Climate and Hydrology Datasets for Use in the River Management Joint Operating Committee (RMJOC) Agencies' Longer Term Planning Studies. Part IV-Summary.

摘要

This summary report recaps three technical reports produced by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), and the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). This collaboration effort among the three agencies focused on how water supply changes due to climate change could impact the Columbia River Basin and the operation of federal dams in the future. The summary report also includes projected trends of future reservoir elevations, outflows, power generation, and spill given current reservoir operating criteria and a range of climate scenarios on the Columbia River. In addition, impacts on end-of-month storage, flow, surface water deliveries, and both resident and anadromous Endangered Species Act environmental flow and reservoir operations objectives in the Snake, Deschutes, and Yakima River subbasins are summarized. The study was completed to support regional efforts and commitments to consider climate change impacts in long-term planning activities of the three agencies. The fundamental goal of the study was to include the latest climate change information in strategic longer-term system planning studies and help the agencies make better decisions concerning the operations of dams and reservoirs in the Columbia River Basin. Those longer-term planning activities include decisions on the future of the Columbia River Treaty and future biological opinions. The study did not include analyses of day-to-day river operations, rate settings, or revenue analysis. The three federal agencies are also integrating the new climate change data derived from this study into their ongoing modeling and planning efforts.