Conservation Strategies for Lawn Irrigation During Drought A Colorado Experience

摘要

Colorado experienced its worst drought in recorded history during 2002. Based upon tree ring studies conducted by Hydrosphere in Boulder, Colorado the last drought of this magnitude was 1725 in the Boulder Creek watershed. 2002 was a year of extremeswith very low snowpack resulting in very low runoff and streamflows, low precipitation and record hot temperatures. Most Colorado municipalities faced difficult choices to stretch limited water resources focusing on restricting or eliminating lawn irrigation. Many had plans with various actions items that were triggered by reservoir storage levels. However, few if any plans had ever been tested to see if the desired results could be achieved and was complicated by a drought that was worse than anyone had ever experienced or planned for.