Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID NV_2024_Yu

A Storyline Approach to Assess the 1997 New Year’s Flood in Western Nevada

Institute: Nevada
Year Established: 2024 Start Date: 2024-09-01 End Date: 2025-08-31
Total Federal Funds: $28,226 Total Non-Federal Funds: $28,226

Principal Investigators: Guo Yu

Project Summary: Western Nevada is vulnerable to extreme flood events, like the 1997 New Year's Flood. It is important to understand how climate change will affect such extreme events. Conventional approaches, which are based on global climate simulation and some post-processing techniques, cannot provide trustworthy and reliable information on future extreme weather events at local scales. Here, we propose an alternative approach, which is referred to as “storyline”, to qualitatively analyze specific weather events using both climate, weather, and hydrological models. In particular, we aim to understand what the 1997 New Year’s flood might look like if it occurred 100 years later. The results of this study will: 1) provide a better physical understanding of climate change impacts on the floods in western Nevada; 2) improve public awareness of flood risks; and 3) strengthen decision-making to mitigate future flood risks.