Potential impacts of climate change on reservoir services and management approaches

Abstract

Reservoirs are important resources for supporting economic growth and provide numerous cultural and ecological services. Currently, loss of storage capacity due to sedimentation, water quality degradation, and toxins from blue-green algal blooms are issues that threaten reservoir services. Climate change is hypothesized to exacerbate these problems by increasing sediment and nutrient export from the surrounding watersheds, changing flow regimes, and increasing summer water temperatures. This report adds to the reservoir management literature by synthesizing the disparate literature on potential impacts of climate change to reservoir services and reviewing both watershed and in-reservoir management strategies to mitigate the impacts of climate change. In addition, this study can serve as a resource for managers who seek to study the impacts of climate change on reservoirs by compiling tools and data sources that have been successfully used to study the impacts of climate change on reservoir systems.