Cooperative Water Program
Climate and Land-use Change
Report to Congress -- Strengthening the Scientific Understanding of Climate Change Impacts on Freshwater Resources of the United States
Salinity and selenium associated with land-use change in western Colorado - USGS, in cooperation with the Bureau of Reclamation, the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Forum, and the Colorado River Water Conservation District, developed a study to characterize salinity and selenium loading and how salinity and selenium sources may relate to land-use change in Montrose Arroyo, an approximately 8-square-mile watershed in Montrose County in western Colorado. This report characterizes changes in salinity and selenium loading to Montrose Arroyo from March 1992 to February 2010 and the magnitude of land-use change between non-irrigated desert, irrigated agriculture, and urban land-use/land-cover types, and discusses how the respective loads may relate to land-use change.
Sea-level rises and increasing salinity in southeastern Virginia tributaries to Chesapeake Bay— As a result of climate change and variability, sea level is rising throughout the world, but the rate along the east coast of the United States is higher than the global mean rate. USGS, cooperation with the City of Newport News Waterworks, conducted a study to evaluate and model the effects of possible future sea-level rise on the salinity front in two tributaries to Chesapeake Bay, the York River, and the Chickahominy/James River estuaries. Findings are used to evaluate “safe yields” for drinking-water intakes along the tributaries.
