The Mid-Atlantic Regional Assessment (MARA) Water Working Group will address contemporary and future climate-water relationships in the Mid-Atlantic Region. First, it will determine how present-day climate variation, droughts, floods, and severe storms affect water supply, demand, and quality. Second, the working group will demonstrate how climate change is likely to affect future droughts, floods, water supply and demand, and water quality.
To make the assessment manageable in the time available, the working group will limit its research to specific geographical, climate, and water-resource themes and issues. The research will focus on the region's river basins, including streams, lakes, groundwater, and soil moisture. The climate work will concentrate on precipitation, particularly variations and changes in average precipitation totals, precipitation extremes, severe storms, floods and droughts. Other important climate topics that affect water resources and will be included in the study are heat waves and temperature variations. There are several water-resource issues to be addressed including (1) water supply, (2) water demand, (3) emergency management of water supplies, (4) water quality, and (5) land-use impacts on water supply and quality.
The principal product will be a document highlighting two topics. The first is how present-day climate variation, severe storms, floods, and droughts affect water supply, demand, and quality in the Mid-Atlantic Region. The second is how climate change is likely to affect future regional droughts, floods, water supply and demand, and water quality. Appendices to that document will include individual reports on:
· Contemporary variations in precipitation, temperature, stream flow, soil-moisture,
groundwater, droughts, floods, and severe storms.
· Contemporary water supply, demand, and quality.
· Contemporary relationships between climate (1) and water resources (2).
· Impact of climate change on precipitation, temperature, soil-moisture, groundwater,
droughts, floods, and severe storms.
· Impact of climate change on water supply, demand, and quality.