Thesis
WHAT ARE THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN CLIMATE CHANGE AND LAWN MANAGEMENT IN DRIVING FUTURE LAWN IRRIGATION RATES IN EASTERN WASHINGTON?
Washington State University
Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
01/2021
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000002485
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/123508
Abstract
Climate change impacts in eastern Washington are expected to alter the timing and volume of precipitation received. These changes could have significant impacts on residential outdoor water use particularly if water supply systems are unable to meet the forecasted demand due to both declining water resources and rising climate-driven water use. Residential lawns often require relatively large volumes of water to maintain and demands have increased as green lawns have become more pervasive in residential areas as the population expands. Such increases in water demand can have severe consequences for water management in counties in eastern Washington which are relatively arid. Understanding the potential consequences of the relationship between climate change and lawn maintenance will be necessary for understanding how lawn irrigation can be more efficient in a drier future. As outdoor water use is more elastic than indoor use, residential lawn irrigation is also attractive for achieving water savings. Although lawns are widespread, the impact of climate change on consumptive use of municipal water is relatively understudied. To accomplish this, Chapter 2 details our use of VIC-CropSyst, a coupled framework consisting of a macroscale hydrologic model and agricultural model. The model output is used to explore gaps related to the potential impacts of climate change and atmospheric CO2 increases on irrigation demand on a regional scale in eastern Washington counties. In this study, we ran 17 General Circulation Models (GCMs) and future Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) scenarios with different lawn management events to determine what likely future lawn irrigation rates will be in the face of climate change. The result shows that the need for lawn irrigation will increase and management guidance, like clipping events, and grass height maintenance could be the best practice for estimating the right amount of water with changing future climate.
Chapter 3 explored the impacts of precipitation variability and watering restrictions on lawn irrigation practices in the City of Moses Lake. Results showed that households were responsive to precipitation change using more water in dry years and less in wet years and the restrictions were an effective tool for reducing outdoor water use.
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Details
- Title
- WHAT ARE THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN CLIMATE CHANGE AND LAWN MANAGEMENT IN DRIVING FUTURE LAWN IRRIGATION RATES IN EASTERN WASHINGTON?
- Creators
- Rojina Deshar
- Contributors
- Julie Padowski (Advisor)Jennifer Adam (Committee Member)Sasha McLarty (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Civil and Environmental Engineering, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 98
- Identifiers
- 99900606957301842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis