Recent WWA Publications
Water Use for Electricity in the United States
February 2013
Significant differences between reported and calculated water data are evident, yet no consistent reason for the discrepancies emerges. Read the full article at Environmental Research Letters.
Averyt, K., J. Macknick, J. Rogers, N. Madden, J. Fisher, J. Meldrum, and R. Newmark, 2013 Environmental Research Letters 8.
Mountain Pine Beetle Infestations and Nitrate Concentrations
December 2012
MPB infestations have not resulted in significant increases in nitrate concentrations in Colorado streams. Read the full article at Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Rhoades, C.C., J. H. McCutchan, L.A. Cooper, D. Clow, T.M. Detmer, J.S. Briggs, J.D. Stednick, T.T. Veblen, R.M. Ertz, G.E. Likens, W.M. Lewis, Jr., 2013. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 110(5), 1756-1760.
Climate Change and Western Public Lands
November 2012
Summary and analysis of a survey investigating the status of climate adaptation efforts being undertaken by federal land managers. Read the full article at Ecology and Society.
Archie, K.M., L. Dilling, J.B. Milford, and F.C. Pampel, 2012. Ecology and Society 17(4), 20.
Two Faces of Uncertainty: Climate Science and Water Utility Planning Methods
September 2012
Water utilities are increasingly incorporating climate change in their planning activities. Read the abstract at Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management.
Barsugli, J., J. Vogel, L. Kaatz, J. Smith, M. Waage, C.J. Anderson, 2012. Water Resour Plann. Manage., 138(5), 389-395.
WWA Spotlight
New WWA paper analyzes water use by power plants
WWA's Kristen Averyt and James Meldrum, along with collaborators at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and Synapse Energy Economics, recently completed an analysis of 2008 water use by electric power plants. Their findings demonstrated that approximately 41% of freshwater withdrawals and 3% of freshwater consumption across the country is attributable to power generation, usually for cooling purposes. The paper, published in Environmental Research Letters, also showed significant discrepancies between water use data collected by the Energy Information Administration and calculations done for this analysis. Averyt et al.'s paper is available here.
Brad Udall's departure from WWA
After nearly 10 years serving as Director of the Western Water Assessment, Brad Udall is moving on to become Director of the Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment. (More information is available in this press release.) Please join us in congratulating Brad and thanking him for his service! Kristen Averyt will serve as WWA's Interim Director. As always, please contact us at wwa@colorado.edu with any questions or comments.
Mountain pine beetle infestation has not led to excess nitrate in Colorado streams, according to new paper
An author team that included WWA-sponsored researchers James McCutchan and Thomas Detmer concluded that, contrary to expectations, there has been no significant increase in stream nitrate concentrations following widespread pine beetle tree mortality in Colorado. The team's paper, published January 14 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), synthesized findings from several university and federal agency research studies, including the WWA project led by McCutchan. Read the CU-Boulder press release, the Green blog at the New York Times and the full article at PNAS. Also see the WWA Beetles, Water, and Climate webpages.
WWA receives NOAA funding to help integrate climate science into conservation planning
NOAA recently announced seven multi-year awards to its RISA (Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments) programs to encourage collaboration with federal and non-federal partners on climate adaptation. WWA received $100,000 to connect the climate expertise at WWA and sister program CLIMAS (U. of Arizona) with regional conservation planners and decisionmakers, through The Nature Conservancy-led Southwest Climate Change Initiative (SWCCI). The effort is led by WWA team member Bill Travis. See the project description here.
New WWA research article: The status of climate change adaptation by federal land managers
The journal Ecology and Society recently published "Climate Change and Western Public Lands: A Survey of U.S. Federal Land Managers on the Status of Adaptation Efforts." This article summarizes and analyzes the results of a survey conducted by WWA team members Kellie Archie and Lisa Dilling, with Jana Milford and Fred Pampel of CU, on the status of climate adaptation efforts being undertaken by federal land managers in the WWA region. Read the full article at Ecology and Society.
Summary of the Southwest Climate Assessment Report is now available
The Summary for Decision Makers of the forthcoming report Assessment of Climate Change in the Southwestern United States is now available through the Southwest Climate Science Center. Several WWA team members contributed to the report, which provides a state-of-the-science overview of past, ongoing, and projected climate changes and impacts for the Southwest region, including Utah and Colorado. The full report will be published by Island Press in the near future.
WWA shares DOI Partners in Conservation Award for the Colorado River Basin Study
On October 18, the Western Water Assessment was among the organizations awarded a Department of the Interior's Partners in Conservation Award for their collaborative effort on the Colorado River Basin Water Supply and Demand Study, led by the Bureau of Reclamation. WWA's Joe Barsugli, who helped Reclamation develop the future climate and hydrology scenarios for the Basin Study, accepted the award in Washington, D.C., on behalf of the program. This is the second Partners in Conservation Award in four years that WWA has shared for its work with Reclamation and others on Colorado River climate and hydrology.
(More details from CIRES)
The new Intermountain West Climate Dashboard
At our Stakeholder Meeting on October 2, we demonstrated our "beta" Intermountain West Climate Dashboard, which provides most of the same climate graphics as are in the WWA Intermountain West Climate Summary (IWCS), but with the advantage of being updated much more frequently—daily, in many cases. Accompanying the graphics is a brief text summary of conditions as of October 1. We encourage you to check out the Dashboard and provide us with feedback on how it works.
University of Colorado Boulder 
