1. Some thoughts on SWOT water resources applications
Dennis P. Lettenmaier
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of Washington
WaTER/SWOT SWG meeting
Paris
February 1, 2008

2. What are the challenges in global water management?
Population growth and lifestyle change, leading to increased water demand
Transboundary conflicts
Environmental change
Land Cover
Climate

3. Uruguay River basin land cover change – potential vegetation vs 1990s
1990s land cover (U MD)
Global Potential Vegetation (Ramankutty and Foley)
Forest/Woodland
Shrubland/grassland
Cropland
Uruguay River basin land cover change – potential vegetation vs 1990s

4. Land cover change in the Mekong River basin

5. Qori Kalis Glacier, Peru 1978 and 2002
Qori Kalis Glacier, Peru 1978 and Visual courtesy of Lonnie Thompson, from Barnett et al (Nature, 2005)

6. Impacts of reservoirs on the water cycle?
Construction of dams has vastly altered the water cycle by:
Altering the seasonal cycle, and annual amount of discharge (6 major global rivers, including the Colorado, no longer flow at their mouths)
Increasing the time of travel through the channel system
Changing the quality of rivers, and constituents and physical characteristics of continental river discharge
Transporting water within and between rivers basins, and altering its partitioning (usually meaning increased evapotranspiration)
~1900
2000

7. Some examples
Columbia River at the Dalles, OR

8. Opportunities
Time series (in near-real time) of elevation, and storage (utilizing surface area as well as stage) of major global reservoirs (note ~2500 in ICOLD data set of large global dams, but ~80,000 in U.S. Army COE data base for U.S. reservoirs
Action: evaluate set of global reservoirs for which such a data set would be feasible (considering surrounding topography, etc.), and evaluate potential for developing storage/elevation relationships over the mission duration

9. Time series (in near-real time) of inflow (and/or outflow) to selected major global reservoirs
Action: Evaluate feasibility, number, location

11. ESA River and Lakes data set (primarily EnviSat/ERS-2)
Visuals courtesy Jerome Benveniste, ESA

12. Evolving potential for global real-time drought characterization (and prediction) – is there an analogous potential for reservoir storage?
Visual courtesy Eric Wood, Princeton University

13. Policy analysis of implications of near-real time reservoir storage data on management of transboundary rivers
Action: need someone to take this on

14. Demonstration project for large river flooding?
Most property damage and loss of life comes from large river (and coastal) flooding (as opposed to flash floods). WaTER flood extent and altimetry should provide basis for updating (via data assimilation) flood forecast models
Action: Evaluate feasibility and mechanism (problem: there’s always a flood somewhere, but we don’t know where in advance). Possibly partner with a global forecast center?

15. Applications studies/demos for coastal oceanography
Storm surge/flooding
Estuarine (and near coastal) circulation/water quality
Opportunities for data assimilation?
Action: prioritize, need someone to take on this area