Water And Climate in the Western United States

by William M. Lewis Jr. (Editor)

Water and Climate in the Western United States highlights the opportunity for and necessity of change in management of water, the West's most crucial resource. As old policies and institutions fail to meet changing demands for and availability of water, experts in climate forecasting, water management, water law, and water use allocation reveal in this volume how new science and technology can help improve water management. They assess the degree to which vagaries of climate can be anticipated and countered through better predictions and reformed legal and management systems for allocating water. Unique in its full, integrated coverage, this book will appeal to anyone interested in water supply and management questions as well as climate predictions.

294 pages, Paperback

First published May 5, 2003

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book "Water and Climate in the Western United States" shows how new technologies and a new understanding of the water cycle are rising. This new view has come about because the demands for water are rapidly increasing and are changing because of the pressures on policies and programs that are currently in place. It also shows different ways to use climate management and shows the policies that need to be changed. This book shows how better water management systems can be utilized and explored through analyzing long term climate changes and the changes in water consumption, waste, and overall use. The first point of the book refers to the "Understanding and Predicting Variability of Climate". The second point offers insight on the "Linkages between Prediction of Climate and Hydrology", and the third point covers "Perspectives on Society, Institutions, and Water". As demands increase for water and population increases, the governmental agencies are going to have to implement more water conserving policies and programs. This could even include the restriction of some recreational uses for water. As the urban areas increase and expand and demand more water from farther and farther destinations, the economic activity of this will be strained. Overall, this book had compelling arguments from the author and substantial evidence to back it up. But some of the research was out dated and would have been more interesting with more up to date statistics/data. The book did a good job of assessing the situation in the western United States; but some of the arguments seemed lack a sense of evidence and would have been useful to see the United States as a whole.