2012/Nov/27

Impacts of California Irrigation on the Southwestern U. S. Hydroclimatology
Prof Min-Hui Lo (National Taiwan University)

Abstract
========
Agricultural irrigation in the Central Valley of California has always depended on surface water reservoirs and groundwater pumping. This anthropogenic redistribution of water modifies the land hydrological cycle significantly, especially by increasing evapotranspiration. In this study we establish the importance of Californiaˇ¦s Central Valley irrigation in the local and regional hydrological cycles, including its role in land surface-atmosphere interactions. We use the global, NCAR Community Atmosphere Model, with realistic estimates of irrigation applied to the NCAR Community Land Model.  Consistent with previous studies, we find that irrigation modifies the surface radiation budget by generally increasing latent heat, decreasing sensible heat and decreasing land surface temperature. Although atmospheric water vapor increases due to enhanced evapotranspiration, during the summer, the Central Valley underlies the descending branch of the large-scale circulation, which inhibits the occurrence of convection. Consequently, Central Valley irrigation has negligible effects on local precipitation. However, precipitation in the downwind region of California, i.e., in the southwestern U. S., increases, enhancing the North American Monsoon, while forming a regional, anthropogenic recycling loop in the hydrologic cycle which returns water to California. This study has implications for the importance of human-driven impacts on the hydrological cycle and local and regional climate, and for water resources management in California and the Western United States.