Drought Management and Its Impact on Public Water Systems Report on a Colloquium Sponsored by the Water Science and Technology Board (1986) / Chapter Skim
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Overview and Conclusions
Overview and Conclusions
Pages 1-8
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From page 1... ...
For the purpose of the colloquium, drought was considered to represent a period of time when streamflows, reservoir storage, and shallow ground-water levels are abnormally low as a result of climaticallyinduced moisture deficiency. Drought severity as it relates to public water systems is necessarily a function of human actions and/or inactions as well as the magnitude and duration of the individual hydrologic event.
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From page 2... ...
The development of such systems would represent a crucial step toward implementation of effective and efficient drought contingency plans. Our present capability to predict drought appears to be confined to empirical equations relating such factors as sunspot numbers to streamflow and various physical anomalies, such as sea surface temperature and the positioning of land-based high-pressure centers, and to projected precipitation patterns.
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Since the management of public water systems is primarily a local responsibility, research is needed on the powers local authorities require to implement effective drought management programs. In addition, legislation at other than the local level can either expedite or constrain effective management choices.
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Without risk appraisal, quantitative comparison of trade-offs between investments in supplemental emergency sources and demand management techniques could be meaningless. Application of demand management techniques should increase as the relative risk of system failure, especially the hydrologic portions thereof, decreases.
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From page 5... ...
Of main concern is the system's ability to initiate demand management techniques involving voluntary or mandatory conservation, revised rate schedules, or imposition of penalties. For publicly operated systems, this can be handled by the pre-enactment of a drought contingency ordinance that spells out the authority granted and the actions
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From page 6... ...
For example, conjunctive use of ground and surface waters is not widely practiced, although the practical advantage of conjunctive management is quite clear. Often its successful implementation would require a higher maximum rate of withdrawal from the ground water during the drought, although the overall demand on the ground water through the combined wet and dry cycle would be reduced.
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From page 7... ...
The reasons are many and range from the inadequacy of existing records to individual system characteristics. Instead, the measure of facility adequacy should be established by orderly comparison of incremental facility requirements versus the use of demand management techniques over the range of probability conditions.
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