Colorado River Streamflow—that examines and explains the wide range of projected reductions in Colorado River streamflows due to climate change.
Resources for the Future’s
Center for the Management of Ecological Wealth is hosting a dialogue to discuss these findings and explore the potential for economic mechanisms (water pricing, trading, and ecosystem service valuation, for example) to help reduce future gaps between supply and demand.
Moderator:
Lynn Scarlett, Visiting Scholar and Co-Director, Center for the Management of Ecological Wealth, Resources for the Future
Panelists:
Thomas C. Brown, Economist, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Social and Environmental Values Group, US Forest Service
Ken Nowak, Hydrologic Engineer, US Bureau of Reclamation
Len Shabman, Resident Scholar, Resources for the Future
Brad Udall, Director, Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy and Environment, University of Colorado
