Engineering Commons^™

Identification Of Long Term Changes And Evaluation Of The Relationships Among Streamflow Variability And Oceanic-Atmospheric Indices, Soumya Sagarika

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

To examine the effects of climate variability on streamflow, this thesis presents a comprehensive analysis of the streamflow variability of the continental United States and its association with oceanic-atmospheric indices. First, the presence of trends with consideration of short term and long term persistence followed by shifts over the past years in the continental U.S. streamflow were analyzed by using the non-parametric tests: Mann Kendall and Pettitt. Second, the spatio-temporal relationships between seasonal streamflow variability of continental U.S. and sea surface temperatures (SST) and 500 mbar geopotential height (Z500) of the Pacific and Atlantic were established using the singular valued …

Impacts Of Climate Changes On The Spatiotemporal Distribution Of Precipitation In The Western United States, Peng Jiang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Precipitation in the Intermountain West is characterized by its great variability in both spatial and temporal distributions. Moreover, the spatiotemporal distribution of the precipitation is changing due to the climate changes. In this dissertation, three studies are conducted to investigate the multi-scale temporal variability of precipitation, the performance of current climate models on this variability, the influence of large-scale ocean oscillations on heavy precipitation, and the impact of human induced global warming on storm properties.

The first study is to examine the performance of current climate models on the simulation of the multi-scale temporal variability determined from the observed station …

Losing The Lake: Development And Deployment Of An Educational Game, Joseph M. Vesco, Katie Gilgen, Anne Paine, Marissa Owens, Michael Nussbaum, Gale M. Sinatra, Sajjad Ahmad, Kent J. Crippen, Sergiu Dascalu, Frederick C. Harris

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

When asked what the top three issues of the Las Vegas region were, the reply was “water, water, water!" This was the result of a survey done a few years ago of Las Vegas Valley TV anchors. The reason for this response is that sustainability of the urban environments requires sufficient water resources as does population growth. With the advent of global climate change, this resource is in danger. Water flow and mountainous ice packs are impacted by this change in climate there by impacting the amount of water the the region. This is compounded over time as the population …

Hydroclimatic Forecasting In The Western United States Using Paleoclimate Reconstructions And Data-Driven Models, Christopher Allen Carrier

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis investigated climate variability and their associated hydrologic responses in the western United States. The western United States faces the problem of water scarcity, where the management and mitigation of available water supplies are further complicated by climate variability. Climate variability associated with the phases of oceanic-atmospheric oscillations has been shown to influence streamflow and precipitation, where predictive relationships have led to the possibility of producing long-range forecasts. Based on literature review, four oceanic-atmospheric oscillation indices were identified in having the most prominent influence over the western United States including the El Niño - Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Pacific Decadal …

Development Of Sstreamflow Projections Under Changing Climate Conditions Over Colorado River Basin Headwaters, W. P. Miller, Thomas C. Piechota, S. Gangopadhyay, T. Pruitt

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

The current drought over the Colorado River Basin has raised concerns that the US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) may impose water shortages over the lower portion of the basin for the first time in history. The guidelines that determine levels of shortage are affected by relatively short-term (3 to 7 month) forecasts determined by the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center (CBRFC) using the National Weather Service (NWS) River Forecasting System (RFS) hydrologic model. While these forecasts by the CBRFC are useful, water managers within the basin are interested in long-term projections of streamflow, particularly under changing …

Association Of Oceanic-Atmospheric Oscillations And Hydroclimatic Variables In The Colorado River Basin, Ajay Kalra

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

With increasing evidence of climatic variability, there is a need to improve forecast for hydroclimatic variables i.e., precipitation and streamflow preserving their spatial and temporal variability. Climatologists have identified different oceanic-atmospheric oscillations that seem to influence the behavior of these variables and in turn can be used to extend the forecast lead time. In the absence of a good physical understanding of the linkages between oceanic-atmospheric oscillations and hydrological processes, it is difficult to construct a physical model. An attractive alternative to physically based models are the Artificial Intelligence (AI) type models, also referred to as machine learning or data-driven …

Development Of Streamflow Projections Under Changing Climate Conditions Over Colorado River Basin Headwaters, W. P. Miller, Thomas C. Piechota, S. Gangopadhyay, T. Pruitt

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

The current drought over the Colorado River Basin has raised concerns that the US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) may impose water shortages over the lower portion of the basin for the first time in history. The guidelines that determine levels of shortage are affected by forecasts determined by the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center (CBRFC). While these forecasts by the CBRFC are useful, water managers within the basin are interested in long-term projections of streamflow, particularly under changing climate conditions. In this study, a bias-corrected, statistically downscaled dataset of projected climate is used to force a …