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Sea Grant, WRRI Focus on Coastal Watershed Vulnerability


Contact:
Kelly Porter, WRRI, 919/513-1152, kelly_porter@ncsu.edu
Katie Mosher, Sea Grant, 919/515-9069, katie_mosher@ncsu.edu

North Carolina Sea Grant and the Water Resources Research Institute (WRRI) of the University of North Carolina are funding the programs' first joint research project. Sankar Arumugam of North Carolina State University will assess the potential change in surface-water flow and groundwater availability in coastal watersheds under future climate change projections.

"The project promises to develop alternative future water availability scenarios for coastal watersheds in the state," said Michael Voiland, executive director of North Carolina Sea Grant and acting director of WRRI.

Most studies on the impacts of climate change in coastal areas have focused on sea-level rise. However, basin-level water regime changes due to climate change could have profound impacts on the availability of water in the state's coastal plain.

Further, trends in precipitation and flow in coastal rivers associated with climate change could spell major challenges for community planning and water management in the region already dealing with population increases, groundwater withdrawal restrictions and needs for new or increased drinking-water supplies.

Arumugam, a member of NC State's Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, will focus on assessing the vulnerability of the Northeast Cape Fear River Basin due to climate change. The Northeast Cape Fear River is within the larger Cape Fear River Basin. He will incorporate retrospective climate data from General Circulation Models and hydrological models, and then compare the resulting projections to observed data from 1950 to 2000.

Using existing "climate elasticity" estimates and the projected changes in annual precipitation and temperature under various climate change scenarios, he will estimate the percent change in annual streamflow over coastal watersheds in North Carolina. Based on the findings from this study, Arumugam also will generalize the likely impacts that would result across coastal watersheds in response to future climate-change scenarios.

The joint WRRI-NCSG grant was awarded through a competitive process open to junior faculty from colleges and universities across the state in an effort to focus interest on coastal ecosystem vulnerability.

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