In an Increasingly Unpredictable World, We Must Secure Nature to Secure our Water

By Giulio Boccaletti, Managing Director of Global Water at the The Nature Conservancy

Reblogged from The Nature Conservancy’s Conservancy Talk blog, originally posted on February 21, 2014

A balmy Sochi. Photo: Flickr user waferboard under a Creative Commons license.

This has been an unpredictable winter for the northern hemisphere. The Winter Olympics is wrapping up in a balmy Sochi, Russia, where they have artificially produced snow in bulk and where, some say, it might well be impossible to host winter games within 50 years¹.

Meanwhile, California has seen record low snowpack – a critical source of fresh water for California farms and homes for the rest of the year.

On the other end of the spectrum, the “polar vortex” has put a hard freeze on large portions of the United States, stalling out regional economies, while leaving the more northern icepacks – those in Alaska and Greenland, for example – susceptible to unusually warm temperatures.

This winter’s extremes, the record summer heat and drought in different parts of the world in recent years, and the “100-year storms” happening seemingly every year of late, are sending a clear message: unpredictable is the new normal.

The implications of this reality cut across all aspects of our lives. And, it starts with our water future.

As I’ve previously described in these pages², water – the world’s silent currency – is a fundamental determinant of growth. As the foundation of our economies and societies, our global water system carries a roughly $500 billion annual price tag³ – a cost expected to double as billions more global consumers come on stage.

Historically, we have built this infrastructure – dams, levees, canals, and water treatment plants – based on the expectation that they will reliably serve our needs for decades, or even centuries. They have been built to withstand the most predictable events – based on long historical time series of hydrological and climate data – with the assumption that things will remain largely unchanged.

But, things are changing, and changing fast. As a result, we can’t just “engineer” a sustainable water future. As current infrastructure becomes increasingly inadequate in the face of a changing climate and a rapidly urbanizing world, we must make our future choices based on a broader portfolio of possible solutions.

 

Flooded banks of the Mississippi River. Photo: © David Y. Lee

In this reality, the role of nature in securing a sustainable water future becomes critically important.

Take flood protection on the mighty Mississippi River, for example. My colleague, Jeff Opperman, a senior freshwater scientist and the leader of our hydropower practice, wrote a great story about this a couple years ago in our Conservancy Talk blog.

In 1927, a 100-year flood struck the lower Mississippi. More than 100 levees failed or were overtopped, killing hundreds of people and displacing more than half a million from their homes. The disaster proved that we could not completely depend on our assumptions of how the most extreme weather events would behave, nor could we depend on the solution – a levees-only, “walled off” approach – that we thought would protect us from such events.

In direct response to this disaster, the Army Corps of Engineers began looking at the entire river basin for better flood protection options, rather than relying solely on the disjointed system of levees. This new approach included setting aside floodplain areas, which could reconnect to the river during major flood events – thereby giving the river more room to spread its floodwater and reducing pressure on levees.

Fast forward to another 100-year storm on the Mississippi in 2011. Despite the fact that this storm carried even more water than the 1927 storm, none of the levees failed, damage to property was relatively minimal, and there was no loss of life. By blending nature with built solutions, the Army Corps was able to expand the set of possibilities that the Mississippi River basin was prepared to absorb.

Nature is resilient, cost-effective and adaptable – whether its floodplains along the Mississippi or healthy watersheds that can help us more sustainably secure drinking water amidst increasing demands.

The challenge in achieving blended, more flexible water solutions is one of scale. Even if natural infrastructure accounted for roughly 10 percent of the anticipated future cost of our global water systems, we would still be looking at roughly $100 billion in investment in such solutions – an order of magnitude larger than the conservation community’s current collective scale.

Achieving scale, therefore, will require leadership from businesses, governments, and communities. We must pivot away from the traditional “white coats” management of water in the background of society to an active management of shared risks by all parts of society.

To motivate leadership and drive investments, we must continue to demonstrate the power of nature in helping us manage against these risks as resources become increasingly constrained.

