IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcli/v10y2020i10d10.1038_s41558-020-0863-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Identification of local water resource vulnerability to rapid deglaciation in Alberta

Author

Listed:
  • Sam Anderson

    (University of British Columbia)

  • Valentina Radić

    (University of British Columbia)

Abstract

Global glacier retreat driven by climate change will have major impacts on regional water availability, as many communities rely on glacier runoff for water supply during warm and dry seasons. A community whose water resources are potentially vulnerable is one that sources water from a glacier-fed river where that river is expected to substantially change if glacier contributions become negligible. However, regional assessments identifying which communities’ water resources are most vulnerable to such changes are lacking. Here we use observed streamflow measurements, gridded climate data and a database of municipal water sources for communities in Alberta, Canada, to identify the relative importance of glacier runoff at the local scale. In a scenario of negligible glacier runoff, we predict unprecedented streamflow lows at several communities. This approach provides a methodology to identify communities whose water resources may be vulnerable to glacier retreat and would benefit from more-focused research.

Suggested Citation

  • Sam Anderson & Valentina Radić, 2020. "Identification of local water resource vulnerability to rapid deglaciation in Alberta," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 10(10), pages 933-938, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcli:v:10:y:2020:i:10:d:10.1038_s41558-020-0863-4
    DOI: 10.1038/s41558-020-0863-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0863-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41558-020-0863-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rachel H. White & Sam Anderson & James F. Booth & Ginni Braich & Christina Draeger & Cuiyi Fei & Christopher D. G. Harley & Sarah B. Henderson & Matthias Jakob & Carie-Ann Lau & Lualawi Mareshet Admas, 2023. "The unprecedented Pacific Northwest heatwave of June 2021," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-20, December.
    2. Shan-e-hyder Soomro & Xiaotao Shi & Jiali Guo & Caihong Hu & Haider M. Zwain & Chengshuai Liu & Muhammad Zeb Khan & Chaojie Niu & Chenchen Zhao & Zubair Ahmed, 2023. "Appraisal of climate change and source of heavy metals, sediments in water of the Kunhar River watershed, Pakistan," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 116(2), pages 2191-2209, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcli:v:10:y:2020:i:10:d:10.1038_s41558-020-0863-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.