POTENTIAL IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE WATER QUALITY PARAMETERS INFLUENCING TASTE AND ODOR

摘要

Climate change is an important and well-studied phenomenon and historical data tracking changes inweather and climate are readily available. Climate change could induce shifts in mean values for weathervariables and/or cause new patterns in climate variability, both of which could cause impacts on waterdemands, supplies, and source water quality. Water suppliers are beginning to consider the potentialimpacts of climate change on future water supplies. However, the focus of past work has been on waterquantity impacts (e.g., flooding and droughts) rather than on changes in water quality. This paper focuseson how climate change could affect source water quality parameters that influence taste and odors.Examples from the author's work with Lake Cachuma, near Goleta, California, will be discussed. Thatstudy indicated that under warming climate scenarios, the likelihood of conditions related to taste andodor events during the dry season would increase. Under some circumstances, dry season water quality,related to taste and odor, could be forecast from wet season hydroclimate (air temperature relatedparameters) using probability relationships.