As extreme droughts increase in frequency, farmers will need to grow more on less land, using less water. As 100-year storms become more frequent, governments and dam builders will need new tools and science to enable new water infrastructure projects that optimize the diverse functions of an entire river basin. And, as urban populations balloon, everyone will need to invest more in protecting the world’s natural sources of drinking water.

While we may have been able to engineer the 2014 Olympics in a sub-tropical location that appears to be phasing out its ability to support winter sports, we won’t be able to engineer a sustainable water future in this less predictable world without looking to nature to help us.

References:

1. Scott, D., Stieger, R., Rutty, M. and P. Johnson (2014). ‘The future of the Winter Olympics in a warmer World’. University of Waterloo. Available online at: https://uwaterloo.ca/news/sites/ca.news/files/uploads/files/oly_winter_games_warmer_world_2014.pdf. 2. Boccaletti, G. (2013). ‘Nature’s silent currency’. Global Water Forum.  Available online at: http://www.globalwaterforum.org/2013/03/20/natures-silent-currency/. 3. White, S., Biernat, J., Duffy, K., Kavalar, M.H., Kort, W.E., Naumes, J.S., Slezak, M.R. and C.R. Stoffel (2010). ‘Water markets of the United States and the World: A strategic analysis for the Milwaukee Water Council, Milwaukee, Wisconsin’. Final Report. Available online at: http://www.kysq.org/docs/White_WaterMarkets.pdf.

To read the original post, click here. 

"Going with the Flow": Improving Watershed Resiliency

From the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service, Northeast, originally posted on the USFWS Northeast blog on February 6, 2014.

The humble road culvert is the centerpiece of a region-wide effort to help fish and wildlife and protect communities in the Northeast.

The critical role of culverts — essentially big pipes or concrete boxes carrying streams beneath roads—was demonstrated dramatically in a series of powerful storms hitting the Northeast in recent years. In 2011, intense and sustained rain from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee washed out roads throughout mountains of New York and New England as culverts running under those roads were not designed to handle such enormous volumes of water.  Flooding from Hurricane Sandy, which lashed the Northeast coast and adjacent inland areas in October 2012, caused additional damage.

Fish-friendly culverts also can help reduce the likelihood
of damage to road stream crossings from future floods.

The widespread effects of these storms – which scientists say will become a more frequent calling card of climate change – underscore the need for science that can help local, state, and federal partners throughout the region prioritize and increase the resiliency of roads to floods.

To meet this need, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working through the North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative to coordinate and support a collaborative, region-wide effort to restore fish passage while reducing the likelihood of damage to  road stream crossings from future floods. The project is supported by $1.27 million in Hurricane Sandy mitigation funds from the Department of the Interior.

Improving the resiliency of roads has multiple benefits beyond protecting human health, safety, and property. Upgrading, repairing or replacing culverts can also increase connectivity and movement of fish and wildlife. This addresses a critical problem because aquatic systems in the Northeast are extremely fragmented by undersized or damaged road culverts that restrict passage for fish, other aquatic organisms and wildlife. Beyond their in-stream benefits, fish-friendly culverts also help sustain nearby wetlands and floodplains while they nourish coastal beaches with sediment. It’s a bang-for-the-buck conservation investment that can pay big dividends for wildlife and people.

The culvert project underscores a key role of the North Atlantic LCC in bringing the Northeast conservation community together to address priority science needs and inform conservation decisions in the face of change and uncertainty. The project will compile information on locations and condition assessments of road stream crossings based on existing data and models; support additional surveys of road stream crossings; predict future storm discharge levels; and assess risk and prioritize crossing improvements.  The resulting regionally-consistent data on stream crossing locations and future flood conditions will help towns, states and communities manage future intense storms and improve conditions for aquatic organisms.  The USFWS Fisheries Program will help facilitate the effort with the LCC guided by partners and users from the conservation, transportation, and state and municipal planning sectors.

