A new paper (actually came out last month, so not quite “snap snap” new) by Kostas Andreadis and Dennis Lettenmaier[1] looks at trends in drought severity and duration over the 20th century in the continental U.S. In much of the country, drought is getting less severe, but unfortunately not in the places that matter most – the arid west, where we humans are living closest to the water margins.
My take in this morning’s Journal.
[1] Andreadis, K. M., and D. P. Lettenmaier (2006), Trends in 20th century drought over the continental United States, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L10403, doi:10.1029/2006GL025711.
Just out of curiosity, have these concerns (which have been out in various forms for a while now) had any noticable impact on land use plannung in your area?
Great question. The short answer is “no”. For a longer answer, a great quote from a story by Josh Akers, a colleague who does a very good job covering land development issues on the western fringe of the Albuquerque Metro area:
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“Our immediate problem and reason we are meeting tonight is to ensure our future growth,” said John Kolessar, director of the city’s public infrastructure and engineering department. “We need to figure out how to get off this pumping permit, or squeeze additional units in under the current permit.”
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http://tinyurl.com/p5ve6