Effect of ENSO-based upstream water withdrawals for irrigation on downstream water withdrawals

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>In the Southeast US, El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), climate variability phenomena affect the quantity of water that is available for irrigation. The goals of this study were to determine the effect of upstream surface water withdrawals for irrigation on the quantity of water available for irrigation in downstream areas as a function of the ENSO phase and quantify the watershed area that can be irrigated using water withdrawn from streams in an ecologically sustainable manner. The study was conducted in the Swan Creek watershed (97 km2) located in Limestone County, Alabama, USA. The soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) model was used to simulate stream flows and develop water withdrawal prescriptions. Results indicated that when simultaneous water withdrawals were made at the outlet of each subwatershed throughout the year, on average water withdrawals were sufficient to irrigate 4–16% of the area upstream of withdrawal point depending on stream order. On making sustainable withdrawals at the outlets of all subwatersheds and at the watershed outlet throughout the year, approximately 40% of the watershed area could be irrigated.</jats:p>

Evaluation of surface water supply impacts from permit exemptions: A comparison with climate change and demand growth

“…Many states require new water permits to be justified assuming whole allotted water as “used” (Sheer, 2010), but this may not always happen in practice. In the short term, exempt over‐allocated users may not result in a gap between water demand and water supply but remains a red flag for potential conflict (Owen, 2014; Sangha, Lamba, & Kumar, 2020). However, due to the limited temporal extent of the model simulation, there is possibility for more extreme drought years which are not captured in this analysis.…”

Probabilistic El Niño effect on flood damages assessment

“…ENSO‐neutral, the third episode, is a phase between these two extreme phases (Australia Bureau of Meteorology, 2012). El Niño and La Niña can both have global impacts on weather, climate, wildfires, ecosystems, and economies (Capa‐Morocho et al ., 2016; Correia Filho et al ., 2019; Hooshyaripor et al ., 2019; Sangha et al ., 2020). Moreover, it has shown that ENSO affects the frequency and intensity of droughts (Varikoden et al ., 2015; Rivera et al ., 2018; Sobral et al ., 2019) and floods (Dilley and Heyman, 1995; Sun et al ., 2015; Saghafian et al ., 2017).…”