IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/waterr/v37y2023i6d10.1007_s11269-023-03474-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Climate Change Impacts on Water Resources and Sustainable Water Management Strategies in North America

Author

Listed:
  • Zunaira Asif

    (Concordia University)

  • Zhi Chen

    (Concordia University)

  • Rehan Sadiq

    (University of British Columbia)

  • Yinying Zhu

    (Concordia University)

Abstract

Water scarcity is exacerbating in many regions across North America because of climate change compounded by population growth, overexploitation of freshwater resources, and lack of proper management. Considering the regional urgency, there is an immense need to find more equitable solutions for water management. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the climatic factors impacting the hydrological regime in North America, including changes in surface runoff, groundwater storage, and the forested watershed, based on current trends and future projection scenarios. Moreover, this paper critically overviews need-based solutions for effective water management at a regional scale. The study shows that many areas of North America are exposed to extreme events such as prolonged droughts, devastating floods, wildfires, and altering precipitation patterns. Consequently, these changes are triggering wide-ranging impacts on water resources, leading to water supply deficiencies and influencing water flows and quality in the Southwestern United States, prairie provinces in Canada, and Mexico. The projection of warming around the region experiences spatial and seasonal variations because of the diversity in climatic conditions. Overall, in North America, winter is expected to warm more than other seasons causing earlier runoff and a decline in snowmelt. Given the physical and economic constraints that limit the development of new utilities, emphasis should be placed on strengthening nature-based solutions such as green infrastructure. Thus, the findings suggest an integrated water resource management approach is required, along with climate-induced innovative technologies, to secure the water resources while preparing for the forecasted challenges of tomorrow.

