Accelerating changes in the global climate are changing the way water is managed in the American West. Some of the resulting impacts, such as increased crop water demands, are only beginning to be felt, while others, such as earlier melting of mountain snowpacks, are already well advanced. Water managers will increasingly be confronted with decision situations where old rules and old expectations no longer apply, and new design practices, new operating rules, new management practices, and even new legislation altering water management policies and water rights, will be required. This conference is designed to help prepare water managers for these changes.

The conference will acquaint managers with the methods used by scientists to project the coming water environment, the nature of the impacts on water to be expected, and the ways in which global and regional changes affect Western irrigation drainage and flood control. It will also allow managers to share the initial responses their agencies and districts have made to the changing environment and compare those responses with ones made by others.

The conference will provide a forum for practitioners to share experiences and for researchers to present their recent results. It will also include a number of invited presentations by leading researchers on key issues in each of the four topical areas to acquaint conference participants with the latest thinking, methods and modeling results relating water and climate change.

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Who Should Attend?

Conference attendees will include water resource professionals, irrigation district managers, water agency managers and staff, environmental specialists, scientists, consultants and academicians from the U.S. and overseas.

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Conference Format

The Conference will feature oral presentations in Technical Sessions and a Poster Session.

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Exhibition

An Exhibition will feature companies providing goods and services related to irrigation, drainage and water resources; water management; environmental issues; and technology for water districts.

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Field Tours

A half-day field tour on Wednesday morning and a day-long Saturday tour will be Conference highlights.

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Call for Papers

Abstracts of proposed papers addressing the Conference Topics and Sub-Topics are invited. Abstracts will be accepted for either a 20-minute oral presentation, or for the Poster Session. Authors will submit a draft manuscript for peer review by the Conference Planning Committee prior to submitting the final manuscript. All accepted papers will be published in the Conference Proceedings CD.

Important Note: all accepted authors will be expected to prepare an electronic version of their paper for the Proceedings, which will be distributed during the Conference.

Submittal of a final paper will constitute an agreement that the author will register for the Conference at the reduced author registration fee, attend the Conference and present the paper in person. USCID will not provide funding, nor seek funding from donors or other sources, for authors or other participants to attend the Conference. A publication fee will be charged if an author or representative does not attend the Conference to present the paper. Please do not submit an abstract if funding for your participation is unlikely.

Please submit a 200-400 word abstract by December 15, 2007, with this information at the top of the page:

the paper title
author and co-author names and affiliations
address, phone, fax and e-mail for each author

E-mail submittal is preferred, using the senior author surname as the file name, e.g., jones.doc.

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Conference Schedule

Abstracts Due December 15, 2007

Notify Authors January 15, 2008

Draft Papers Due April 1, 2008

Comments to Authors June 1, 2008

Final Papers Due August 1, 2008

Conference September 17-20, 2008

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Conference Topics and Sub-Topics

I. Climate Change Impacts on Water Supply
Role of federal and state policies, laws and rules

water rights
water rights transfers
legal constraints to responses
timing of water withdrawals
restrictions on markets
increasing flexibility
international agreements and conventions
interstate and transbasin issues

Hydrology

precipitation patterns
river hydrographs
snow pack storage and release
seasonal water availability forecasting
flood forecasting
compensating supply from non-conventional sources, e.g., desalination, wastewater reuse
storage (increasing reservoir storage, reservoir re-operation, groundwater banking/aquifer storage and recharge)
basin hydrology (Columbia River, Colorado River, California Central Valley, Rio Grande, others)
groundwater recharge (natural, irrigation induced)
soil moisture dynamics

Structural design processes

levees
spillways
floodways
irrigation canals

II. Climate Change Impacts on Demand for Agricultural Water
Changes in evapotranspiration
Changes in crop patterns

energy policy/subsidies for bioenergy
food security and energy/food competition
crop range shifts

Population growth and migration
Competition among water-using sectors
III. Responses to Warming-Induced Changes
Agriculture’s role in carbon credit trading
State governments

awareness
plans and planning
institutions
legislative
rule making

Federal agencies

plans
models
proposed legislation

Local water suppliers
International (Australia and others)
IV. Science
Historical climate events

changes
variability

How climate change models work
Downscaling climate change models
Decadal changes and use in forecasting
Data needs for modeling and planning
Uncertainties in modeling

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Conference Planning Committee

Mark Svendsen, Conference General Chairman, Consultant, Philomath, Oregon

Altaf A. Abro, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas

Richard A. Allen, University of Idaho, Kimberly, Idaho

Khalid Bali, University of California Cooperative Extension, Holt, California

Herbert G. Blank, Consultant, Bend, Oregon

Robert H. Edwards, Bureau of Reclamation, Tracy, California

Ronald Eggers, Bureau of Reclamation, Portland, Oregon

Harald D. Frederiksen, Consultant, Eugene, Oregon

Jerrold D. Gregg, Bureau of Reclamation, Boise, Idaho

Fred Holloway, Stevens Water Monitoring Systems, Inc., Portland, Oregon

Nate Mantua, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington

Gary P. Merkley, Utah State University, Logan, Utah

Laura A. Schroeder, Schroeder Law Offices, PC, Portland, Oregon

Lesa Stark, Bureau of Reclamation, Boise, ID

Anita Winkler, Oregon Water Resources Congress, Salem, OR

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Please send any comments to or Larry Stephens (stephens@uscid.org).

Last revised October 7, 2007