During the past 25 years, the U.S. has experienced two of its most severe droughts: One in the Northeast in 1962-1967; and the other during 1975-1977 in the Great Plains and the states along the West Coast. Many of the water supply systems in these areas are based upon surface reservoir storage. This report discusses the drought response of three regional reservoir systems within these drought impacted areas. Both single reservoir and multiple reservoir operations are examined. The study areas are the Potomac River and the Delaware Basins (both on the East Coast), and the state of California. The reservoir systems of these regions are chosen for study for several reasons. First, they are hydrologically diverse. California is an arid region. The Delaware and Potomac basins are humid. Secondly, all three are technically, institutionally, and politically complex. Studying complex reservoir systems is more beneficial than studying simpler reservoir because issues involved in drought operation of a large reservoir system are broader in scope and can be narrowed to apply to smaller systems. Thirdly, the droughts in these areas were severe and the impacts of their water supply management were widely felt. Finally, drought operation plans have been developed for almost all of the reservoir systems studied as a result of their drought experience.

This book explores many recent techniques including ANN, fuzzy logic, hydraulic models and IWRM utilized for integrated water resources management, a real challenge in India for obtaining high irrigation efficiency. The book deals with topics of current interest, such as climate change, floods, drought, and hydrological extremes. The impact of climate change on water resources is drawing worldwide attention these days; for water resources, many countries are already stressed and climate change along with burgeoning population, rising standard of living, and increasing demand are adding to the stress. Further, river basins are becoming less resilient to climatic vagaries. Fundamental to addressing these issues is hydrological modelling which is covered in this book Further, integrated water resources management is vital to ensure water and food security. Integral to the management is groundwater and solute transport. The book encompasses tools that will be useful to mitigate the adverse consequences of natural disasters.

The majority of the examples are taken from regions where the rivers run most of the year.

Extreme Hydrology and Climate Variability: Monitoring, Modelling, Adaptation and Mitigation is a compilation of contributions by experts from around the world who discuss extreme hydrology topics, from monitoring, to modeling and management. With extreme climatic and hydrologic events becoming so frequent, this book is a critical source, adding knowledge to the science of extreme hydrology. Topics covered include hydrometeorology monitoring, climate variability and trends, hydrological variability and trends, landscape dynamics, droughts, flood processes, and extreme events management, adaptation and mitigation. Each of the book's chapters provide background and theoretical foundations followed by approaches used and results of the applied studies. This book will be highly used by water resource managers and extreme event researchers who are interested in understanding the processes and teleconnectivity of large-scale climate dynamics and extreme events, predictability, simulation and intervention measures. - Presents datasets used and methods followed to support the findings included, allowing readers to follow these steps in their own research - Provides variable methodological approaches, thus giving the reader multiple hydrological modeling information to use in their work - Includes a variety of case studies, thus making the context of the book relatable to everyday working situations for those studying extreme hydrology - Discusses extreme event management, including adaption and mitigation

Describes methods for improving water mgmt. during drought developed during a 4-year study. The methods were tested & refined in 4 filed studies in different parts of the country, in which teams of water managers & users worked together to reduce drought impacts. This report explains the procedure for coop. Fed.-state Drought Preparedness Studies, to indicate how these studies relate to the longstanding principles & guidance for Fed. water resources investigations, & to indicate the means of implementing conclusions arrived at in any given region. Tables.