Santa Fe, New Mexico, Water Distribution System—Vulnerability to Climate Change

摘要

Water supply and distribution systems are critical to sustaining life and economic activity. Waterrnsystems consist of both natural and manmade assets, such as rivers, diversions, dams, reservoirs,rnpumps, and pipes. Disturbing any water system asset may result in system-wide disruptions thatrnhave cascading impacts on public health, the economy, and other infrastructures. Threats fromrnclimate change have the potential to negatively impact water systems. Examples of these threatsrninclude changes in the magnitude and frequency of droughts, potable water availability, waterrndemand, and infrastructure failure. Policy makers are charged with developing strategies tornmanage, plan, and protect these systems, while maintaining natural resources. Most of the modelsrnused to quantify these impacts (e.g., EPAnet) require a considerable amount of data; however,rnthese data are often owned by the utilities and are proprietary in nature. We developed a systemlevelrnwater system model that describes an urban water system and assesses system vulnerabilityrnusing only the information usually reported in a city water distribution master plan and basedrnon a limited amount of data. For this poster, we used our model to quantify the implications ofrna variety of climate scenarios on the water supply of Santa Fe, New Mexico and assessed systemrnvulnerability. These analysis results can support policy makers and stakeholders as they adaptrnurban water systems in response to climate change.