The project will take place over three years in coastal watersheds in New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maryland and Virginia. Partners include USFWS, the Nature Conservancy, Trout Unlimited and the U.S. Forest Service. In addition to the DOI funding, North Atlantic LCC partners are contributing $150,000 in matching funds to expand the project to include additional Northeast states.

Click here to view additional details on the project and participating partners.

To read the original post, click here.

How the Greenhouse Effect Contributes to Winter Woes

By Jonathan Byrne

Reblogged from Cape Cod Bay Watch’s blog. Posted there by Karen Vale on January 13, 2014

Jonathan Byrne writes about the greenhouse effect, a complex natural process that plays a major part in shaping the earth’s climate and ultimately our daily lives. Jonathan is an earth and space sciences teacher at Weymouth High School, and a professional member of the American Meteorological Society. Climate change is one of his passionate interests (see his most recent publication here). 

I recently spent the better part of a December weeknight dislodging my vehicle from a hostile snow bank on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. My plastic shovel was no match for the glacier beneath my wheels.  Aside from personifying a Don Quixote style quest, I muttered about media outlets and their naive spin about northeast snow storms “Looks like the coast is going to escape the brunt of the storm as the snow is expected to change to rain and cut down on the accumulation”!  Oh sure! Let’s break out the ol’ party favors and celebrate! Then we can all go out and shovel this virtual “ reduced accumulation” of cement before it solidifies and entombs our set of wheels until the spring thaw!  Then afterward we get to whip up a mean cup of hot chocolate and make an emergency appointment with our chiropractor!

As I tirelessly shoveled away my ice weary murmur shifted to the Industrial Revolution and greenhouse gases.  (Say what?)  That’s right! And I don’t mean the “greenhouse” where you might buy Auntie Mabel a cactus for her eightieth birthday. I’m talking about the enhanced greenhouse effect resulting from an atmosphere thickened by the burning of fossil fuels; the liquefied remains of our distant ancestors from Carboniferous period three hundred million of years ago.

So what does all this mumbo jumbo have to do with chipping away at a snow bank on snowy December night in Boston’s Back Bay? I though you’d never ask!

Pull up a chair and follow this chain of cause and effect if you will:  Greenhouse gases have warmed the mean terrestrial surface temperature by approximately 0.8 deg Celsius since the turn of the twentieth century, which has also warmed sea surface temperatures by approximately one degree Fahrenheit (natural cycles such as the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation aside). Now when an old fashioned winter nor’easter comes roaring up the coast, and the winds shifts into the northeast across the relatively warm seas surface waters, the “boundary layer” (lowest several hundred meters of the atmosphere is warmed increasing the probability of a mixed precipitation event i.e. frozen mixed with liquid precipitation especially along the coastal plain.  (One can only ponder, perhaps even shudder over how the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant contributes to the warming of Cape Cod Bay through the channeling of billions of gallons of heated water i.e. over 32 degrees above the ambient temperatures filling 3,000 acres of Cape Cod Bay!).

However winter weather woes do not end there. The increased sea surface temperatures also contribute to the intensity of the precipitation through greater instability and evaporation; and also the magnitude of the storm system itself through steepening the temperature difference (or temperature gradient) between the cold sector to the west of the storm track and the warmer marine air to the east.

This in turn, strengthens yet another precipitation producing mechanism called the coastal front, or the convergence boundary between the warmer marine air and the colder air over the interior. This phenomenon typically gives folks living along and west of the route 495 belt bragging rights (or the cursing rights, depending on one’s perspective!) for the heaviest snow accumulations.

Nonetheless another daunting thought crosses my shivering mind as I do my best Ucorn Cornelius impression with my makeshift ice pick:  The downy flakes descending over my shoulders are also the product of a re- expanding polar ice cap.

You heard that right! A touch of the ironic enhances the mystery of the world I say.  We have approximately 53,400 square miles more ice covering Santa’s real estate (i.e. the Arctic) as compared to 2012. In fact according to the IPCC the rate of warming since 1998 has slowed to half the value as compared to the period beginning on 1951 up until 1998. Once again the ocean system is at least partially the culprit. As the Atlantic continues to linger in warm phase, the Pacific is cooling!  The bottom line is climate change is indeed just a little more complicated than spewing a few greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and making the terrestrial environment warm and toasty.

