West-Wide Climate Risk Assessments: Irrigation Demand and Reservoir Evaporation Projections

In order to better understand the future of the water supply, the Bureau of Reclamation conducted a survey of eight major river basins and twelve reservoirs in the western United States as part of Reclamation’s West-Wide Climate Risk Assessments project. This study used the ET (evapotranspiration) Demands Model & Complementary Relationship of Lake Evaporation Model to provide a better understanding of historical and future crop irrigation demands (based on evapotranspiration) and reservoir evaporation rates throughout the western U.S., as well as to inform management of water resources during climate change.