West’s natural water delivery system is at risk
Changing climate is now a bigger question as it is playing havoc in many ways. And in the latest bang, the West’s natural water-delivery system is collapsing under the strain of growing temperatures, causing disturbance between people and the dry land they dwell in.
In fact, damaging indication of climate change is on the rise and in that respect, Mountain-snow runoff already bears the scars of climate change in the highest elevations, where winter now arrives later and ends earlier. There, snow melts before downstream users need it, or vanishes in the mild-spring winds.
Paul Brooks— a University of Arizona hydrologist— said, “Snow and runoff are part of a wonderful natural system that stores water through the winter and releases it in the spring, just as we start needing it for agriculture and the growing urban environment.” “The problems occur when you start to shift the timing,” he added.
Scientists say this seasonal shift will deepen as temperatures rise. The change threatens not only the water but also the way it is stored and released in a delicate relay from storm clouds to mountains to streams and reservoirs.
he research suggest that if the timing falters, then situation would become alarming like, water supply would reduce and forests and other wildlife habitat would weaken. Wildfires would grow. Hydroelectric power production would suffer.
An environmental engineer and director of the Western Water Assessment in