Stay tuned for future blogs from Jonathan.

The original post can be found at http://www.capecodbaywatch.org/2014/01/how-the-greenhouse-effect-contributes-to-winter-woes/.

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Eco-friendly Ice-Melt for our Wintry New England

Use Greener Ice-Melt

Reblogged from the Neponset River Watershed Association blog, originally found on Grist.org.

Common ice-melting products include rock salt (sodium chloride), urea, sand, sand-and-salt mixtures, ashes, kitty litter, calcium chloride, calcium magnesium acetate, magnesium chloride, potassium acetate, and Ice Ban. Mixtures of these products also are used.

Using any of these products has its pros and cons. Some products work better than others at lower temperatures, others are more expensive, some must be frequently applied, and some even make the ground slippery.

Each ice-melting product also impacts the environment differently (i.e., soil, plants, bridges, sidewalks and automobiles). Whereas some products harden the soil and make it too salty for plant growth, others overload it with nutrients or reduce oxygen levels in nearby streams and ponds, endangering animals. Still other products degrade concrete, roadways, bridges and cars.

Learn from Grist.org. Of the “green” ice-melt mixes tested, the productcausing the lease environmental damage contains: Magnesium chloride hexahydrate, calcium chloride (2-3%), potassium chloride (0.5-1%), sodium chloride (0.5-1%).

More information.

How ice-melt chemicals work and associated environmental effects.

Effects of road salt use. More information.

This post is from the Neponset River Watershed Association’s NepRWA Blog. The original post can be found at http://grist.org/article/de-salt-of-the-earth/. 

A Snowy Owl Update, from Mass Audubon

Snowy Owl Update

Reblogged from the Neponset River Watershed Association blog, first posted from a Mass Audubon blog

Currently New England is hosting a major incursion of snowy owls, many of which will likely spend the winter in our area.

Photo © Dave Larson

Typically these Arctic visitors tend to appear most frequently near the coast, but the first report this year was inland at Mount Wachusett in Princeton on November 17. Since then, snowy owls have been showing up all over Massachusetts. See a map of recent sightings on eBird.

Why So Many Snowy Owls?

The snowy owl is considered an “irruptive” species—one that responds to changes in the conditions on its home territory by moving elsewhere in search of food.  Some of the factors that may trigger these irruptions include variations in food supply in the Arctic, severe snow and ice cover in their usual wintering areas, or a superabundance of owls resulting from an exceptional nesting season prior to a southward irruption.

For many years it was assumed that snowy owl irruptions only occurred in years when the lemmings that comprise the snowy owls’ primary food in the Arctic were in short supply, thus forcing the starving owls to move south in search of food.

However, Norman Smith, sanctuary director of Blue Hills Trailside Museum and lead of Mass Audubon’s Snowy Owl Project says “We actually see the most snowy owls in New England after an Arctic lemming population boom, not bust.” High lemming populations improve breeding success, and irruptions typically consist mostly of hatch-year birds (ones born this year).

Where to See Snowy Owls

Snowy owls arriving in Massachusetts tend to seek local habitats that mimic the Arctic tundra where they spend most of their lives, such as large salt marshes, extensive agricultural fields, and even airports. Popular sightings include Westport, New Bedford, Nantucket, Orleans, Duxbury Beach, and of course, Plum Island.

Accordingly, if you are passing a large open field this winter, that white spot in the distance might only be an errant piece of plastic, but it could also be a snowy owl!

Reposted from a Mass Audubon blog, posted December 7, 2013 by Hillary. Text by Marj Rine, Photo © Dave Larson

This post is from the Neponset River Watershed Association’s Neponset Nature Blog. The original post can be found at: http://www.neponset.org/happenings/neponset-nature-blog/snowy-owl-update/.