A project to better understand, and help balance, future water demands during high temperatures recently received a $650,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The project funds a Washington State University-led team to use Columbia River basin watersheds as case studies to model potential water demand for multiple uses. These are generally categorized as “out-of-stream withdrawals” for agricultural uses and “in-stream flow” needs for ecosystems, endangered fish species, and even hydroelectric power.
The hope is that science-backed information can help create constructive conversations now to prepare for a hotter climate in the future.
“We live in this area where there are limited water resources that we’re trying to use efficiently across a whole range of uses, so we want to make sure that moving forward in a climate change scenario, we have sustainable water resources to meet all of the needs,” said Kirti Rajagopalan, a WSU biological engineer and principal investigator on the project.
