Climate Change Impacts on Streamflow Extremes: Case Study of Salt Lake City Water System

Climate change impacts on magnitude and frequency of hydrometeorological extremes significantly affect water resources systems and become a major challenge for water managers, engineers and decision makers. In this study, we evaluated climate change effects on extreme hydrological events and their implication for streamflow of rivers which are known as the main water resources for Salt Lake City. Three commonly-used indices including annual center timing, 100-year daily high stream flow and 10-year 7-day average low streamflow were employed for evaluation. The results show that Salt Lake City will experience late center timing of streamflow in comparison with baseline period, for all climate scenarios. The Q100 is highly dependent on climate scenarios. There is no significant change in 7Q10.

Keywords:

Climate change , Water Resources , Streamflow