Publication Highlight: Climate oscillation impacts on water supply augmentation planning

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Climate oscillations influence precipitation variability in many regions around the world and can result in both wet and dry spells that persist from years to decades. While water supply infrastructure planning recognizes that additional infrastructure development may be necessary to support reliable water supply during prolonged dry conditions, little is known about the impact of different common climate oscillations on water supply augmentation needs.

In a recently published Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) article, Climate oscillation impacts on water supply augmentation planning, authors Sarah Fletcher, Marta Zaniolo, Mofan Zhang and Megan Lickley address this gap by proposing a new methodology to investigate which forms of water supply augmentation support reliable and cost-effective ways for addressing different common climate oscillation patterns.

Their findings suggest that large scale climate oscillations, which can lead to multi-decadal dry spells, require the largest infrastructure investments to maintain reliable water supply under traditional infrastructure planning approaches. The needs for large infrastructure investments however can be reduced when oscillations are monitored and dynamically responded to by leveraging shorter term, temporary solutions.

Learn more about their research by reading the full article below!