Suggested Citation

  • Zunaira Asif & Zhi Chen & Rehan Sadiq & Yinying Zhu, 2023. "Climate Change Impacts on Water Resources and Sustainable Water Management Strategies in North America," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 37(6), pages 2771-2786, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:waterr:v:37:y:2023:i:6:d:10.1007_s11269-023-03474-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s11269-023-03474-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11269-023-03474-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11269-023-03474-4?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.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Steward, David R. & Allen, Andrew J., 2016. "Peak groundwater depletion in the High Plains Aquifer, projections from 1930 to 2110," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 36-48.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. G. P. Tsakiris & D. P. Loucks, 2023. "Adaptive Water Resources Management Under Climate Change: An Introduction," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 37(6), pages 2221-2233, May.
    2. Kornelia Przestrzelska & Katarzyna Wartalska & Weronika Rosińska & Jakub Jurasz & Bartosz Kaźmierczak, 2024. "Climate Resilient Cities: A Review of Blue-Green Solutions Worldwide," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 38(15), pages 5885-5910, December.
    3. Oznur Isinkaralar & Ayyoob Sharifi & Kaan Isinkaralar, 2024. "Assessing spatial thermal comfort and adaptation measures for the Antalya basin under climate change scenarios," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 177(8), pages 1-17, August.
    4. Olaoluwa Oluwaniyi & Yong Zhang & Hossein Gholizadeh & Bailing Li & Xiufen Gu & HongGuang Sun & Chengpeng Lu, 2023. "Correlating Groundwater Storage Change and Precipitation in Alabama, United States from 2000–2021 by Combining the Water Table Fluctuation Method and Statistical Analyses," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-23, October.
    5. Xinyu Chang & Jun Guo & Hui Qin & Jingwei Huang & Xinying Wang & Pingan Ren, 2024. "Single-Objective and Multi-Objective Flood Interval Forecasting Considering Interval Fitting Coefficients," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 38(10), pages 3953-3972, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gonçalves, Ivo Zution & Mekonnen, Mesfin M. & Neale, Christopher M.U. & Campos, Isidro & Neale, Michael R., 2020. "Temporal and spatial variations of irrigation water use for commercial corn fields in Central Nebraska," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    2. Michael O'Donnell & Robert P. Berrens, 2018. "Understanding Falling Municipal Water Demand in a Small City Dependent on the Declining Ogallala Aquifer: Case Study of Clovis, New Mexico," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 4(04), pages 1-40, October.
    3. Katuwal, Krishna B. & Cho, Youngkoo & Singh, Sukhbir & Angadi, Sangamesh V. & Begna, Sultan & Stamm, Michael, 2020. "Soil water extraction pattern and water use efficiency of spring canola under growth-stage-based irrigation management," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 239(C).
    4. Perez-Quesada, Gabriela & Hendricks, Nathan P. & Steward, David R., 2020. "Quantifying the economic costs of High Plains Aquifer depletion," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304225, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. Kishore, Prabhat & Singh, Dharm Raj & Srivastava, Shivendra & Kumar, Pramod & Jha, Girish Kumar, 2021. "Impact of Subsoil Water Preservation Act, 2009 on Burgeoning Trend of Groundwater Depletion in Punjab, India," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315198, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    6. Reyes, Julian & Elias, Emile & Haacker, Erin & Kremen, Amy & Parker, Lauren & Rottler, Caitlin, 2020. "Assessing agricultural risk management using historic crop insurance loss data over the ogallala aquifer," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    7. Perez-Quesada, Gabriela & Hendricks, Nathan P., 2021. "Lessons from local governance and collective action efforts to manage irrigation withdrawals in Kansas," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 247(C).
    8. Sultan Begna & Sangamesh Angadi & Abdel Mesbah & Rangappa Mathada Umesh & Michael Stamm, 2021. "Forage Yield and Quality of Winter Canola–Pea Mixed Cropping System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-12, February.
    9. Caleb M. Koch & Heinrich H. Nax, 2022. "Groundwater Usage and Strategic Complements: Part I (Instrumental Variables)," Games, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-19, October.
    10. Haacker, Erin M.K. & Cotterman, Kayla A. & Smidt, Samuel J. & Kendall, Anthony D. & Hyndman, David W., 2019. "Effects of management areas, drought, and commodity prices on groundwater decline patterns across the High Plains Aquifer," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 218(C), pages 259-273.
    11. Wenjie Geng & Xiaohui Jiang & Yuxin Lei & Jinyan Zhang & Huan Zhao, 2021. "The Allocation of Water Resources in the Midstream of Heihe River for the “97 Water Diversion Scheme” and the “Three Red Lines”," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-19, February.
    12. Quintana Ashwell, Nicolas E. & Peterson, Jeffrey M. & Hendricks, Nathan P., 2018. "Optimal groundwater management under climate change and technical progress," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 67-83.
    13. Funk, Bryana & Amer, Saud A. & Ward, Frank A., 2023. "Sustainable aquifer management for food security," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 281(C).
    14. Kishore, Prabhat & Singh, Dharam R. & Srivastava, Shivendra & Kumar, Arun & Prakash, 2021. "Food-Groundwater-Energy nexus in Indian agriculture: Empirical evidence from Uttar Pradesh, India," 2021 ASAE 10th International Conference (Virtual), January 11-13, Beijing, China 329408, Asian Society of Agricultural Economists (ASAE).
    15. R. Aaron Hrozencik & Jordan F. Suter & Paul J. Ferraro & Nathan Hendricks, 2024. "Social comparisons and groundwater use: Evidence from Colorado and Kansas," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 106(2), pages 946-966, March.
    16. Ali Ajaz & Sumon Datta & Scott Stoodley, 2020. "High Plains Aquifer–State of Affairs of Irrigated Agriculture and Role of Irrigation in the Sustainability Paradigm," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-17, May.
    17. Sadia A. Jame & Laura C. Bowling, 2020. "Groundwater Doctrine and Water Withdrawals in the United States," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 34(13), pages 4037-4052, October.
    18. Mir, R. & Azizyan, G. & Massah, A. & Gohari, A., 2022. "Fossil water: Last resort to resolve long-standing water scarcity?," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 261(C).

    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:spr:waterr:v:37:y:2023:i:6:d:10.1007_s11269-023-03474-4. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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.springer.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.