EPA Draft Report on Modeling to Assess Potential Climate Change and Urban Development Impacts in 20 Watersheds

EPA is seeking comments on its draft report entitled, “Watershed Modeling to Assess the Sensitivity of Streamflow, Nutrient, and Sediment Loads to Potential Climate Change and Urban Development in 20 U.S. Watersheds.” The draft report was released on March 1st for a 45 day public comment period, with a due date of April 15th. Watershed modeling was conducted in 20 large, U.S. watersheds to assess the sensitivity of streamflow, nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus), and sediment loading to a range of plausible mid-21st century climate change and urban development scenarios in different regions of the nation. This draft report provides a summary of simulation results. Results show a high degree of variability, yet provide an improved understanding of methodological challenges associated with integrating existing tools and datasets to address these scientific questions. This will help improve how existing models and datasets can be used for assessing climate change impacts on watersheds in the future.

For more information, visit EPA’s web site at:
http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/global/recordisplay.cfm?deid=247495.

To access these reports, please
visit: http://www.usda.gov/oce/climate_change/effects.htm.