Integrated approach to simulate stream water quality for municipal supply under a changing climate

To better plan for potential changes to stream water quality under climate change, an integrated approach to simulate paired streamflow and water quality under a range of climate scenarios is developed. Several stochastic nonparametric simulation techniques are integrated to create an end-to-end approach for comprehensive planning, with three steps: (1) develop a relationship between streamflow and water quality, (2) simulate streamflow ensembles under climate change scenarios, and (3) simulate water quality ensembles using the streamflow ensembles in conjunction with the developed relationship. The framework is demonstrated on a municipal water provider developing a new water supply source—but variations of salinity concentrations with streamflow pose limits to its use. For the current climate, the simulations accurately reproduce all of the relevant distributional and threshold statistics of flow and water quality, providing confidence in their use in long-term planning. Under climate change, reduced streamflow scenarios result in ensembles with higher salinity concentrations, which can be used in risk management and impact assessments. The approach is general and extends to other water quality variables associated with hydroclimate.

To Access Resource:

Questions? Email Resource Support Contact:

  • opensky@ucar.edu
    UCAR/NCAR - Library

Resource Type publication
Temporal Range Begin N/A
Temporal Range End N/A
Temporal Resolution N/A
Bounding Box North Lat N/A
Bounding Box South Lat N/A
Bounding Box West Long N/A
Bounding Box East Long N/A
Spatial Representation N/A
Spatial Resolution N/A
Related Links N/A
Additional Information N/A
Resource Format PDF
Standardized Resource Format PDF
Asset Size N/A
Legal Constraints

Copyright 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers


Access Constraints None
Software Implementation Language N/A

Resource Support Name N/A
Resource Support Email opensky@ucar.edu
Resource Support Organization UCAR/NCAR - Library
Distributor N/A
Metadata Contact Name N/A
Metadata Contact Email opensky@ucar.edu
Metadata Contact Organization UCAR/NCAR - Library

Author Towler, Erin L.
Rajagopalan, B.
Yates, D.
Rodriguez, A.
Summers, R.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2013-12-01T00:00:00
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Not Assigned
Alternate Identifier N/A
Resource Version N/A
Topic Category geoscientificInformation
Progress N/A
Metadata Date 2025-07-12T01:14:16.286781
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:18222
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Towler, Erin L., Rajagopalan, B., Yates, D., Rodriguez, A., Summers, R.. (2013). Integrated approach to simulate stream water quality for municipal supply under a changing climate. UCAR/NCAR - Library. https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7t15571. Accessed 02 August 2025.

Harvest Source